8 Lucky Recipes for the Chinese New Year
At the start of the new lunar year, Chinese families come together (or tuan yuan, reunite) to celebrate the most anticipated holiday in the Eastern hemisphere, Spring Festival. CCTV reports that 150 million migrant workers in China have already begun their journey, which for many people is the only opportunity to travel home throughout the year. The holiday's travel peak is also the largest mass movement of people in the world.
All over China, homes become joyous settings for a two-week long celebration. After all, Lunar New Year is a big deal, and proper fulfillment of the holiday's customs will determine a person's luck for the coming year. Spring Festival traditions include culinary customs that require careful prepping of the home, kitchen, and dining table. To expunge any bad luck of the past year, homes are swept clean and new clothes are purchased. Tangerines and red envelopes filled with money (see image above) symbolize good luck. Dinner menus are planned around the cultural symbolism of various foods and ingredients.
A typical meal will consist of a cooked whole fish, vegetables, poultry, smoked sausages, and an assortment of sweets. While the preparation and flavors differ from one household to another, the rules behind the meal-planning are the same. Some rules are visually symbolic and some are based on homonyms of words that connote good fortune and prosperity.
Here's a short list of foods that bring luck during the Chinese New Year and their cultural significance:
Fish: In Chinese, fish is "yu," which sounds like the word for "richness" and "abundance." Eating a whole fish from head to tail symbolizes having a prosperous year, from the beginning to the end.
Dumplings: Shaped like the gold ingots that were used as currency during the Han Dynasty, dumplings are symbolic of wealth and financial success. It is customary to hide a coin in a dumpling for one lucky person to find.
Black Moss: In Chinese, black moss (fat choy) sounds like "fa cai," which means "fortune" in English. This thin, edible moss is braised with dried oysters (hao) in a dish called Hao Shi Fa Cai, which means "prosperity and good fortune."
Pomelo: Pomelo is "youzi" in Chinese, which sounds like the word for "to have"--a nod to abundance and wealth. Likewise, oranges are frequently displayed and eaten because they thrive in the winter and also represent abundance.
Whole Chicken or Duck: Poultry is served whole (rather than cut or sliced) to represent the togetherness and unity of the family.
Sticky Rice Cake: This dish is called nian gao. "Nian" means "year" and "gao" is a homonym of the Chinese word for "high." Together, the words signify growing achievement.
Eight Treasures Rice: This is called ba bao fan, with the number 8 or "ba" sounding like "fa," a word that means "prosperity." This dish is made with sticky rice and sweet red bean, dates, dried fruit, and other ingredients.
Sweet Glutinous Rice Balls: Also known as tang yuan, these are commonly filled with black sesame paste. Served as a soup, it is eaten because the Chinese characters "tang" and "yuan" sound like "tuan yuan," which means to "reunite."
--Diane Chang
9 RECIPES TO BRING GOOD LUCK IN THE NEW YEAR:
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