Happy Chinese New Year! Khiung Hee Fat Choy! 恭禧發財 Gong Hay Fat Choy! On January 29, 2025, we welcome the start of the Lunar New Year of the Snake. Celebrate the Chinese New Year with a feast. Gather family and friends around the table filled with foods that symbolize auspicious messages: wealth, luck, success, unity, growth, and longevity.
As I plan the menu for our family’s new year feast, I look through The Hakka Cookbook for ideas. I like our family meals to be a cooperative effort, sort of an organized potluck plus cooking lesson. It’s easier and more fun to share the cooking duties and hopefully everyone can learn something new.
For my grandchildren, who are now teenagers, I like to include one cooking activity. In the past, we made won tons, dumplings, and pot stickers. This year we may make Stuffed Tofu. It’s a Hakka classic and not too difficult. The Hakka invented stuffed tofu when they could not find wheat flour in their new home in the south to make the dumplings they ate in their former home in northern China.
There are many variations of Stuffed Tofu (釀 豆 腐 Hakka: nyiong tiu fu; Mandarin: niang dou fu). In the basic Hakka version, the filling starts with ground pork. When the Hakka migrated to coastal areas, they might add shrimp or salted fish, or fresh fish paste. The seasonings vary depending on the cook. Common ones include garlic, ginger, green onions, cilantro, soy sauce, dried tangerine peel, and dried mushrooms. This versatile filling can also be used to fill vegetables such as eggplant, chilies, mushrooms, or bitter melons.
The tofu may be cut in different ways. For the simplest way, cut the tofu into thick squares or rectangles. Then dig out a shallow cavity in the center to hold the filling. Or if you’re dexterous, cut the tofu in thick triangles, then carve a slot-like pocket into the long side to cradle the filling (as pictured at left.)
The stuffed tofu can be cooked in different ways: steamed, pan-browned and braised, poached, and deep-fried. Look for different variations: Uncle Henry’s Tofu Triangles (recipe on page 31), Natalie Com Liu’s Tofu Topped with Pork (pictured below, recipe on page 33), Braised Fried Tofu with Pork (page 76), Fah’s Stuffed Tofu Triangles (page 215), and Stuffed Tofu Soup (page 216.)
To add more luck to the meal, we’ll probably add some green vegetables for growth such as the Chinese Broccoli in Sweet Rice Wine (page 230 ), Stir-fried Chinese Lettuce and Wine Rice (page 50), Lettuce with Garlic and Black Beans (pictured below, page 57), or Iceberg Lettuce with Garlic (page 27).
Noodles represent long life. Choose from the dark, umami-rich Noodles with Mushroom Pork Sauce (page 104), the lighter Garlic Noodles and Shrimp (pictured below, page 193), or the dark Sweet Soy Chow Mein (page 178). Fish is a must-have on Chinese New Year table. The fish brings surplus and abundance to the new year. I like the Steamed Fish with Green Onions (page 39) or the Braised Fish in Black Bean Sauce (page 137).
Possibly we may cook the famous Hakka Salt-baked Chicken (page 64) or the easier Salt-Poached Chicken (page 226). Or maybe we’ll buy a Chinese roast duck.
For me, Chinese New Year is about food and family. Khiung Hee Fat Choy 恭禧發財! Happy New Year!!
Last night, we enjoyed a pre-Chinese New Year’s feast at the Hakka Restaurant in San Francisco. With a group of ten we had enough people to try some of their special order specialties.
My friend Yin-Wah told me that Chef Jin Wah Li makes a soup that no one else makes in the city. The description sounded a bit unusual, but she assured me it was delicious. The chef’s wife also claimed it was her favorite soup. So I pre-ordered the “pig stomach stuffed with chicken soup”.
A huge white tureen came to the table. The server lifted out a football-shaped packet to a platter. She slit open the pork stomach wrapper to reveal a whole chicken. Then she ladled the clear golden broth into bowls. She explained that the chicken-stuffed-stomach, along with chicken feet, white peppercorns, ginger, and dried longan (aka dragon eye, a fruit similar to lychee) had steamed together for 5 to 6 hours to create this complex broth. The essence of chicken imbued the broth, with an underlying spiciness from the peppercorns, balanced by a faint fruity sweetness. Each spoonful represented the work of a masterful chef. Although the chicken and pig’s stomach were offered for eating, I felt most of their flavor had transferred to the broth.
Stuffed duck is another listed specialty. We had tasted the duck years ago with a barley stuffing and wanted to try something different. An unlisted option offered a rice stuffing. The duck arrived with rice studded with savory treasures such as Chinese sausage and dried scallops. The chef had browned the stuffed duck, wrapped it in lotus leaves, and steamed it until the duck fell apart when nudged with a fork. Delicious!
We also pre-ordered lobster noodles. A generous portion of lobster chunks were stir-fried with noodles. Fingers were needed to coax the sweet lobster meat out of the shell.
Steamed Sea Bass with Pickled Mustard Greens and Pork
Other dishes we ordered that are usually on the menu or wall photos:
Chinese Bacon with Preserved Greens (a must-have favorite)
Stir-fried Pea Greens
Clams with Spicy Salt and Black Bean Sauce (another favorite)
Salt-Baked Chicken
Steamed Sea Bass in Two Flavors (with pickled mustard greens and pork)
Hakka Restaurant, 4401-A Cabrillo Street (corner of 45th Avenue), San Francisco, CA 94121 Tel. 415 876 6898
Khiung Hee Fat Choy! Wishing you a prosperous new year! Welcome to the Chinese year 4714 on the lunar calendar which begins on February 8, 2016. This is the year of the monkey.
Last night, I gave the first of four presentations for the San Mateo County Libraries on Chinese New Year and Hakka Soul Food (click here for event schedule). In my talk, I showed slides of many foods eaten during the two-week celebration.
Many dishes served for the Chinese New Year dinner have ingredients with auspicious meanings or symbolism. The Chinese word for fish sounds like abundance. Spring rolls look like gold bars and kumquats resemble gold coins. Green vegetables suggest growth in business. Noodles symbolize long life.
I also included photos of Hakka new year specialties such as Taro Abacus Beads (? ? ? ? ? Hakka: wu tiuh sun pan jue) that I tasted in Malaysia and Singapore. These chewy disks made from mashed taro and tapioca flour are shaped to resemble the counting beads on a Chinese abacus. Boiled and stir-fried they likely represent wealth. In Hong Kong, the popular multi-course banquet layered in a wash basin known as Basin Feast (? ? Hakka: puhn choi) represents unity.
Last year I conducted an informal survey in Facebook Hakka groups and found many people serve humble family favorites such as Steamed Minced Pork with Egg or steamed fish. Others opt for more labor intensive Hakka specialties such as Pork Belly with Preserved Mustard Green (? ? ? ? Hakka: kiu ngiuk moi choi).
I am still planning my menu. What are you cooking for Chinese New Year Dinner?
