Tag Archives: Chinese New Year food

Happy Year of the Rabbit!

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Happy Chinese New Year! Khiung Hee Fat Choy! It’s a time of renewal and feasting. In 2023, January 22, marks the start of the Year of the Rabbit. You are a rabbit if you were born in 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011, and 2023. On the Chinese horoscope, each year is dominated by an animal sign: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey rooster, dog, and pig. Each animal has special characteristics. This year looks generally positive and favorable for Rabbits, especially in the first quarter. There could be some challenges later in the year.

Chinese zodiac horoscope


A family reunion feast is central to the Chinese New Year celebration. The table is traditionally filled with foods that send auspicious messages to attract wealth, luck, success, unity, and longevity.


As I plan the menu for our family’s new year feast, I’m looking through The Hakka Cookbook for ideas. I like our meals to be a cooperative effort, sort of an organized potluck plus cooking lesson. It’s easier to share cooking duties and hopefully everyone can learn something new. For my grandchildren, I try to include one cooking activity. In the past, we have made won tons, dumplings, and pot stickers. This year we may make Stuffed Tofu (pages 31, 33), sort of a Hakka version of dumplings. 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 the former home in northern China.

Noodles with Mushroom Pork Sauce


Noodles represent long life. I like the dark, umami-rich flavor of Noodles with Mushroom Pork Sauce (page 104). Or perhaps we’ll cook Garlic Noodles and Shrimp (page 193), sort of a Hakka-style Chow Mein.

Steamed Fish with Green Onions
Steamed Fish with Green Onions

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). Steaming or braising keeps the delicate flesh moist and is so easy. A green vegetable represents growth in business. I love the simplicity of the stir-fried Chinese Broccoli in Sweet Rice Wine (page 230).

Hakka Egg Roll

Egg or spring rolls look like gold bars, signifying wealth. We could make Spicy Egg Rolls (page184) or the Hakka Egg Rolls (page 170).

Braised Chicken Stuffed with Preserved Mustard Greens

Possibly we may cook the famous Hakka Salt-baked Chicken (page 64) or some of the easier variations. For a special dish, consider making the Braised Chicken stuffed with Preserved Mustard Greens (page 233). Or maybe we’ll buy a Chinese roast duck.


For me, Chinese New Year is about food and family. Khiung Hee Fat Choy! Happy New Year!

Foods for Chinese New Year

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Photo by Dabin Lo

Thanks to everyone who braved the rain Monday night and showed up for my event at the Menlo Park Library. We had a good turnout. Everyone seemed to enjoy the presentation. It was especially rewarding for me to meet some fellow Hakka in the audience.

I gave a short introduction on the Hakka history and cuisine, followed by slides of traditions and foods for Chinese New Year. I ended by cooking three recipes from The Hakka Cookbook that might fit into a New Year dinner.

Here is one of the recipes I demonstrated. It is in The Hakka Cookbook but I increased the quantities slightly here so there would be more for tasting. This recipe was featured in the New York Times Magazine several years ago.

Photo by Dabin Lo

Stir-fried Pork and Pineapple (The Hakka Cookbook, p. 92)

This stir-fry from Taiwan is reminiscent of a lighter and fresher version of sweet and sour pork. Auspicious ingredients include crunchy black fungus that represents longevity. Pineapple symbolizes wealth, luck, excellent fortune, and luck in gambling. Pork offers strength, wealth, and abundant blessings.

Makes 3 servings as a main dish or 5 to 6 servings as part of a multicourse meal

Pork

12 ounces boneless pork shoulder, leg, or loin, trimmed of fat

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil

1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

Sauce

3 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce

3/4 teaspoon salt

Stir-fry

12 pieces dried black fungus, such as cloud ears, each about 1 inch wide

5 green onions, including green tops, ends trimmed

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 tablespoons thinly slivered fresh ginger

12 ounces fresh pineapple, cut into 3/4-inch chunks (about 1 1/2 cups)

6 to 10 thin rings fresh chile (preferably red) such as jalapeno or Fresno (remove seeds, if you prefer less spicy heat)

 

1. For the pork: Thinly slice pork into strips about 2 inches long and 1 inch wide. In a small bowl, mix the pork with the soy sauce, oil, and cornstarch.

2. For the sauce: In a small bowl, mix the vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, and salt.

3. For the stir-fry: Rinse the fungus. Soak the fungus in hot water until soft, 5 to 15 minutes, drain. Pinch out and discard any hard knobby centers. Cut the fungus into 1-inch pieces. Cut the green onions into 2-inch lengths. Cut thick ends in half lengthwise.

4. Set a 14-inch wok or 12-inch frying pan over high heat. When the pan is hot, after about 1 minute. Add the oil and rotate the pan to spread. Add the ginger and pork; stir-fry until meat is lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Add the pineapple, black fungus, sauce mixture, green onions, and chile. Stir-fry until the pineapple is hot, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to serving dish.

Photo by Dabin Lo

 

What’s cooking for Chinese New Year

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Basin Feast (Puhn Choi)Khiung Hee Fat Choy! (Hakka dialect) May you have a prosperous New Year!  Chinese New Year arrives January 31 and families will gather for a special meal over the next two weeks.

Many will eat traditional meals filled with foods that sound like fortuitous words or whose shape or color symbolizes prosperity, unity, wealth, fertility, family harmony, or good fortune. Oranges, mandarins, and kumquats resemble gold. Lettuce signifies prosperity. Whole fish symbolizes prosperity. Spring rolls, with their shape of a gold bar, represents wealth. Shiitake mushrooms, a symbol of longevity, also relate to seizing opportunities. Whole chickens with head, tail, and feet indicate completeness. Green vegetables represent close family ties. You will find many recipes that use symbolic ingredients throughout The Hakka Cookbook. However, if you want to try something new, consider these special dishes I discovered in my travels for the cookbook.

Basin Feast (puhn choi, page 82)

We gasped when the waitress set a huge metal basin filled with a mountain of food before us. We were at Chung Shing Restaurant in In Tai Po, New Territories of Hong Kong, The pan was literally a wash basin layered with a multicourse feast. This one-pan feast is popular for family gatherings such as Chinese New Years and weddings because everyone eats from one dish which symbolizes unity. Guests gather around the basin and literally eat from top to down, working their way through the courses.

Vegetable Tea  (choi cha, page 113)

During the first ten days of Chinese New Year Loy Sye Moi makes Vegetable Tea  (page 113) which is basically an artfully presented healthy vegetable soup. She arranges eight different stir-fried greens in each bowl to create a pretty kaleidoscope of greens. Eight is a lucky number and represents good fortune. Each vegetable contributes a different flavor and texture. She pours a clear broth carefully over the vegetables and garnishes with spoonful of ground peanuts and sesame seeds.

Savory Pounded Tea Rice (lui cha fan, page 119)

A heartier variation of vegetable tea is made by the Ho Po clan, a Hakka subgroup  who serve it for Chinese New Year. This version includes rice and a pounded herbaceous tea. I first tasted this healthy rice bowl in Singapore and later Amy Wong from Malaysia shared her recipe with me. A bevy of vegetables, tofu, and peanuts blanket a bowl of garlic rice. Pour a tea, made from pounding fresh green herbs, dry tea leaves, nuts, and seeds, over the rice and mix together for deliciously wholesome rice bowl. It’s a healthy and energizing way to start the new year.

 Taro Abacus Beads (wu tiuh pan jue, page 125)

In Singapore I encounter Taro Abacus Beads. Their name comes from their shape which resembles the pierced disks on a Chinese abacus, an ancient, low-tech adding machine. Hakkas often cook this dish for Chinese New Years to bring wealth in business. These chewy pasta disks resemble a springy, sticky version of Italian gnocchi. Taro replaces potato and tapioca starch replaces wheat flour typically used in Italian gnocchi. The Hakka version has a nuttier flavor and chewy texture. Stir-fry the boiled taro abacus beads with vegetables or cloak with a mushroom pork sauce.

Whatever you cook, Khiung Hee Fat Choy! May you have a delicious, prosperous, and happy new year!