Chinese New Year Dishes
Vegetable Dishes
Spring is the season to plant new seeds. Traditionally, the Spring Festival is the best time to finish all the vegetables stored and preserved from the winter.
This dish can be called countryside vegetarian stir-fry. Mushrooms, jujube and Chinese cabbage are often included, in addition to your
typical greens.
Some symbolic vegetables to consider are:
• Seaweed: symbolize wealth and fortune
• Lotus seeds: a blessing for many children and a healthy family
• Bamboo shoots: represent longevity, as well as going onward and up
• Muskmelon and grapefruit: symbolize family and hope. In addition, grapefruit symbolizes wealth and prosperity
• Osmanthus flower petals: in Chinese, osmanthus guì is a homophone , which means noble and precious
• Leek/chives: leek has the meaning long and everlasting
• Poria mushrooms: another play on words, this mushroom fú líng sounds similar to fú lù, or blessings and fortune Hot Pot
For many, hot pot is the centerpiece of Spring Festival dinners.
Hot pot is another food that has a long history. Emperor Qianlong of the Qing dynasty is the most avid fan. When he held feasts for old and retired officials, hot pot with meat * were always on the menu. During his New Year’s Eve dinner, there were 120 dishes for lunch and even more for hot pot.
Despite being loved by commoners and royalty alike, hot pots are actually quite basic. It’s simply a bubbling pot and plates of uncooked meat and vegetables. You can choose whatever you like to throw into the pot. Wait until it’s cooked, take it out and eat.
Part of the flavor comes from the broth you choose in the pot. The other part is your own dipping sauce. There are special hot pot sauces. You can also make your own using one raw egg, sesame paste, salt, sugar, cilantro and peppers. Hot pot is an extremely customizable dish. Everything mentioned in this article can be included, even the noodles!
Some of the foods in this article, such as spring rolls and dumplings, can also be eaten outside of the main meal. Of course, there are many more snacks and desserts throughout the duration of the Spring Festival. As the TV Show “A Bite of China” said, even if the other ancient traditions of the Spring Festival are modernized, the food culture will never disappear.