Year of the Horse 2014- Chinese New Year Foods

January 28, 2014 by Leave a Comment

How are you celebrating Chinese New Year 2014? This is the year of the Horse.
4 goat faces, 1 horse face with windblown mane...taken at Surfing Goat Dairy in Maui

The New Year’s Day in China (equivalent to the year in Chinese) is this Friday, January 31, but in the new year is celebrated over multiple days. It starts from the last year of the Chinese Year up to the end of the Lantern Festival 15 days later. This gives you plenty of time to still join in the traditions of gathering with your family, cleaning out the old (including cleaning your house!), and doing a few things to hopefully usher in a healthy, wealthy, new year in.

I can’t say that the cleaning my house portion is my favorite part- it’s definitely the eating certain food that are symbols of health and wealth, often because they look/sound in Chinese like words linked with health and wealth.

Every year there are two that I always do- and so far it certainly hasn’t hurt! So here are my traditional Chinese New Year Foods…

1. Eat Dumplings.

Dumplings are symbols of wealth, because traditional Chinese money were gold and silver ingots. This is pretty easy to do- there are so many places that offer dumplings, even food carts and restaurants that aren’t Chinese food specific. Mmm just look at these photos of dumplings from my past makes me want dumplings now. Particularly these ones, which are endearingly chubby.

The Dump Truck food cart dumplings Chubby potstickers are so endearing

2. Eat Noodles

Long noodles represent a nice long life, so when eating noodles for this time of year means ordering the longest noodles you can. Other than that though, they can be any kind of noodles you want- flour, rice, egg, wheat, etc. Again, I am sort of lenient on where the noodles come from and they don’t need to be Chinese- which explains below the photo from Boke Bowl which specializes in ramen with fancy upgrades like the fried chicken  and pork belly as you see below, the chinese pulled noodle specialist such as Noodle House Food Cart, or by simply rocking noodles with garlic like what you see below from Star Noodle in Maui.

Boke Bowl ramen noodles with fried chicken and pork belly and pulled pork Noodle House Food Cart Chinese noodles Garlic Noodles from Star Noodle in Maui

There are more foods to eat- check out this cool infographic from Steamy Kitchen and this 10 Good Luck Foods list from Chow.com for more foods to eat- and she also provides recipes to try! This year besides the dumplings and noodles, I am adding in cauliflower/broccoli for blossoming riches, and also shrimp for good times and lettuce for rising fortune (in Chinese the word for lettuce sounds like wealth).

In general, I think simple stir fried vegetables are also a popular part of New Years eatings because not only are they healthy, but because of the crunch sound they make associated with money, and help start the new year by not taking the life of an animal to start off the year. It also balances out your meal of dumplings and noodles :X. Your dessert can be oranges and tangerines.
Chinese broccoli- an auspicious Chinese New Year Food because not only are they healthy, but because of the crunch sound they make associated with money, and help start the new year by not taking the life of an animal to start off the year.

The Chinese New Year Lantern viewings at the local Lan Su Chinese Gardens are offering a lot of activities- they sold out last year, so you might want to buy your advance tickets now! Their festivities include a dragon and lion dance of course, but also martial arts demonstrations, miniature horses, calligraphy demonstrations, a Chinese Wishing Tree, and with the Lantern Festival lots of lanterns! Did I mention little miniature horses? Inside of the gardens they have a tea house where you can enjoy a selection of various Chinese teas and snacks (and hey, maybe get some radish cake, rice cakes, etc. to get your prosperous New Year’s eating in!)

Lantern Festival in the rain at Lan Su Chinese Gardens tea and Chinese snack at Lan Su Chinese Gardens

In addition, on Feb 1, at the Oregon Convention Center there is also the Portland Chinese New Year Cultural Fair that includes more cultural performances. And food too.

I wish you a happy Chinese New Year! Tell me how you plan to celebrate it!?

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Year of the Snake 2013

February 23, 2013 by 2 Comments

Gung hay fat choy! Happy Year of the Snake! The last “official” day of the Lunar/Chinese New Year celebrations (the Lantern Festival) occurs on the 15th day on the Lunar calendar, which is February 24 (tomorrow!).

There are certain auspicious foods that you should eat during the Chinese New Year. Every year there are two that I always try to do- and so far it certainly hasn’t hurt!

1. Eat Dumplings.

Dumplings are symbols of wealth, because traditional Chinese money were gold and silver ingots. This is pretty easy to do- there are so many places that offer dumplings, even food carts and restaurants that aren’t Chinese food specific. In fact this year I got them from a Thai cart, and the first dumplings you see below are from a Korean restaurant. Another more creative take on this is to visit The Dump Truck food cart, which focuses just on creative dumplings such as bacon cheeseburger dumplings and Potato Curry dumpling or Mr Ma dumpling on the right below.

One great version of dumplings I had was when I was visiting in LA and we went to ROC Kitchen as covered by my brother at his blog and the photos are his. The pot stickers I made our table wait 15 minutes for  (even though we had already eaten everything else we ordered- I tried to order it with our original waitress but she didn’t understand but when the owner came to check on us I asked for them based on online reviews that recommended it) were totally worth it.

dumplings at Cha Dong Tofu House The Dump Truck food cart dumplings Pan Fried Noodles from ROC Kitchen in LA. Photo courtesy of Spong Pan Fried Noodles from ROC Kitchen in LA. Photo courtesy of Spong

2. Noodles

Long noodles represent a nice long life, so when eating noodles for this time of year means ordering the longest noodles you can (rather than say, pan fried flat rice noodles extra crispy which is a favorite of mine because you don’t want the noodles to be cut). Other than that though, they can be any kind of noodles you want- flour, rice, egg, wheat, etc. This year I fulfilled this by slurping up long ramen noodles at Hakatamon with work colleagues.

But feel free to go all out by going to Boke Bowl which specializes in ramen with fancy upgrades like the fried chicken  and pork belly as you see below, visit a chinese pulled noodle specialist such as Noodle House Food Cart, or by simply rocking noodles with garlic like what you see below from Star Noodle (which I still remember so fondly and look forward to visiting again this year in Maui).

Sushi and Ramen at Hakatamon restaurant Boke Bowl ramen noodles with fried chicken and pork belly and pulled pork Noodle House Food Cart Chinese noodles Garlic Noodles from Star Noodle in Maui

There are more foods to eat- check out this cool infographic from one of the blogs I read, Steamy Kitchen, for more foods to eat- and she also provides recipes to try!

The Chinese New Year Lantern viewings at the local Lan Su Chinese Gardens are sold out already this year, but consider visiting anyway any other time of year. I love the tranquility once you walk through the entrance even though it is located downtown essentially, and they have a tea house where you can enjoy a selection of various Chinese teas and snacks.

Lantern Festival in the rain at Lan Su Chinese Gardens tea and Chinese snack at Lan Su Chinese Gardens

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Chinese New Year 2009- cleansing day

February 18, 2009 by Leave a Comment

When Chinese New Year started, I noted that the Chinese Classical Garden here in Portland was going to have a special event on the last day of Chinese New Year celebration. I got there early enough to see the tai chi demostration, and saw little kids making paper lanterns, coloring pictures of dragons, and writing Chinese characters. I opted for Chinese tea and snacks in the teahouse while listening to the Portland Orchids and Bamboo Chinese Ensemble perform traditional Chinese music. – mooncake (which is only edible with tea) and my favorite, turnip cake!

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Unfortunately, as you can see below, shortly before the floating lantern and dragon came out, it got very grey, and it was a bit soggy and sad for the floating lanterns. However, the little boy next to me getting soaked was soooo cute, though shivering by the end. He was looking a little spacey. Reminds me of my brother. Heeee.

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Earlier when Chinese New Year started, I of course ate noodles, and chicken, and potstickers. I still needed some fish though. I wasn't sure what Chinese restaurants in China Block (it's the Chinatown downtown, but I wouldn't call it a town… sure it has the gates, but it's only like 3 blocks!) were good, so I ended up at Typhoon again. At least I had a steamed fish instead of a deep fried one like last time… though that was tastier deep fried. Well, it was a healthy start to the new year at least! And, I had more tea- my favorite tea is the Toasted Rice Flower tea. It smells great, and has a light taste. Another strikeout with the vegetarian dish though- the eggplants were fine, but the tofu salty as if taste was overcompensated for by salt. Well, the three times I've had meaty dishes I've liked them all.

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And look how pretty those are… as opposed to these veggie dishes at Paradox Cafe, which is 90% or more vegetarian/vegan. I didn't even bother to taste the vegan sloppy joe there in that third photo. I had the Solstice Corn Cakes, which are corncakes with apples and toasted walnuts in the mix (I had them with quite a big pat of butter, and the next day with lots of syrup. The parts with the apples were best, the rest needed help with the dryness. Or maybe I was just adding fat. Let's not be picky) and the half portion of "Biscuits and Gravy HOB version" which is herb and onion bread with almond gravy. The gravy was good. The bread was a bit hard, but had some potential in flavor if it hadn't been overdone- and it definitely still needed that gravy. Other offerings here include a sandwich called a Tree Hugger which you can add tofurky to, Tempeh Reubon, Asparagus Sandwich, and Curried Tempeh Tacos, Tempeh Gyro, and 8 kinds of salads, among many other items.

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Happy Chinese New Year!

January 25, 2009 by Leave a Comment

 

Happy Chinese New Year! I was hoping to go to the Classical Chinese Gardens, but since there's snow on the ground outside and the heater of my rented townhouse is broken, maybe I'll make it later this week or next weekend. They have fortune telling boxes, chinese lanterns, live chinese music and daily specials like dumpling demos, lantern making, and tea ceremonies until February 8, when they'll set off the floating lanterns. I would like to do some folding dragon card coloring myself. I was born the year of the dragon.

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