Today is the Chinese New Year and this year is the Year of the Snake. As per tradition, we celebrated last night, on New Year's Eve, with a major feast of pan fried noodles with shrimp and pork, a baked fish, potsticker dumplings and green onion crispy pancake.
All of these foods have symbolic meaning: noodles mean "long life", the dumplings are reminiscent in shape of ancient Chinese gold ingots and so symbolize wealth/good fortune, the oranges symbolize good fortune, and the fish symbolizes prosperity and abundance.
If you are curious about cooking authentic Chinese food, I recommend the Wei-Chuan series of cookbooks, particularly the books by Su-Huei Huang.
Wei-Chuan is a major packaged foods company in Taiwan, and they also run a highly respected cooking school. In Taiwan, these books are considered classics of Chinese cooking. What is amazing about them is that the recipes are printed in Chinese with the corresponding English translation alongside! It is a gold mine of knowledge for a "banana" such as myself.
Xin nian kuai le! Gong xi fa cai! Wishing you prosperity in the New Year! :-)
All of these foods have symbolic meaning: noodles mean "long life", the dumplings are reminiscent in shape of ancient Chinese gold ingots and so symbolize wealth/good fortune, the oranges symbolize good fortune, and the fish symbolizes prosperity and abundance.
If you are curious about cooking authentic Chinese food, I recommend the Wei-Chuan series of cookbooks, particularly the books by Su-Huei Huang.
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| "Chinese Cuisine" by Su-Huei Huang; this is the central book on Chinese cuisine in the Wei-Chuan collection. |
Xin nian kuai le! Gong xi fa cai! Wishing you prosperity in the New Year! :-)
Happy New Year, Louise! That meal looks delicious!
ReplyDeleteThanks Rose!!
DeleteMwahaha, I'm a "banana" as well (or Twinkie :P)! I had loads of Chinese food but no noodles or dumplings.
ReplyDeleteXin Nian Kuai Le to you too :)
Cheers,
SEE ALICE GO
Hi Alice - I have never heard of the term "twinkie" (w/ regards to Asians) before but I see what you mean! Happy New Year!
DeleteDumpling is my favorite and a cup of green tea when it comes to drinks, I think I need a few learning when it comes to chinese foods but when it comes to indian foods I like a tulsi tea for a drink. Cooking is an art that I want to be expert on.
ReplyDeleteHi Hanna, I had never heard of tulsi tea, thank you for the link. Definitely check out the Wei-Chuan books, they are excellent.
DeleteHappy Year of the Snake to you and yours! BF and I went for hotpot with the familiars last night (I was surprised to see many Chinese restos open for NYE and NYD, didn't use to be like that...)
ReplyDeleteYour meal looks delish! Wish we could cook Chinese...well, we do, but we wouldn't serve people :P
Hi CC, Happy New Year! You're right, back in the day, all the Chinese shops and restaurants would normally be closed on New Year's Eve and on New Year's Day. I guess it's a sign of the times.
DeleteUntil I got my hands on the Wei-Chuan books, I did not know how to cook any real Chinese food. Before that, I had a couple of Chinese cooking books I had found at Indigo Books, but the results from them were like the homemade equivalent of chicken balls - a Westernized version of Chinese cooking. With the Wei-Chuan recipes, you get the real deal. It's not hard but it is very labour intensive and time consuming. Unless you have someone to assist you, it can take more than an hour to prepare a single dish.
happy chinese new year!! i am craving chinese food now. :)
ReplyDeleteby the way, how did i miss all these blog posts? bloglovin' keeps failing me...