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Lunar New Year Feast

Lunar New Year Feast: Recipes and Traditions with Chef Mei Lin

5 Minutes read
Journalist

Chef Mei Lin shares her insights and recipes for an easy Lunar New Year at home.

Imagine streets ablaze with vibrant lanterns, families gathered around tables laden with symbolic dishes, and the air filled with laughter and the crackling of fireworks. This is Lunar New Year, a time when revelers around the world, from the bustling streets of Beijing to the vibrant Chinatowns of London and New York, travel far and wide to reunite with family for a fifteen-day celebration. Just as Thanksgiving wouldn't be complete without turkey and stuffing, Lunar New Year festivities revolve around symbolic dishes like spring rolls, whole steamed fish, noodles, dumplings, sticky rice cakes, and almond cookies, each carrying wishes for good fortune in the year ahead.

For Top Chef champion Mei Lin, these dishes evoke vivid memories of childhood celebrations. Mei Lin was born in Guangdong, China, but grew up in Dearborn, Michigan, where her parents owned and operated a Chinese restaurant. She remembers celebrating Lunar New Year for a full week at home every year as a kid. “It was the biggest holiday we celebrated, and it's very food oriented,” Lin recalls. “There are lots of superstitions surrounding preparing for the big day too. No cleaning because you'll sweep your luck away, and not washing your hair because you'll wash your luck away.” She remembers enjoying whole fish and lots of vegetarian dishes for the Lunar New Year, due to Buddhist influences on Chinese culture.

"They say the more dumplings you eat, the richer you get"

Mei Lin 

Picture of chef Mei Lin

Dumplings are common in any traditional Lunar New Year feast, their plump shape resembling the gold ingots used during the Ming Dynasty and celebrating a year of wealth and good fortune ahead. Vegetarian dumplings stuffed with chopped napa cabbage, tofu, shiitake, and woodear mushrooms are a tasty crowd-pleaser, either boiled or pan-fried. If you make too many, you can always freeze them for later.

As an adult, Lin celebrates Lunar New Year at home in Los Angeles by hosting a dumpling party with friends. “I'll make a few different types of filling, and everyone gathers around at the table and makes as many dumplings as they can,” she says. “They say the more dumplings you eat, the richer you get.”

After enjoying a plate of auspicious dumplings, no Lunar New Year feast is complete without noodles. Long noodles symbolize a long life, making them a must-have for this celebration. Sesame noodles with chili oil and scallions are a simple vegetarian dish, and you can easily adjust the level of heat, with the sweetness from the sesame dressing balancing the spicy chilies. “This is one of my brother's favorite dishes, so I usually make it for him,” Lin says. “You can use a very thin spaghetti noodle if you don't have Chinese egg or wheat noodles.”

As the feast draws to a close, a platter of golden almond cookies, arranged like shimmering coins, promises prosperity in the year ahead. These delicate treats, with their crisp edges and subtly sweet almond flavor, are a delightful way to end the celebration. “My mom wouldn't normally let us have a lot of sweet things,” Lin says. “When we did get them, they were a very nice treat.” The dough for these cookies can also be prepared in advance and stored frozen. Bake them as guests are coming over for an intoxicating sweet and nutty aroma, and an irresistible fresh-out-of-the-oven cookie that's perfect paired with coffee or tea at the end of a feast.

Lunar New Year is a time for family, friends, and, of course, delicious food. By incorporating these traditional dishes and their symbolic meanings into your own celebration, you can usher in the new year with an abundance of joy, luck, and prosperity.

 

Mei Lin's Lunar New Year Menu

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