As Chinese around the world celebrate a new lunar new year this month, Chef Seeto looks at what to expect in this Year of the Goat.
If you were born in 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003 or in 2015, you are a goat! Your lucky numbers are 2 and 7; your lucky colors are brown, red and purple; and your best careers include becoming a teacher, musician, actor or interior designer – if you follow ancient Chinese astrology!
Last Thursday marked the start of the Chinese New Year, saying goodbye to the year of the Horse and welcoming the Year of the Goat.
The Year of the Goat is said to bring stability and tranquility and is also supposed to be a good time for education, making it a great time to learn how to make some new recipes this year!
It’s also a timely reminder that goat farming for milk, cheese, yoghurt, meat and cosmetics still awaits the enterprising farmer looking to turn his herd into boutique industry with ready to sell products for our resorts and potentially overseas customers.
This is also the time of the year that the Chinese are in search of their lucky foods. Fish is often served because the Chinese word for fish, yú, sounds like the Chinese word for abundance.
Chinese dumplings are also said to bring prosperity because they look like the ancient gold ingots, so the more you eat, the better.
Other lucky dishes for the Chinese New Year include Niángo, or glutinous rice cakes, tngyuán, which are sweet rice balls, and long noodles, which are supposed to bring longevity.
Duck, one of my favorite dishes, symbolizes fertility and health.
Just as Fijians would serve a whole cooked pig or chicken to a chief, Chinese tradition holds that duck and chicken should be brought to the table whole for the New Year’s dinner to be carved in front of everyone.
The Chinese horoscope is based around the twelve animals of ancient China that symbolized the personality and traits of a person born in that year.
The twelve year cycle was first introduced during the Han dynasty (206BC-220AD) and was based on ancient script found on bones dating back to the Bronze Age.
Each animal zodiac has its own lucky numbers, lucky days, lucky colors, lucky flowers, and distinct personality that closely resemble the animal.
So if you were born in the year of the Dragon or Tiger, chances are you have the temper of the fire breathing dragon or ferociousness of the tiger.
People born in a year of the Goat are generally believed to be gentle mild-mannered, shy, stable, sympathetic, and brimming with a strong sense of kind heartedness and sense of justice.
They have very delicate thoughts, strong creativity, and perseverance, and acquire professional skills well.
Although they look gentle on the surface, they are tough on the inside, always insisting on their own opinions in their minds.
They have strong inner resilience and excellent defensive instincts.
Though they prefer to be in groups, they do not want to be the centre of attention.
They are reserved and quiet, most likely because they like spending much time in their thoughts. Goats like to spend money on fashionable things that give them a first class appearance.
Although goats enjoy spending money on the finer things in life, they are not snobbish.
Of all the twelve animals in the Chinese horoscope, the goat is the most serene and calm.
Depending on where you are in the world, the 2015 Chinese lunar year is referred to as the year of the Goat, Sheep or Ram. So why the confusion?
It seems the Chinese character, yang, can be translated as any of caprinae animals in English, but a closer look reveals that the correct animal for this year is the Goat.
In ancient China, people ate six types of animals – horse, cow, goat, pig, dog and chicken.
Goats had a higher status among the six animals in Chinese society, as in the past, only rich people and the aristocracy could afford to eat them.
In Fiji, the goat is not as revered as a delicacy unless its an Indian function, but with this year named in its honor, you can be assured it’s a good time to get creative and find other ways to enjoy this ancient animal.
To all my Chinese family in Fiji I say Kung Hey Fatt Choi (Cantonese) or Gong Xi Fa Cai (Mandarin), meaning “wishing you to be prosperous in the coming year.”
For those not married and single, a fun way to respond to someone who greets you with those words is to say Ley See Dow Loy (Cantonese) or Hong Bao Na Lai (Mandarin), meaning “A lucky red envelope please!”
* Lance Seeto is an executive chef and television host based on Castaway Island Fiji. He is also Fiji Airways’ Culinary Ambassador. www.lanceseeto.com
* Watch Taste of Paradise for new episodes every Sunday 7.30pm, and repeats of previous episodes at 4pm, only on Fiji One.
