Chinese New Year celebrations begin in February in a month-long celebration of the new lunar year. With so many new Chinese restaurants opening across Fiji, it’s the perfect time to explore the cuisine and traditions of the far east. In this new food series, Chef Seeto shares his experience of the most colourful and renewing celebration in the Chinese calendar and its delicious New Year dishes.
For nearly every Chinese family on the planet, the final week of the current lunar year is more than just a party night of fireworks and booze like the traditional December 31 New Year’s Eve. The 2015 Year of the Goat ends on February 7, with the arrival of the 2016 Year of the Monkey. But this is no ordinary monkey year. In Chinese astrology, each year is associated with a Chinese zodiac animal sign and one of the five elements: gold (metal), water, wood, fire, or earth. The 4713th year in the Chinese horoscope calendar, is the year of the fire monkey, or the red monkey. Unlike the sedate and calm goat of 2015, this year is predicted to be feisty, passionate and a very cheeky year; just like the monkey. Historically though, monkey years have experienced major upheavals and disharmony, and more so under the fire monkey.
People born in monkey years, which include 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992 and 2004, are considered to be intelligent, talented, witty and versatile. However, they can also be impatient, arrogant and snobbish like a grumpy monkey.
Do you know what animal you are in the Chinese horoscope?
Superstitions
The end of the lunar year also brings alive the ancient superstitions of bad luck and misfortune that will trigger panic in a normally sane Chinese person. Some Chinese take the animal year seriously that many don’t choose to have a child born in a goat or sheep year as they believe the child will adopt the traits of that animal. Better to be a cheeky monkey that is always curious and independent, than a meek and quiet goat that will mostly follow and rarely lead.
And then there is the home.
This is the one time of the year that most Chinese get the cleaning bug for fear of bad luck descending on the coming year. The entire house should be cleaned before New Year’s Day. On New Year’s Eve, all brooms, brushes, dusters, dust pans and other cleaning equipment are put away. Sweeping or dusting should not be done on New Year’s Day for fear that good fortune will be swept away.
After New Year’s Day, the floors may be swept. Beginning at the door, the dust and rubbish are swept to the middle of the parlour, then placed in the corners and not taken or thrown out until the fifth day. At no time should the rubbish in the corners be trampled upon. In sweeping, there is a superstition that if you sweep the dirt out over the threshold, you will sweep one of the family away!
Also, to sweep the dust and dirt out of your house by the front entrance is to sweep away the good fortune of the family; it must always be swept inwards and then carried out, then no harm will follow. All dirt and rubbish must be taken out the back door too.
Paranoid, maybe, but its Chinese New Year and there is so much to do to prepare for new year, including the food!
Good luck foods
With such a passion for Chinese superstition at this time of the year you can be sure there are special foods are enjoyed in the hope they also bring good fortune. For the Chinese, food plays an enormous role in setting the tone for new year. Stock up on oranges, grapefruit, pomelo and noodles to ensure your good luck and prosperity in the Year of the Red Monkey.
During the celebrations, specific meals have great importance for the Chinese community.
The first is Chinese New Year’s Eve, held on February 7. This is a day for family reunions. In China, relatives travel great distances to meet with their families and celebrate this occasion.
On New Year’s Eve, the traditional Chinese family has a vegetarian breakfast and then a large evening meal. It’s important to have either seven or nine dishes, which are lucky numbers. Among them will be also be a whole chicken with its head and feet still attached, and most probably a roast suckling pig with the most perfect crispy skin.
On New Year’s morning the family usually eats fried noodles, prawn crackers, bean curd and Chinese tea in the morning.
In the evening, leftovers from New Year’s Eve are served but with the additions of roast duck, char siu pork and any leftover fish.
Across China different foods are popular for the celebrations. A solid cake made of rice flour and sugar is eaten for the New Year in Eastern China and tang yuan balls of rice flour are eaten during the Lantern Festival shortly after the New Year. Pot sticker dumplings from Southern China are popular as is the sweet Chinese New Year cake dipped in egg and fried.
Close to home in Fiji there will be functions and gatherings between now and New Year’s Eve with Chinese restaurants opening their doors with New Year’s specials. But with the exception of the red monkey’s balls, that school children seemed to love (they’re preserved peach!), there will be no monkey on the menu!
Chicken is a must-eat during Chinese New Year. Whole chicken is especially auspicious and it’s prepared for prayers to the ancestors in traditional Chinese homes. While regular boiled or steamed chicken is a common dish to serve, I love a roast chook, especially Cantonese barbecue style.
There are certain techniques and secret ingredients involved to get to the desired taste and texture. The best part of the roast chicken is the juice seeping out during the roasting process; drizzle the juice on steamed rice while you sink your teeth into the moist and tender pieces of chicken. This Chinese roast chicken recipe is simply delicious. Let the Chinese New Year feasts begin!
Gong xi fa cai (Mandarin), gong hey fat choy (Cantonese) and happy Chinese New Year!
* Lance Seeto is the multi award winning chef at Mana Island Resort and Spa, culinary ambassador for Fiji Airways, and host of Fiji TV’s “Taste of Paradise”.
