What to Eat for a Successful Chinese New Year

According to the tradition of Chinese New Year certain foods are included in the meal planning. These foods are included because of the belief that consuming these certain foods will bring good fortune and meaning for the coming year. Here are a list of the foods and their significance for their consumption at during the Chinese New Year celebration.

Dumplings - Will help bring wealth

Lettuce - Will bring prosperity

Noodles - Will help bring longevity

Oysters - Will help you to be receptive to good fortune

Seaweed - Will help bring good luck

Eating a whole fish will help bring abundance and togetherness

Here are some suggestions on how to incorporate all of these things.

Lettuce:

Some things are very simple to include in the celebration feast like the lettuce for instance. If you are not an adventurous cook you just fix a salad, and make a package of the oriental salad dressing mix from Good Seasons.

Oysters

Oysters can just simply be steamed. You can use a steamer, when they begin to open up they are ready. If an oyster is already opened before cooking it, it is no good throw it away.

Seaweed

You can use seaweed in your noodle recipe or in your dumpling recipe but the easiest way to incorporate seaweed in to your meal, is with Sushi. Most large scale grocery stores sell sushi already made in. My grocery store sells it in the area between the butcher case and the deli.

Whole Fish

You can cook a fish whole as simply or as easily as you like. Simply buy a whole fish that has bee boned by the butcher. You could pan sear it, or grill it, but since it is whole I would advise baking it. I would recommend rubbing the fish with olive oil. Then you can add what ever ingredients you like, it should cook for about 30 minutes at 350 or until juices run clear.

Here is my recommended sauce to cook the chicken in;

2 tablespoons teryake Sauce

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon lemon juice

¼ cup olive oil

1/3 cup dry white wine

Minced garlic to taste

Minced onions to taste

Finley chopped green onions

Mix all of the ingredients together and pour or brush on to fish. You can bake right away or let it set for 15 minutes.

Dumplings

Here is my version of Chinese dumplings.