China also celebrates its New Year with meals shared with family

China enters the year of the dragon. Let’s take this opportunity to take a look at how Chinese cuisine accompanies this New Year.

A sacred moment for the Chinese, the New Year marks family reunions. This very popular festival brings together the community, wherever it is located: parades, firecrackers and above all good meals. A bit like our New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Eve remains one of the essential elements in the symbolism of this very festive period.

André Tan is the founder of several Chinese restaurants, from the Pandapanda group, in Paris: “It’s a time when we get together as a family, around a meal. We share a multitude of dishes, all of which have meaning, with noodles for longevity, and fish as good luck for the year future.”

Cuisine, first contact with culture

Chinese cuisine is one of the oldest in the world. One of the most delicate too, with new flavors for our Western palates, even if it has been flooding all global gastronomies for several decades.

It must be said that, even in China, there are different gastronomies. Handa Cheng, author of Guide to Chinese cuisinepublished by Chêne: “In the North, we eat ravioli, as much for the dish as for the process: people prepare together, then eat together. In the South, they are more rice-based products: rice noodles or glutinous rice. The cuisine is the first contact with culture. It’s a good gateway.”

So let’s take advantage of the Chinese New Year to introduce ourselves to real Chinese cuisine, not that of those cheap stalls where the quality too often leaves something to be desired. Finally, know that if fish is essential for Chinese New Year – served whole – it is because its name, in Chinese, is very close to the word prosperity, which it therefore promises to those who savor it. As for the ravioli, their shape is reminiscent of ingots: they are therefore the hope of great wealth to come.