Get ready to celebrate! This coming Thursday (February 19th) is Chinese New Year, and this year is the Year Of The Goat.
If you are like me and live in an area that doesn’t have Chinese New Year celebrations, that doesn’t mean you can’t invite a few friends over and have your own party, complete with fake-out take-out!
Fake-out take-out is really just a fancy way to say home made Chinese food 😉 but fake-out take-out sounds so much more exciting. At least in my mind…
But back to Chinese New Year. Did you know that in Chinese culture, the foods you eat on Chinese New Year are said to determine what your year will hold?
One of the dishes that is often made and served are Long Life Noodles because they symbolize longevity. So when cooking your noodles, be careful not to break them into smaller pieces, as the longer the noodles in the dish, the more longevity and therefore the longer life for those who eat it.
It’s been a long time since I’ve had Chinese food as I’m allergic to MSG (though technically it’s a severe intolerance, not an allergy) so I was excited to have an excuse to make some at home. The recipe I used came from the Discoveries.PresidentsChoice.ca website (you need to sign up for a free account to access the recipes in this post) and can be found here: Life Long Noodles Recipe.
An easy and delicious recipe that is sure to please all of your friends and family – and who doesn’t want to promote longevity in their life? Exactly. I may have celebrated a little early, but I think I should have a lot of longevity this year, because I ate a lot of them. Yum!
I also made Lion’s Head Meatballs with Shanghai Bok Choy:
Here’s a fun fact I didn’t realize until after I had made (and eaten) this dish. The meatball itself is suppose to represent a lion’s head, and the bok choy is suppose to represent the lion’s mane. Had I known that I would have attempted to style my dish more to make the book toy look more like a mane :D. The meatballs are meant to represent family unity and abundance, another wish everyone has for their family which is why this is another typical Chinese New Year celebratory recipe. The recipe for Lion’s Head Meatballs with Shanghai Bok Choy is found here.
I found this to be a more labour intensive recipe than the noodles, but in the end I definitely think it was worth the effort.
If forced to choose, I think I would say the noodles were my favourite of the two, but that is largely because I am slightly noodle obsessed, but the race was a tight one.
If you’d like to celebrate Chinese New Year, but neither of these recipes are doing it for you, be sure to check out the President’s Choice Discoveries site as they have a full list of Chinese New Year recipes ready to help you celebrate!
Pick up all your ingredients in the world section of your local Loblaws/Superstore and you’ll be ready to ring in The Year of The Goat!
Disclaimer: I was provided with the ingredients to make these recipes from President’s Choice. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.