My Take on Chinese New Year

I loved celebrating the Chinese New Year with the Fong-Torres clan. This, the most important Chinese-American holiday of the year, is a time for reunions, feasting, and gift-giving; in fact, the holiday reminded me of my family’s Christmas celebration.

As Shirley Fong-Torres explained to me, Chinese New Year starts with the cleaning of the houses and shopping in preparation for the holiday, and like so many holidays, culminates with a big feast on the eve of the new year.  Shirley and I both love to cook with our family; they make potstickers, we make gnocchi. Shirley also made a Buddhist stew called Lo Han Jai, to which she added no fewer than eight vegetables, because eight is a lucky number. This reminded me of the southern Italian Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve.

Even though I had never met them before, I felt as though I had known the Fong-Torres family for years. Chinese New Year was unfamiliar to me, but it was easy for me to feel at  home celebrating food and family, regardless of the occasion.

Chinese New Year is coming up on January 23rd, and Chinese or not, everyone enjoys trying new, delicious dishes.  The recipes I collected while filming Lidia Celebrates America are available under the Chinese New Year section of the website, and I encourage you to try something new with your family–as you saw on the show, children especially enjoy making potstickers.

Happy Chinese New Year!

If you missed Lidia Celebrates America: Holiday Tables and Traditions, you can watch it online here!