Five Food Customs You Should Know for Lunar New Year
Chef Andrew Wong isn’t one for Chinese stereotypes.
(Bloomberg) -- Chef Andrew Wong isn’t one for Chinese stereotypes.
He speaks with a London accent and although his family comes from Hong Kong, he knows the city mainly as a visitor, rather than as a spiritual home.
But like more than a billion people around the world, he’s preparing to celebrate Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb. 16, though the big night is the evening before. The Year of the Dog is the zodiac sign for those born in 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006 and 2018, folks who tend to be independent, sincere, loyal and decisive, according to various Chinese zodiac websites.
“We didn’t actually celebrate much when I was a kid,” says the owner of A Wong, one of London’s most celebrated Chinese restaurants. “Because my family owned a restaurant, we were always working when other people celebrated. But the one thing we used to do as kids was, even after service, it was the only time in the year we would have dinner.”
But things are now changing for Wong, his wife Nathalie, and children Isla, aged 4, and Ayden, 2.
“We are starting to celebrate with our kids, because our Chinese connections are getting larger as they get older,” he says. “Our auntie who stays with us, the auntie who looks after them, from mainland China, it's a massive celebration for them so the kids will get to know a bit more.”
For them, and the rest of us, he has five food customs you should know for the Lunar New Year. He shares them in this video.
Richard Vines is chief food critic at Bloomberg. Follow him on Twitter @richardvines and Instagram @richard.vines.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alyssa McDonald at amcdonald61@bloomberg.net, Kristine Servando
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