Chinese New Year Food

1) "Chun Hop", the Chinese New Year Snack/Candies box
Chinese put candies, dried fruit and melon seeds in this Candy Box, called Chun
Hop, and offer to their visitors.

Every family has a "Chun Hop" which means "A Box of Completion". Therefore, the traditional shape is circle. Nowadays, there are so many different kinds of contemporary designs. It is divided into several sessions. It includes candies, dried fruit and melon seeds. Interestingly, there is meaning behind the combination of these candies and snack in this box which I will explain in details later.

There is a cover of this candy box (or so called "Chun Hop"). If it is closed, nobody knows what kind of goodies inside :-). Most of the time, the middle of it is filled with watermelon seeds dyed in red or sugar coated dried lotus.

The other sessions are either filled with candies or other sugar coated dried fruit, such as coconut, melon and so forth.

Some people, like my grandparents, like to put 2 tangerines with the leaves and branches attached on top of the seeds in the middle session to represent extra blessings.

When your visitors come to your house and sit down, you, being the host/hostess, will bring over the "Chun Hop" and offer them some snacks with your greetings.

For young married couples, they are always offered with lotus seeds which represents to wish them having many children.

For the other age groups, it depends on their situations. Like children, teenagers or young adults still at school or college, the host/hostess will offer them candies with the best wishes that they will get good academic results or so.

Actually, the more people you need to visit with during this time, the more you know what kind of best wishes or greetings you want to say to different people. It's like no brainer.

2) Goodies/Hor d'euvors

Chinese New Year "goodies" just like the homemade Christmas cookies that you can preserve it for a bit of time and enjoy it throughout the month of this festival, such as
glazed walnuts. And it is so true that after moving to the States, I can only get these goodies from the Chinese stores. But when I received a package sending from my uncle and aunt, who live about 4 hours of drive away from me, it just made my day.

I remembered my grandmothers from both sides of my parents loved to make a bunch of them and gave away to friends and their children.

Here are a few of the most popular ones:

"Guo chai" (a crunchy pastry stuffed with peanuts and coconut flakes)
"Woo ha" (deep-fried shredded taro root which looks like a fuss ball. It also has the meaning of "happiness".)
"Zhan tui" (sesame coated balls which are crunchy from the outside and chewy inside.)

You will see a lot of goodies in the ball-shaped which represents full, complete and accumulation of wealth like snowball.

When it comes to "Hop Tu" (the way how Chinese called glazed walnuts), my grandmothers always preferred to buy from the stores. I didn't know why. But when I grew up, I realized that it is very difficult to find raw walnuts or even shelled walnuts anywhere in China, even though it is one of the biggest producers in the world.

The first 3 goodies are deep-fried. "Woo ha" is the only one which can be served either salty or sweet. The rest of them are sweet.

Yep, sweet and deep-fried.....Now, you understand why Chinese always complain about the food during the Chinese New Year. It is so good, but fattening. To me, it's just once a year. What the heck, right?

3) Main Courses
There are several main ingredients that no one would miss in the dinner of Chinese New Year. Just like no one would miss the turkey in the Thanksgiving. Those ingredients are chicken, fish, lettuce, dried seaweed, dried oysters, shrimps, Chinese New Year chewy rice "cakes" and so forth.

These ingredients represents a lot of blessing and luck because of the way how they are called. I am explaining each of them in details below:

a) Chicken - always symbolizes "phoenix". Traditionally, phoenix and dragon represent the queen and the emperor. These 2 figures also mean "superiority". Therefore, Chinese not only think that chicken means good luck, but also the progress to the corporate ladder for those who work for somebody else.

b) Fish - It is called "yu" in Cantonese which has the similar pronounciation of a word meaning "more than enough of wealth".

c) Lettuce - It is called "san choi" in Cantonese which is similar to the pronounciation of the "growth of welath".

d) Dried Seaweed - In Cantonese, it is called "Fat Choi". It means wealthy and prosperity.

e) Dried Oysters - In Cantoness, it is called "Ho Si" which means "good stuffs". It is always cooked and served together with the lettuce and dried seaweeds.

f) Chinese New Year "Cakes" - It is called "Guo" in Cantonese which stands for "great improvements in everything" for adults and "health and growth" for children. There are many kinds of chewy rice cakes. Most of them are sweet and a few of them are salty. I was so thankful that my uncle and aunt sent me 2 this year. It was so wonderful that my husband told me that I never stopped smiling throughout the day since I received them. Thank you very much.

g) Shrimp - It is called "Ha" in Cantonese which is pronounced the same as "laugh". Therefore, shrimp represents happiness.

h) Pork Hock - It means "good luck from lottery, gambling and so forth". This is an optional ingredients.