Tag Archives: chinese

Chinese turnip cake

My mom dropped off a turnip cake for Chinese New Year, and it’s delicious. Turnip cake symbolizes prosperity and fortune. (I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention to my other posts about symbolism in Chinese food, but there’s a lot of food that symbolizes some combination of prosperity, fortune...

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Greetings, year of the ox. What do you have in store for me this year? Chinese New Year’s Eve is your big, lumbering frat boy brother-in-law who comes home drunk and passes out on your coffee table, but not before knocking over a planter and a bookcase. New Year’s Day...

Chinese New Year’s Eve

It’s Chinese New Year’s Eve, and it’s one of the busiest nights of the year for Chinese restaurants. I remember one year when my family made a reservation at a new restaurant in Richmond. Well, when we arrived the place was a gong show, and they had our reservation in...

Symbolism in Chinese food: prosperity

Steamed whole fish Serving a whole fish symbolizes prosperity. The fish, usually a whitefish like tilapia, is steamed in a shallow dish with soya sauce, ginger and green onions. Someone gets to “carve” the fish, which involves serving everyone a piece of the top side of the fish, deftly removing the...