Welcoming the Year of Golden Dragon with auspicious food
The belief in good fortune has been part of the human psyche for centuries. In Chinese culture, food plays a dominant role and shapes the way of life, often times reflected through traditions.
Since ancient times, Chinese people have chosen food with auspicious meaning or interpretation while valuing its nutrition, especially for special occasions.
For example, eating fish on the Lunar New Year will bring prosperity, wealth, and luck throughout the year. Dumplings are believed to enhance wealth because of their boat-shape representing Chinese gold and silver ingots.
Lunar New Year is one of the most important and influential occasions for bringing abundance and prosperity to life, especially through meals. On the occasion of Golden Dragon Year, The Nation lists the Chinese restaurants most recommended to bring an abundance of good luck throughout the year while ensuring a perfect warm, loving and sharing ambience amongst family and friends.
• Mei Jiang
This Chinese dining room always comes to mind when thinking about family gatherings. This year, the restaurant has collaborated with Chef Grace Choy, the owner of ChoyChoy restaurant in Tokyo, for the exclusive Cantonese dinner from February 9-18. The highlights are Spicy Tiger Prawn and Vermicelli, Traditional Steamed Grouper, Double-Boiled Chicken Soup with Fish Maw and Mushroom, and Chicken with Numb and Spicy Sauce.
Feeling traditional? Mei Jiang also serves hot handcrafted dim sum and wok-style dishes to enhance the flavourful experience for lunch, with an array of flavour options.
• Hei Yin
Hei Yin, the Cantonese restaurant led by Hong Kong head chef, Chef Jacky Chan , who has 40 years of experience to his credit, warmly welcomes all guests to celebrate the Lunar New Year, with exclusive auspicious sets and a la carte menu.
Enjoy prosperity this year with the Abalone salad "Yu Sheng". The colourful yet delightful dish consists of a variety of meaningful ingredients that open the door to prosperity, namely abalone, red pickled ginger, cucumber, carrot, daikon and purple cabbage.
Hei Yin also offers another special menu for celebrating this Golden Dragon Year, such as Whole abalone stuffed with minced shrimp and crab paste, Sauteed Snow Fish with milk egg whites, Steamed Sticky rice with Chinese sausage, Deep-fried crab claws stuffed with minced shrimp wrapped with Kataifi pastry, and more.
Eight auspicious dim sum and nine main courses are also available.
• Man Fu Yuan
Man Fu Yuan, the Chinese restaurant serving classic Cantonese cuisine, offers an exclusive menu for the Golden Dragon Year.
"Abundance soup pot" is one of the menu highlights. The Abundance soup pot is a mixed-ingredient soup, representing an abundance of wealth and health. It contains 16 premium ingredients, such as abalone, fresh fish maw, sea cucumber, river prawn, scallop, crispy pork, shiitake mushroom, duck, chicken, goose leg, dried scallop, red seaweed, daikon, dried wolfberry, and Chinese cabbage. Since the soup is packed with luxury ingredients, it is believed to bring prosperity and good health to those who taste it.
Since the restaurant was founded in Singapore, there’s a hint of the Singaporean touch in some of the dishes, and since Thailand is known for its rainbow lobster, the traditional Singaporean chilli crab dish features freshly caught lobsters flown directly from Phuket to Man Fu Yuan for the "Stir-fried lobster with Singapore sauce”, served with fried mantou.
Gong Xi Fa Cai to all The Nation’s readers!
