Lunar New Year

One slurp is all you need to fall in love with these noodles.

Fill them however your heart desires.

These Korean soy sauce braised short ribs are a triple threat: super unctuous, savory, and sweet, all at the same time.

They make the best sliders.

They're savory and nutty with a little bit of heat.

This easy roast pork can do it all.

For the crispiest spring rolls, it's all about the filling.

Take your fried rice up a notch with scallops and five spice.

Ring in the Vietnamese new year with sparkly coins of Meyer lemon peel kicked up with hot chilies and licorice.

It's the one favorite dish everyone looks forward to.

This easy, humble dish is an integral part of my New Year's celebration.

A mochi-like steamed Chinese cake to ring in Chinese New Year.

Surprise and delight your guests with this Filipino-style jalapeño popper.

Between the savory filling and the crispy fried exterior, lumpia are easy to love.

A very delicious mash-up of delicate dumplings and juicy cheeseburgers, complete with special sauce.

In my family, brunch isn't complete without it.

It's the ultimate reward for a day of patience.

This comforting, hearty soup from Mister Jiu's cookbook is full of meaty oxtails, roasted veggies, star anise, ginger, and two kinds of peppercorns.

Stir-fry it with greens or noodles, make a decadent XO and egg fried rice, or spoon it on top of simply steamed fish

This Cantonese steamed fish is topped with ginger, green onions, and fermented black beans.

It’s generally made to accompany pork ribs, but it's also great with grilled sardines, thin strips of beef stir-fry, broiled octopus, and roasted chicken thighs.

I'll walk you through making the dim sum favorite of soft fluffy buns filled with sweet Chinese barbecued pork (char siu).

Add this veggie-packed dish to your Lunar New Year menu.

Chewy, flaky, and savory scallion pancakes are one of our very favorite Chinese restaurant treats. This pan-fried bread has a lot in common with Indian parathas and other simple flatbreads, and if you follow a few simple steps, they are easy to make at home. Here are instructions on how to make addictively delicious Chinese scallion pancakes in your home kitchen! I’ve eaten more than my fair share of scallion pancakes over the years, yet somehow I haven’t made them until now.

Persimmon season has mostly waned, but if you thought to dry some of the fruits to keep in your pantry, here’s a most delicious way to use them. You can also use the dried persimmons found at many Asian markets. Sujeonggwa is a Korean punch or tea, made by simmering ginger and cinnamon sticks and then adding sugar and dried persimmons. Although it’s served chilled, the warmth imparted by the ginger and cinnamon make it wholly appropriate for winter days.

Time seems to speed up this time of year as we near the holidays. In preparation, I like to make and freeze a big batch of Asian dumplings like these tofu and kimchi-filled Korean mandu. They’re easy to heat up as a bite to eat between running to events and make a nice appetizer for guests, too.

This might sound shocking, but I have to say it: potstickers might be my favorite food. They are my go-to meal when I’m home alone for dinner and my favorite crowd-pleasing appetizer. I even eat them cold for airplane meals. On top of this, you can fill them with anything under the sun and freeze them for handy weeknight meals. This particular combination of rich shiitake mushrooms, chewy baked tofu, and silky cabbage is like an old and very dear friend, one that I never tire of seeing.

Tong yuan, sweet stuffed rice balls, is a popular dish during holidays such as the Lantern Festival, when round, moon-shaped foods are eaten for auspiciousness, and at weddings and other celebrations. After all, yuanis a homophone for the Chinese word for “reunion,” symbolizing harmony and togetherness. When offered as a last course, these rice balls are frequently served in a sweet, clear soup.

Not to be confused with the Sichuanese dish ma po tofu, ma lan tou is a refreshing and easy-to-compose cold salad that is frequently served as part of a selection of small plates at the start of a Shanghainese feast. Along with crumbled firm tofu, chrysanthemum leaves (known as shungiku leaves in Japanese, or tong ho in Cantonese) are the co-star of the dish. They impart a fragrant and mildly grassy note to this herbaceous salad, and are easily found in Asian groceries.

Although I could eat tahini with a spoon and have a heavy hand with sesame seeds, I’d always dismissed black sesame as a fleeting Instagram-fueled trend. But when I tried the flavor firsthand (in a cookie, no less) I immediately understood the hype — and gained a newfound interest in the black sesame treats that had taken over my feed. Its deep, nutty flavor adds a slight savoriness to baked goods, making these pinwheel cookies suitable for brunch or a mid-morning snack.

Tender braised shiitake mushrooms and velvety sauce over a bed of vibrantly colored baby bok choy.

Chinese barbecue pork, crunchy veggies, and saucy noodles come together in this Chinese stir-fry.

Gin time and tea time are both entrenched British traditions, and the pair makes quite a heady cocktail. The British colonized much of Asia, and in the process, they brought over their traditions, including a proper English tea. This cocktail picks up both citrus and smoky notes from Lapsang Souchong, a black tea that originates from the Chinese province of Fujian and is made of Lapsang leaves that have been smoked over a pinewood fire.

You’ve probably had scallion pancakes before, but what about red bean paste pancakes? That’s right — these soft, sweet pancakes are filled with mashed red (or adzuki) beans! The ingredient list for these pancakes is super short — just flour, water, red bean paste, and oil. Red bean paste is used in many Chinese, Korean, and Japanese desserts.

Chinese marbled tea eggs are almost too pretty to eat. (Almost.) If they didn’t make such a great afternoon snack — with their subtle savory flavor and satisfyingly firm texture — I might be tempted to just admire them from afar. Chinese tea eggs are easy to make and are a fun upgrade to your usual lunchbox hard-boiled eggs. Don’t wait for a special occasion — here’s how to make a batch for yourself tonight.

Red-colored meats are eaten for good luck because red is the color of fire, a symbol of good fortune and joy. “Red cooking” is a Chinese method of stewing or braising with both dark and light soy sauces and caramelized sugar; it imparts a red color to the prepared food. Despite its appearance, dark soy sauce is actually not as salty as the light variety, and it is often the soy sauce of choice for hearty dishes like stews that require added body and color.

More than 8,000 miles separate Sichuan, the province in Southwest China where I was born, and New Orleans, the city where I spent my formative years. And yet the food — and the cultures that shape these cuisines — have remarkable similarities and parallels. Growing up with Sichuan parents in New Orleans has given me a truly singular experience of the two. Food as an event and as a way to show your love for friends and family is intrinsically ingrained in both cultures.

In Chinese homes, dumplings (or jiaozi in Mandarin) are a traditional must-eat food on New Year’s Eve; families wrap them up and eat them as the clock strikes midnight. Dumplings symbolize longevity and wealth; their shape resembles gold shoe-shaped ingots, an early form of Chinese currency. From Polish pierogito to Italian raviolito to pan-fried Japanese gyoza, dumplings are universal comfort food.

If you think frozen pork dumplings from the store are addictive, then just you wait until you try these homemade fellas. They are everything you want in a dumpling: plump and nicely chewy, filled with tender pork, flavored with fresh ginger, green onion, and sesame oil. Bet you can’t eat just one. Whether you’re celebrating the Lunar New Year with friends this week or stocking your freezer for a busy month ahead, these dumplings should definitely be on your list.

Across Asia, dumplings symbolize good luck for the Lunar New Year. In preparation for this year’s celebration, I decided to learn how to make one of my favorite dumpling dishes, the Korean hobakjuk or pumpkin porridge with sweet rice dumplings. If you aren’t familiar with the Asian tradition of sweet soups and porridges, it might help to think of this as a pudding.

Here is what’s awesome about making your own dumplings at home: they will taste better than anything you buy in the store (promise), you will have a freezer full of ready-made meals for the next several weeks (depending on your rate of dumpling consumption), and you will feel like a rock star when you gaze upon your dumpling bounty. Better yet, gather some friends for a dumpling-making fest and divvy up the profits. Everyone is a rock star! Want in on the action? Here’s what to do.

I adore fresh kumquats, but every time I bite into one I brace myself against the mouth-puckering intensity. Candied kumquats, on the other hand, are reliably sweet with an enjoyable nuance of bitter and tart. They’re versatile, too: nibble on them as candies alongside tea, spoon them over desserts or into cocktail glasses, or even serve them with savory meats and salads.

Chinese or Lunar New Year falls on this coming Monday, January 23rd. In honor of this very important holiday, Bee of the beautiful and delicious website Rasa Malaysia brings us a traditional recipe for hot and soothing soup. Welcome, Bee! A traditional Chinese New Year meal is incomplete without dumplings and a dish of nourishing and soothing Chinese soup, hence I’ve combined the best of both worlds into this pork dumpling soup.

Tết, or Lunar New Year, is just around the corner, and for many Vietnamese this means getting together with family, wrapping sticky rice cakes the same way their ancestors have been doing for thousands of years, and telling stories about the ancient King Hùng Vương. Legend has it that when the time came to choose his successor, King Hùng Vương asked each of his 18 sons to prepare a dish worthy of offering to the ancestors.