Ever wondered how Lunar New Year is celebrated in Hong Kong? Many Asian cultures celebrate the special 15-day festival, but in Hong Kong the Lunar New Year is the biggest annual celebration. The city transforms into a hive of festivities, with days packed with lively parades, colourful fireworks, horse racing and traditional dragon dances.
The Year of the Ox is soon upon us, and to celebrate many Australian Hongkongers will mark the special period by serving and eating an abundance of traditional culinary delights. Fion, the owner of Sunnybank’s Hong Kong eatery Zen Corner said most families will come together on Lunar New Year’s Eve for a reunion dinner that takes the form of a big feast to commemorate the past year.
“Like Christmas, in Hong Kong the Lunar New Year is a special celebration where we eat different festive food with our family,” Fion said. “We have a big feast where we unite with our family and we make food that is traditionally eaten during this time.”
The arrival of the Lunar New Year is packed with traditions and superstitions, and this also includes the food. There are several dishes that Hongkongers like to eat during the festive time, and many are believed to bring good luck and prosperity for the year ahead.
So if you want to celebrate Lunar New Year in an authentic Hong Kong-style and bring yourself some good luck for 2023, then make sure you delve into these traditional new year dishes.
A centrepiece of the Lunar New Year menu in Hong Kong is the Big Bowl Feast (Poon Choi), which is traditionally shared with the whole family. The dish is usually served in a large bowl and is created using layers of different ingredients. Common ingredients include pork, chicken, duck, prawn, crab, dried mushrooms, bean curd, radish and Chinese cabbage. Symbolising good fortune, health and wealth, the dish is traditionally eaten at special events, like Lunar New Year, as it takes multiple hours to create each individual ingredient for the bowl.
“When I smell the aromas of this dish, it brings back many memories of the Lunar New Year,” Fion said. “It’s a comforting, homely smell that reminds me of celebrating with my family.”
Sunnybank’s Zen Corner has released an exclusive Big Bowl Feast to mark the arrival of the Lunar New Year. Order the restaurant’s special Poon Choi, which has a bottom layer lined with shredded Chinese cabbage, the second is topped with bean curd and Chinese mushroom, while the top layer is filled with pig trotters, fresh prawns, chicken and pieces of BBQ pork. Chefs will steam the bowl for hours, which will create sauce from the top layers to flow down to the bottom, and allows the flavours of each different ingredient to mingle with each other.
Zen Corner, Shop 32C Sunnybank Plaza
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Many Lunar New Year banquet menus in Hong Kong serve shark fin soup, but as the popular delicacy is not environmentally-friendly, many restaurants now serve an imitation soup. As the fin itself is tasteless, has no nutritional value and is used purely for texture, it is now replaced with vermicelli noodles. The soup is typically made using a chicken broth, flavoured with chinese mushrooms and filled with rice noodles with the shark fin texture and shape. Chefs at Zen Corner will be preparing the imitation shark fin soup at their restaurant to celebrate the Lunar New Year. If you’ve ever wanted to try this intriguing dish make sure you visit during the new year celebrations.
Zen Corner, Shop 32C Sunnybank Plaza
View RestaurantYou’ll find a range of activities and entertainment on offer throughout Sunnybank Plaza & Sunny Park, to herald in the Year of the Rabbit!
