38 Lunar New Year Foods
At the beginning of each lunar calendar, the new year is celebrated by East and Southeast Asian communities worldwide. In China, Korea, Vietnam, and many more enclaves across the globe, the holiday is a time for togetherness, when family and friends gather to feast and exchange well wishes for the coming year. Traditional Lunar New Year foods include longevity noodles, a whole steamed fish for abundance, sticky rice balls for togetherness, and more. Below you’ll find some of those lucky foods, along with other traditional dishes like dumplings and rice cakes. Whether you’re gathering with family this year or just celebrating on your own, these recipes are sure to bring you luck and prosperity for the coming year.
Photo by Jenny Huang, Food Styling by Tyna Hoang and Imogen Kwok1/38Longevity Noodles
You might be tempted to cut these extra-long noodles, but the length of these noodles symbolizes a long life, and it's important that they're one long, singular strand. These noodles are a staple Lunar New Year food—serve them with Concubine's Chicken or a simple sauce of black vinegar and soy sauce.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Lillian Chou2/38Rice Cake With Mixed Vegetables
The Mandarin name for these delightfully chewy rice cakes, nian gao, is a homophone for a tall year—in other words, serving them during new year celebrations is meant to signify a long life ahead. To make this traditional dish, soak the rice cakes in water for a few minutes, then sauté greens, shiitake mushrooms, sliced carrots, and bean sprouts. Add the rice cakes and cook until softened, then finish with a touch of soy sauce and black bean sauce.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Lillian Chou3/38Pork and Chive Dumplings
Chef and cookbook author Sohui Kim calls these dumplings a hybrid of Japanese gyoza, Korean mandoo, and Chinese jiaozi. Use thin wrappers to contain a juicy filling of pork, chives, and tofu, then crimp the sides until they're properly sealed. Pan-fry until crisp, then serve with a dipping sauce of soy sauce and rice wine vinegar.
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Simon Andrews, Prop Styling by Beatrice Chastka4/38Whole Black Bass with Ginger and Scallions
A whole steamed fish symbolizes abundance, and is a staple at Chinese new year celebrations. For an easy version that frees up stovetop space, steam your whole fish with ginger and scallions in the oven. Pour a simple sauce of soy sauce, sugar, and water over the bass, then bake until just cooked through.
Photo & Food Styling by Betty Liu5/38Sticky Rice Balls
Sticky rice balls—or tang yuan—are a traditional Chinese new year food that can be made savory or sweet. Go the savory route with ground pork or Chinese greens, or make sweet rice balls by filling them with a nutty paste made from both black and white sesame seeds. Tang yuan is a homophone and symbol of unity and family togetherness, and are also served during the Lantern Festival.
Photo by Ed Anderson9/38Lamb and Green Squash Dumplings
Lamb is a popular and traditional dumpling filling in Northern and Western China. Here, the dumplings get a burst of freshness from zucchini and a kick from Sichuan peppercorns. Purchase thin wrappers from the store, or make your own.
11/38Spinach and Egg Dumplings
There's a reason most dumplings are made with meat: It has heft, a little fat, and protein—everything you need to bind a proper filling. For a meatless dumpling with plenty of flavor and texture, chef and cookbook author Helen You fills her dumplings with lightly scrambled eggs and blanched spinach seasoned with sesame oil and oyster sauce.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Lillian Chou12/38Concubine's Chicken 贵妃鸡
This chicken is named for Yang Guifei, a Tang Dynasty consort who loved to eat. This dish of juicy dark-meat chicken is sweet, sour, and just a little spicy—and best served with some longevity noodles, or chang shou mian.
14/38Lucky 8 Stir-Fry
This dish takes its inspiration from Buddhist vegetarian cooking and can include any combination of ingredients that represent good luck, prosperity, happiness, family wholeness, and longevity. Feel free to swap out ingredients here based on what's in your fridge, but make sure you have eight vegetables in all. “The Chinese word for eight is a homophone for prosperity," says cookbook author Hsiao-Ching Chou.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Lillian Chou16/38Shrimp Cheung Fun (Rice Rolls)
These delicate rice rolls are a staple at Cantonese dim sum. In southern China, they are often filled with shrimp, Chinese barbecued pork, or mushrooms.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Micah Marie Morton18/38Easy Homemade Noodles
For noodles that are perfectly chewy, follow Epi contributor Hetty McKinnon's guide to making these easy handmade noodles. In Chinese culture, it's good luck to keep the noodles long. Turn your noodles into chang shou mian, or longevity noodles, by keeping them as long as possible.
Photo by Louise Hagger19/38Lumpia Ayam Sayur (Chicken and Garlic Spring Rolls)
These lumpia are a Lunar New Year essential for chef Lara Lee—and they can be prepped and stashed in the freezer for last-minute frying. Instead of beaten egg, Lee cuts a short length of banana, still in the peel, and uses it “like a glue stick” to seal the edge of each wrapper.
Photo by Frankie Gaw21/38Lion’s Head Big Macs
This mashup from Frankie Gaw’s book, First Generation, bridges fast food nostalgia with the flavors and textures of a classic lion’s head meatball.
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Judy Mancini22/38White-Cut Chicken
It's traditional to serve a whole chicken, including the head and feet, for the Lunar New Year. The white meat symbolizes purity, and serving the entire bird represents unity. Plunging the chicken into ice water after poaching ensures that the meat is perfectly juicy and tender. A very simple but flavorful dipping sauce tops it off.
Photo by Alex Lau, Prop Styling by Beatrice Chastka, Food Styling by Lillian Chou24/38Pork Wontons With Sesame Sauce
Photo by Frankie Gaw27/38Chicken, Fennel, and Apple Guo-Tie
“When I think of Lunar New Year, I think of a kitchen island filled with generations of women folding dumplings together while speaking Mandarin,” writes Frankie Gaw in his Lunar New Year menu. These dumplings from the menu are filled with a harmonious seasonal mix of apple, chicken, and pickled fennel.
Photo by Alex Lau, Prop Styling by Beatrice Chastka, Food Styling by Lillian Chou29/38Scallion-Oil Noodles
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Prop Styling by Anne Eastman, Food Styling by John Bjostad, Lillian Chou30/38Turnip Cake (Lo Bock Go)
This is savory cake is served in dim sum houses throughout the year, and, most auspiciously, during the spring festival when people serve it for good fortune for the new year. A few slices of this New Year's cake, along with nian gao, are fried each morning for breakfast, or when friends and family stop by to offer good wishes.
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Simon Andrews, Prop Styling by Beatrice Chastka31/38Shrimp and Pork Pot Stickers
32/38Sesame Balls
These crispy, chewy sesame balls made with glutinous rice flour and filled with red bean paste are a staple of dim sum restaurants year-round. During the Lunar New Year, however, they're eaten because of their symbolic meaning. Their round shape—along with the way the balls expand when frying—are meant to represent an expanding fortune.
Photo by Peden + Munk34/38Tteokguk (Good Luck Korean Rice Cake Soup)
Tteokguk is traditionally eaten on New Year's Day in Korea. It's traditionally made with brisket that's simmered until tender, along with scallions and ginger. But if you don’t eat beef, chef Sohui Kim says you can substitute a savory anchovy broth: “Koreans often use a sort of master anchovy stock made using dried anchovies, dried mushrooms, and a little bit of kombu.” Add chewy, glutinous rice cakes five minutes before you're ready to eat.
Photo by Diana Kuan35/38Stir-Fried Sesame Baby Bok Choy
Baby bok choy's tender texture makes it ideal for steaming, boiling, or stir-frying. Here, the finished dish has a nice nutty aroma from the sesame oil drizzled on at the end. Any number of stir-fries, including Kung Pao Chicken and Sweet and Sour Pork, would benefit from having this simple vegetable dish on the side.
Photo by Diana Kuan36/38Roast Pork Lo Mein
Lo mein is a noodle dish that often is confused with chow mein, and many Chinese restaurants further the confusion by using the two names interchangeably. Whereas chow mein refers to parboiled and stir-fried noodles, lo mein refers to noodles that are fully cooked separately and quickly tossed with sauce in the wok. Here, the noodles are mixed with sweet and savory Chinese barbecued pork.
Photo by Diana Kuan37/38Chinese Butter Cookies
Around Chinese New Year, bakeries and grocery stores in Chinatown fill up with tins of butter cookies and other Lunar New Year foods, waiting to be given as gifts to relatives. Of course, they're still sold and eaten year-round, and once you have just one of these bite-size cookies, you'll likely find yourself eating another.
Photo by Frankie Gaw38/38Grandma’s Pearl Meatballs
These meatballs are one of the first recipes that author and blogger Frankie Gaw learned from his grandmother, and they've been a staple on Gaw’s Lunar New Year menu ever since. They’re made from a mixture of pork, Napa cabbage, ginger, and scallions, rolled in grains of glutinous rice.
