Have you planned for the special food traditionally served during the upcoming Chinese New Year? If not, we have nine recommended delicacies to add to your New Year's menu.

Dumplings

Dumplings are always a popular food in Northern China and often find their way on the table during Spring Festival. Different cooking methods of cooking, such as boiling, frying and steaming can create dumplings with different tastes. Chinese dumplings date back to the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-581).

Spring pancake

It is traditional to eat thin pancakes on the day of the solar term Beginning of Spring. Having a bite of the pancake with fresh vegetables rolled in it means to take in the vigor and energy of spring.

Sweet dumplings

Sweet dumplings are often made of white sugar, rose, sesame, sweetened bean paste, nuts and date paste. Because of their round shape, sweet dumplings are always considered a symbol of a good reunion in Chinese culture

Rice cake

A rice cake is mainly made of sticky rice. In the past, yellow and white rice cakes symbolized gold and silver. Its pronunciation is similar to "live long" in Chinese, which gives "rice cake" another auspicious meaning.

Wonton

The shape of a wonton bears a resemblance to a shoe-shaped gold ingot that Chinese people used in ancient times, so wonton soup is also called ingot soup. The second day of the first lunar month is the time to worship the God of Wealth, and people have wonton soup to wish for wealth in the New Year.

Melon-shaped sweets

Made of millet and malt, melon-shaped sweets are very sticky. They are often stored outside of the house to stay crisp in winter.

Rice and millet

In North China, people often eat rice and millet that are cooked together during Spring Festival. Yellow millet and white rice also symbolize gold and silver, wealth and fortune in life.

Wu Guo soup

Wu Guo soup is one of the traditional Cantonese delicacies for the lunar New Year. It is made of coxi seed, gordon euryale seed, dried longan pulp, lotus seed and red bean.

Tu Su wine

Tu Su wine is a kind of medicinal liquor that ancient Chinese consumed on Chinese New Year's Eve. It contains more than seven kinds of traditional Chinese medicine herbs. Sun Simiao, a celebrated doctor in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), promoted Tu Su wine in China. "Tu Su" means to defend from evil and harm and to stay alive.