Chinese New Year Dining and Treats
What better way to ring in a new lunar year (and shrug off those January detox blues) than with a festive feast? Gather your family and friends and celebrate the Year of the Horse Chinese-style—with lots and lots of food.
Dinner and a View
If you’re after food with a panoramic view for the huge fireworks display, make a reservation at Hotel Icon’s oh-so-swanky Above & Beyond. From Jan 23-Feb 7, the restaurant is serving special CNY treats such as turnip pudding, or braised oyster with “fat choy” black moss. Above & Beyond is also offering an eight-course set dinner with a glass of Moët & Chandon Grand Vintage 2004 Champagne, for $1,488 per person.
28/F, Hotel Icon, 17 Science Museum Rd., Tsim Sha Tsui East, 3400-1318.
Harbour Restaurant at the Harborview Hotel is hosting two meals: a Chinese New Year dinner buffet from Jan 30 to Feb 3, and a fireworks display dinner on Feb 1. There will be everything from tender and tangy braised pig’s knuckles, to grilled snow crab legs. Prices range from $318-$468.
Harbour Restaurant, 4 Harbour Rd., Wan Chai, 2802 4284.
Banquet Time
From Jan 3-Feb 6, two-starred T’ang Court at the Langham is breaking in the Year of the Horse with some New Year specialties, including turnip rings stuffed with conpoy, double-boiled dried oysters, and pig’s tongue and sea moss soup. Find yourself in need of something a little lighter? Try T’ang Court’s innovative CNY dim sum, such as their crispy-fried oyster and shrimp rolls, or the golden-fried bean curd frites with mixed nuts and mayonnaise.
The Langham Hotel, 8 Peking Rd., Tsim Sha Tsui, 2132 7898.
From Jan 31-Feb 9, dine like an Emperor at the SkyCity Marriott’s Man Ho Chinese Restaurant as this CNY they’re whipping up a feast. In addition to some extra festive bites on their standard menu, such as their deep-fried mashed lotus seed puffs, they have also created two five-course set lunch/dinner menus, for $388 or $488 per person with dishes including roasted suckling pig with goose liver.
SkyCity Marriott, 1 Sky City Rd. East, Chek Lap Kok, Lantau, 3969-1888, www.skycitymarriott.com.
Celebrate the Year of the Horse from now to Mar 31 at the InterContinental Grand Stanford’s Hoi King Keen. It’s dishing up three prosperous and promising set menus, priced at $9,200, $11,800 and $15,080 for 12 people. Each set includes classic New Year’s delights such as suckling pig and stir-fried glutinous rice with preserved meats.
InterContinental Grand Stanford Hong Kong, 70 Mody Rd., Tsim Sha Tsui East, 2731 2883.
Hello, Pudding
Get your Chinese pudding fix from the Holiday Inn Golden Mile’s Loong Yuen Cantonese Restaurant. Specialties include a bird’s nest new year cake ($138) and a New Year’s coconut pudding ($128).
Holiday Inn Golden Mile Hong Kong, 50 Nathan Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui, 2315-1006.
Yee Tung Heen at the Excelsior has four homemade puddings on offer: a traditional coconut-scented pudding ($188), the equally classic turnip cake with preserved meat and conpoy ($188), a low-sugar osmanthus-flavored pudding ($188), and an all-organic turnip pudding with diced red cherry shrimp ($288). Not enough of a gift? Dress it up with an XO sauce gift set for $308—and order before Jan 19 for an early bird discount.
The Excelsior, 281 Gloucester Rd., Causeway Bay, 2837-6947.
Tasty Treats
Get a taste for traditional New Year’s delicacies. By Elizabeth Chu
New Year Pudding (neen gou)
This chewy, sweet cake is a popular treat: it’s a lucky food as it implies “nin nin gou” —prosperity year on year. It’s easy to make at home, and best eaten pan-fried so that it’s crispy on the outside and sticky inside.
Crystallized lotus seeds (tong lin zi)
This sweet and crunchy snack is a must in every family’s candy tray during CNY. Families pay each other visits during Chinese New Year and the host presents a red tray of sweets representing happiness in the new year, but lotus seeds have an additional meaning: many offspring.
Tong yuen
