The Chinese New Year
The Chinese calendar predates the international calendar by centuries, which makes Chinese New Year one of the oldest new year celebrations on the planet. This year welcomes 4704, the Year of the Dog, and it’s just around the corner. The festivities, which begin Sunday and last 15 days, are a time to solicit good luck with symbolic food and rituals. There are plenty of places around town ready to usher you into a year of good fortune and happiness with big helpings of traditional morsels, delicious beverages, and lively rituals dished out with a few modern twists.
Unlike the Western take on New Year’s Eve, where champagne is a staple, alcohol isn’t integral to the Chinese New Year. Still, restaurants can’t resist the opportunity to craft new cocktails, and in honor of the Year of the Dog, the chic retro eastern eatery Betty’s Wok & Noodle (250 Huntington Ave., Boston. 617-424-1950) has created the Mota martini ($7), named for the owner’s shih tzu.
It’s a mix of sake and lotus flower fusion, the bud symbolically linked with health and procreation. After its New Year’s launch, it will be offered all dog-year long. Pair that with Betty’s bamboo shoot long noodle kung pao ($14-$17), since noodles symbolize long life.
Maxwell’s 148 (148 East Central St., Natick. 508-907-6262) has also gotten inventive by presenting traditional ingredients in liquid form. They’re offering libations like the Asian pear martini ($10), and the pearl martini with coconut vodka, lime juice, and Thai basil ($10), drinks designed to complement the New Year’s four-course prix fixe menu ($33, drinks not included), which will be offered Jan. 31-Feb. 2.
The Chinese word for fish also sounds like the word for abundance, so families traditionally eat a whole fish as a symbol of prosperity and togetherness. Chinatown’s Peach Farm Restaurant (4 Tyler St., Boston. 617-482-3332) offers a whole cod ($30-$40). Call at least three days ahead. From Jan. 30 to Feb. 3, Blue Ginger (583 Washington St., Wellesley. 781-283-5790) adds to its menu a whole crispy fish ($30) — accompanied by a green, which symbolizes money — as well as fresh-from-scratch Blue Ginger pork pot-stickers ($12), which represent prosperity because they’re shaped like ancient silver and gold ingots.
Heading out with a big group? You should. A critical aspect of Chinese New Year is celebrating with family. If you’re with a crew of revelers and want strict authenticity, Taiwan Café in Chinatown (34 Oxford St., Boston. 617-426-8181) offers banquets of 10 courses for 10 people starting at $25 per person. Make sure to call a few days ahead to make a reservation, because the more expensive menus require exotic seafood ordered from New York.
If you want your Eastern fete topped off with a touch of cheeky kitsch, haul your posse to Peking Tom’s (25 Kingston St., Boston. 617-482-6282), which is featuring a Lucky 8-Choice family-style menu and Year of the Dog cocktails (starting Saturday and running through Feb. 4.) The three-course menu ($20.06 per person) gives you a choice of eight of the restaurant’s dishes for each course — for the Chinese, eight is the luckiest number. The menu launches Saturday with Chinese lion dancers supplying a circus-like spectacle as they ward off evil spirits to drummers’ accompaniment.
In Vietnam, the New Year is celebrated according to the same lunar calendar, so on Jan. 31, the stylishly sassy Pho Republique (1415 Washington St., Boston. 617-262-0005) hosts a six-course dinner ($45) that includes entrées such as crispy spicy orange sirloin and whole bass with two sauces.
