Local chefs dish up delicacies to celebrate Lunar New Year

Ramen, Peking duck, dumplings, and more are on the menu in honour of the Year of the Ox

Potluck Hawker Eatery has several special dishes on offer for Lunar New Year, including albacore tuna and Dungeness crab yu sheng.

CELEBRATING LUNAR NEW Year calls for delicious fare. Here are a few dine-in and take-out options that Vancouver chefs are serving up to welcome the Year of the Ox.

Chef Justin Cheung of Potluck Hawker Eatery has announced a sumptuous eight-course Malaysian and Singaporean Lunar New Year dinner. The highlight of the meal, available for take-out from February 11 to 14, is yu sheng, a traditional raw fish salad, also known as a “prosperity toss”. An interactive dish, diners are to throw the salad’s ingredients into the air, symbolizing abundance, joy, and good luck for the year ahead. Other dishes include a whole Hainanese chicken, a whole two-pound chili lobster with E-fu noodles, hot and sour coconut soup of mushrooms with lemongrass, galangal, and lime leaf, and stir-fried jasmine rice with duck confit and Chinese sausage.

Among the celebratory dishes (for dine-in or take-out) at Heritage Asian Eatery’s West Broadway location are Mandarin salted egg yolk buns, longevity noodles with shiitake and winter chanterelle mushrooms, and golden garlic and black bean–steamed BC Fanny Bay oysters. The restaurant is also taking part in Dining for the Feast of Fortune charity dinner, one of one of eight Vancouver-area restaurants partnering with the Chinese Restaurant Awards to raise funds for the new St. Paul’s at the Jim Pattison Medical Centre. Available for dine-in from February 8 to 21, the nine-course menu includes two courses of Heritage’s popular Peking Duck, a Double Happiness dim sum-inspired dish of abalone siu mai, BC Dungeness crab-and-chive prawn dumplings, and more.

Minami executive chef Alan Ferrer and his team have announced a Kaede Bento for two, available exclusively for take-out over the February 12 to 14 weekend. It features a sushi course, appetizer duo, main course (aburi butler steak and chicken ballotine), and dessert selection. For those looking to dine-in, à la carte specials are on offer, such as the Kaisen platter for two with a breadth of seasonal and fresh seafood (including sashimi, uni spoon of Northern Divine caviar, chilled crab claw with ume cocktail sauce; hotate ceviche with yuzu vinaigrette, squid ink tapioca cracker, and poke with umami soy vinaigrette), while pastry chef Nikki Tam is cooking up caramel choux à la crème, green tea opera cake, and more.

Fresh Ideas Start Here (FISH) specializes in fresh, sustainable seafood.

If a seafood feast sounds like the perfect Lunar New Year celebration, Fresh Ideas Start Here (FISH) has a few options to enjoy at home from February 12 to 15. The Caviar Kit, serving two to four people, includes one tin of Ocean Wise Acadian Sturgeon caviar along with all the accoutrements: crackers, diced egg yolk, diced egg white, chive crème fraîche, and fresh dill. The FISH Bouillabaisse Kit is chock-full of fresh and sustainable seafood for a West Coast take on the classic French dish, including wild BC salmon and halibut, red shrimp, clams, and mussels.

Kinton Ramen will be welcoming the Year of the Ox with its Longevity ramen, available for dine-in and take-out throughout February. The comforting creation has thick noodles in a spicy miso-chicken broth with seasoned ground pork, deep-fried tofu, cilantro, radish, bamboo shoots, wood ear mushrooms, and seasoned egg, finished with aromatic onion-ginger oil.

Beaucoup Bakery’s brother-sister team of Betty and Jackie Hung are releasing their limited edition Lucky 88 Collection, the baked goods inspired by nostalgic Lunar New Year flavours. An 18-piece cookie tin comprises brown-butter walnut cookies, sesame toffee cookies, and genmaicha almond butter cookies made with Paragon Tea Room’s tea powder. Two inventive types of filled croissants are also on the menu: a Peking duck croissant made in collaboration with Chinatown BBQ; and a pandan mochi pistachio croissant.

Buttermere Patisserie’s elegant Year of the Ox cake incorporates a chestnut panna cotta with assam tea mousse, while its six-piece mini dessert set features playful pastries and macarons in white-citrus, black-sesame and red-guava flavours. (They can be pre-ordered for pick-up between February 10 and 16).

Chocolatier and pâtissier Steven Hodge of Temper Chocolate and Pastry, meanwhile, has created a limited-edition OX Chocolate Showpiece, made of dark and white chocolate complete with lucky gold coins at the base.