Happy new year! Or as they say in China, Gong hey fat choy!
Today is the first day of Chinese New Year and Edwin Wong says "happy new year" in Cantonese while celebrating with lunch at Great Wall. To clarify, we’re not talking about the actual Great Wall, we mean Great Wall Cuisine, a dim sum restaurant in Phoenix.
If you’ve never had dim sum here, just imagine sitting at a big round table, sipping loose leaf tea, while carts are wheeled through the restaurant. Stacked on the carts are small metal pots. What’s inside? Restaurant manager Donald Mui gave us a look under the lids.
"This is Chinese steamed cha siu bao," Mui said. "It’s barbeque pork. And this is har gao, it’s like shrimp dumpling. And this is siu mai. It’s like a pork dumpling. And this is famous chicken feet."
Chicken feet might sound like an exotic menu item, but Mui said they sell a lot of them. At Edwin Wong’s table they’ve got a lot of the usual eats, plus a new year specialty.
"We have those sesame seed balls with a lotus paste inside," he said. "They make it for the special occasion, Chinese New Year. Supposedly there’s good luck for the rest of the year."
It’s the year of the sheep, you can also call it the ram, but definitely not a goat, Wong said. Here’s his prediction for the new year:
"Lamb and sheep, they are very mellow, so this is not a very exciting year," Wong said. "A peaceful year hopefully."
That means this year we can all sit back, relax and enjoy some steamed pork buns.
You can still celebrate the new year at Great Wall Cuisine. This Saturday they’ll have a big new year celebration with line dancing and music and, of course, food starting at noon.
