Filipino News 167

10 ISSUE 167 CULTURAL FOODS | www.filipinonews.nz | email: filipinonews@xtra.co.nz | www.trabaho.nz | Facebook: Filipino Migrant News
MIGRANT NEWS - www.migrantnews.nz : New Zealand’s first Migrant community newspaper. Published since 1991. Print. Online. Social Media.
Feasting is an integral
part of the Chinese New
Year festivities that go on
for two weeks every year.
And this is especially
important on New Year’s
Eve at the Grand Reunion
Dinner, when it is customary
for families to gather
to indulge in sumptuous
celebratory dishes. This is
a cherished tradition that
helps to keep the generations
bonded.
So, what features on the
menu for this special occasion,
you may ask.
Actually, it is a cornucopia
of dishes that have auspicious
meanings behind the
ingredients as well as fruits
and vegetables that they
believe will bring good
luck, fortune and happiness
to all concerned.
Today we can see that
these traditions are still
widely intact, with the
addition of larger and larger
banquets.
But what happens when
you celebrate Chinese New
Year outside of Asia? In a
country like New Zealand,
where tastebuds are accustomed
to fish and chips,
crayfish and pavlova. A
country where youth like
to tinker with traditions
and innovate.
To help us dive deeper
into this topic Migrant
News spoke with Sam Low
– MasterChef NZ winner
2022 and presenter of the
new TVNZ food show ‘Sik
Fan Lah!’ (meaning ‘Come
and Eat’ in Cantonese).
“Depending on who I
spend New Year’s with, the
food always changes,”
shared Sam. “I think that’s
one thing I push for and
it’s kind of the evolution of
cultures, adapting into
New Zealand.
“The food I eat with my
family is very traditional.
They would have Yi Mein -
the long-life noodles with
shrimp, whole steamed
fish, Fat Choy (a type of
moss that represents prosperity)
and chicken with
the feet and head still
attached. Really traditional
Chinese dishes.
“There are round fruits
as well. Round represents
entirety and wholeness. It
represents a whole New
Year that you will go
through from start to finish.
The colour orange is
similar to gold, so having
mandarins represents
wealth.
“There are a lot of fruits
and vegetables eaten in the
meals that represent a lot
Good Luck Foods
Served Up During
Chinese New Year
By Ricky Matthew
of things, whether it be in
the name or the appearance.
For example, wontons
represent gold
nuggets because of their
shape.
“A lot of new stories
were created because there
were not a lot of (food)
options back in the day.
They would pick common
foods on the table and put
value on them so we would
see them in a very different
context.
“However, what I have
with friends is adapted to
what they want as well.
Having Singaporean and
Malaysian friends, ‘Yee
Sang’ (a prosperity tossed
salad) has become part of
the rituals now as well. It is
3500 years ago in the Shang Dynasty,
Chinese New Year was born. The celebrations
originally included sacrificial
ceremonies to worship the gods and
ancestors. 1000 years later in the Wei,
Jin and Han dynasties, families began
having a dinner, giving children red
envelopes to scare away the demon ‘Sui’
and staying up late to celebrate.
Tracing the evolution of - and
unlocking the meaning behind -
celebratory food.
a mix of traditions but,
also a mix of modern and
traditional.”
A food writer, William
Chen, had this to say about
‘Yee Sang’ on his Facebook
page - ‘Yee Sang’ translates
as ‘raw fish salad'. He
added that it is “considered
a symbol of abundance,
prosperity and
vigour.
“The raw fish is usually
salmon, complemented by
finely julienned vegetables
of different colours – a carrot,
a purple vegetable,
radish, wakame and crispy
taro. The dressing is a
B A C K S T O R Y :
plum sauce with roasted
sesame seeds, crushed
peanuts, crispy chips and a
5-spice sprinkle.”
Sam Low spoke further
about the evolution of
Chinese New Year food
over time. He said that
“there are two things -
fusion and assimilation.
“Fusion is bringing
another cuisine or technique
into something existing
and fusing them
together. Usually, fusion
means mixing with something
European.
“If I had chosen Chinese
food, with Chinese dishes
Fast forward to today and we can see
that those traditions are still widely
intact, with the addition of larger and
larger banquets.
Chinese New Year foods with symbolic/auspicious
meanings include:
dumplings, fish, spring rolls, rice cakes,
sticky rice balls, noodles, tangerines and
oranges.
and Chinese ingredients,
but said that I
wanted a protein puree
and a carb on every
plate, to me that is no
longer Chinese. That
becomes something
completely different,
because the eating
experience is only half
of it. To me, it is not
how I would cook or eat
it.
“This is a blurred
line, but I think that
there is a place for fusion.
It allows exploration and
evolution into things that
we have never seen before.
“On the other hand,
there’s assimilation.
Assimilation is so important.
It’s how we adapt and
evolve cultures to survive
in a new environment. If
you look at Chinese food
that left China, the first to
do that was the American
Chinese food. That food is
an adaptation from the
first people that left China
from the Cantonese region.
“The food has evolved
and changed so much.
American Chinese food is
so different to what you
would get in Cantonese
Chinese food. That is
because they were adapting
to
w h a t
they had
around
them.
“With
the evolution
of
what younger generations
are doing when celebrating
Chinese New Year, it’s
totally doing the same
thing. For me, I just prefer
chicken on the table. It’s
accessible; it’s cheap. I
think it’s delicious, but you
can make it around the
‘YEE SANG’ - PROSPERITY TOSSED SALAD
“... what I have with friends is adapted to what
they want as well. Having Singaporean and
Malaysian friends, ‘Yee Sang’ (a prosperity tossed
salad) has become part of the rituals now as well.
It is a mix of traditions but, also a mix of modern
and traditional.” - Sam Low
story of wholeness, having
the head and feet. This is
paying homage to where
the traditions came from,
so I think that you are still
honouring it while adapting
it to a more sustainable
and affordable way. That’s
my philosophy moving forward
now too.
“I want to keep traditions
up, but there are a lot
of ingredients that I do not
have access to. I am very
fortunate that in Auckland
there are some amazing
grocers where I can get
some amazing ingredients.
But for a lot of Chinese
diasporas, they do not have
access to a lot of this. So, it
is important that they have
options with those
recipes.”
‘Sik Fan Lah’ - an Instaworthy
culinary road trip
across Aotearoa - is
streaming at TVNZ+.