London's best restaurants to celebrate Chinese New Year in
Already broken your resolutions from January 1? Don’t fret — the Chinese Year of the Dragon roars into life on February 10, promising nobility, honour, luck and success.
Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year, is the biggest public holiday in China, east and south-east Asia. Food and drink play a key part in the festivities, with special new year dishes served that are rich in symbolism.
The “prosperity toss” salad of yusheng is the most famous; “yusheng” means “raw fish” and sounds like the Chinese word for “abundance”. The idea is that the higher the ingredients are tossed into the air with chopsticks, the more luck will rain down over the 12 months ahead.
Dumplings are another traditional dish, as the number of dumplings eaten is said to correspond to one’s wealth for the following year. The Cantonese word for fish — “yu” — sounds similar to the word for “wish”, and is served whole for preference, as the head and tail symbolise good beginnings and endings. Whole chicken, meanwhile, represents rebirth, long strands of “longevity” noodles a long life while meals often finish with nian gao, a sweet glutinous rice cake that symbolises reaching new heights in the year ahead.
Chinatown and the West End are the focus of London’s New Year celebrations, which are the largest outside Asia. via Shaftesbury Avenue, with plenty of food to grab en route. For more eating inspiration, check out our guide to , and .
