Dumplings, noodles bring good fortune during Lunar New Year: Andrew Coppolino

This Sunday more than a billion people worldwide will celebrate with family gatherings, red-wrapped gifts and red envelopes, fireworks and tables full of food. 

January 22 marks the beginning of Chinese Lunar New Year and festivities celebrating the year of the rabbit will continue for the next two weeks.

The rabbit is one of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac, the fourth in the 12-year cycle, and it is said to bring peace, diplomacy and good luck.

Jessica Wu of Gol's Lanzhou Noodles in Waterloo is hopeful for a good year of the rabbit after the harsh years of the pandemic.

"After the past three years, the year of the rabbit represents good fortune," she says. "The rabbit is a good animal in Chinese culture, so this year will bring good fortune to people."

A moveable feast, Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, usually falls on the new moon between January 20 and February 21.

According to Wu, among dishes to celebrate the rabbit – and nudge along its offering of good fortune – are a couple of favourites eaten at any time of the year, rabbit or otherwise: dumplings for wealth and prosperity, and long noodles for longevity.  

Imagined to represent gold ingots at the new year, the range of dumplings you can find at area restaurants is considerable, and versions and varieties can also be found in many of the world's cuisine.

Dumpling fillings can include pork/kimchi, chicken/vegetable or just vegetables like those at Mei's Dumplings in downtown Guelph. You can also find dumplings at the Vietnamese Ben Thanh restaurants in Kitchener, Guelph and Waterloo.

You can also enjoy Nepalese momos (dumplings) like those featured at Momo House in Preston, Cambridge, and Indo-Chinese pot-stickers like butter masala chicken or chili garlic chicken fried momos at Hem's Hakka Restaurant in Kitchener.

Alternatively, there are a wide range of dumplings and pot-stickers you can buy and cook yourself at national chain grocery stores and specialty stores such as T&T Supermarket in Waterloo and New City Supermarket in downtown Kitchener.

Families traditionally select warm dishes and those which can be shared, says Wu. All the dishes are placed on the table at once, and everyone digs in.

That includes digging into delicious and symbolic noodles too.

"Noodles represent the longevity of life and that is a typical dish we eat for Lunar New Year," says Wu. "They stand for something good."

There are dozens of kinds noodles to choose from, but Wu says the cool of winter often demands them served in a steaming broth.

"Typically, we like soup-based noodles for Lunar New Year, something warm and hearty. It's still wintry, and in provinces in China people like something warm."

Gol's noodles, originating from Lanzhou in northwest China, according to owner Chris Gao, are lamian noodles.

Made when you order, it's a noodle that, rather than being extruded, is hand-stretched, folded, spun and whacked on the prep table – all to give you a long life.

Starting as a single tubular cut of dough roughly the shape of a submarine sandwich, the noodle master stretches the dough, as if by magic, into dozens of thin strands of noodles nearly two metres long. The number of noodles depends on the number of folds.

You can also get similar noodles at Song's Lamian Noodles on Lester Street in Waterloo.

Really, though, it doesn't matter where you are from: everyone marks momentous events and celebrates important passages of time, like a new year, with food, family and friends. But who could argue that long noodles symbolizing a long life aren't particularly welcome?

As for that colour red that is prevalent and featured brightly at Lunar New Year, Wu says it's as auspicious as the rabbit.

"It stands for good fortune, good luck and happiness."