{"id":17606,"date":"2015-02-19T16:42:05","date_gmt":"2015-02-20T00:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shescookin.com\/?p=17606"},"modified":"2022-08-16T13:43:20","modified_gmt":"2022-08-16T20:43:20","slug":"tea-eggs-for-chinese-new-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shescookin.com\/tea-eggs-for-chinese-new-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Tea Eggs for Chinese New Year"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It’s Chinese New Year, but is it the Year of the Goat, Sheep, or Ram? In Vietnam, where the celebration is called Tet Festival, it’s definitely the Year of the Goat. Japanese followers of the lunar zodiac have been busy sending postcards heralding the Year of the Sheep. In Hong Kong I saw mostly cute, fluffy sheep, although retailers’ store windows include cheeky goats and curly-horned rams as well, inviting passersby in to capture their share of the marketing bonanza that is the equivalent of \u00a0Christmas in the West. One reason for the confusing trio of animal references could be because “The Chinese character yang<\/em>\u00a0can be translated as all of these animals — even the gazelle is called\u00a0yang<\/em>\u00a0in Chinese,” says\u00a0Isaac Yue, who teaches Chinese mythology at the University of Hong Kong, in a recent CNN article<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The two-week celebration begins today and the animal confusion is not affecting the annual mass migration to family hometowns or vacation for the Spring Festival – an estimated 2.8 billion trips will be made in China. \u00a0Celebrations revolve around food and certain dishes are eaten during the Chinese New Year for their symbolic meaning. Lucky food is served during the 16-day festival season, especially New Year\u2019s Eve, which is believed to bring good luck for the coming year. The auspicious symbolism of these foods is based on their pronunciations or appearance.\u00a0Not only do the dishes themselves matter, but also the preparation, and ways of serving and eating hold meaning as well.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The most common Chinese New Year foods include dumplings, fish, spring rolls, and niangao (glutinous rice cake). My friend Victoria, who’s not Chinese but is obsessed with Chinese food, posted a glorious array of Chinese dishes – everything from pork and cabbage dumplings to scallion pancakes – on her website Mission Food.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n My Baked Salmon Egg Roll<\/a>s will bring you good luck and good health, PLUS, \u00a0I’m happy to share the method for making beautifully marbled Tea Eggs with you. Not so much a recipe as a How To, Anita aka Mad Hungry Woman<\/a>, who is Chinese from Hong Kong, tells us how she made her tea eggs this year.<\/p>\nHow to Make Tea Eggs for Chinese New Year<\/h2>\n