'Ultimately, that’s what the kids enjoy the most: dumplings, green onion pancakes, spring rolls, and red envelopes filled with money.”
“Eight is a lucky number in the Chinese culture, especially at the Lunar New Year,” Chou writes in“The Chinese word for eight is a homophone for prosperity, so numbers with consecutive eights in them represent big money.” This vegetarian stir-fry is symbolic, but also flexible. Chou says that you can swap the lily flowers for bamboo shoots, or swap the cabbage for bok choy—it’s theof ingredients that’s important.
For the best results, Chou recommends cutting the vegetables into thin slices that are all roughly the same size and thickness. This allows all of the ingredients to cook evenly and finish at the same time. “If your vegetables are too thick and too chunky, they won’t cook quickly, and they’ll lose some of their texture,” Chou warns. And the layers of texture are the best part of the dish, she says.
Chou points out one truly essential step: scoring the fish’s flesh before cooking. “This helps it steam more quickly, and it also creates openings that you can stuff with the onions and aromatics,” Chou says. “And when you add the sauce, that sauce trickles in too. Scoring simplifies the cooking process and adds more flavor.”
It’s customary, when serving, to point the head toward the most distinguished person at the table. And “when one side of the fish has been picked clean of flesh, do not turn the fish, which symbolizes flipping a boat or ship,” Chou writes in“Simply lift the tail and the carcass will separate itself from the bottom half of the fish.”Chou loves how this dish feels warm and comforting, but also fresh. “The sliced rice cakes have a sticky, chewy texture that’s very soothing,” she says.
There’s symbolism in the rice cakes too: their Mandarin name, nian gao , is a homophone for nian, which means “year”—and gao, which means “tall” or “high.” “When you stick all those years together or pile on the years,” Chou says, “you’re wishing people longevity and lots of good luck.”