By Erica Wong and Penny Mercier

Earlier tonight, the five members of the Huang family feasted on a variety of traditional foods in order to welcome the gods of wealth and the kitchen. This practice requires three tables of food. the first containing sugarcane and a variety of fruits, including kumquats, oranges, mandarins and tangerines which represent happiness and abundance. The… Read more

Unlike the third day of the Lunar New Year, day four is considered to be auspicious, with several popular gods including the Kitchen God and The God of Fortune believed to return to the Earth from Heaven. There will also be a large amount of food prepared today to be consumed for the evening meal,… Read more

Today is considered to be the Birthday of the Pig. It is an ominous day in the Chinese New Year calendar, so the only outing planned by the Huang family is to go grave visiting, where they will remember their child’s maternal grandfather, who passed away late last year. Traditionally, families who in the past… Read more

Welcome back to A Foodie’s Chinese New Year Experience. This is currently my fourth post since the beginning of the blog and today is the second day of the lunar calendar, otherwise known as the Birthday of the Dog. Due to the second day of Chinese new year being considered as the Birthday of the… Read more

While I was out exploring the city, earlier this afternoon, I encountered several highly intriguing traditional Chinese dishes, two of which I elected to share on this blog. “Luóhàn quánzhāi” (Buddha’s Delight) A traditional Buddhist vegetarian dish called “Luóhàn quánzhāi” or Buddha’s Delight, is consumed on the first day of Chinese New Year using eighteen… Read more

Welcome back to A Foodie’s Chinese New Year Experience blog. Today is the first day in the Lunar Calendar and is also called the Birthday of the Chicken. According to legend, the goddess Nüwa created the world. She created certain animals on different days, hence each day is considered the birthday of the corresponding animal. As… Read more

This is the first post of my new blog about my visit to Shanghai to experience a traditional Chinese New Year. Over the course of the month, I aim to post once or twice a day over the course of the festival. Today is the eve of the beginning of the celebrations, and each of… Read more