Cocktails
Toast Lunar New Year with These Celebratory Sips
Updated on November 21, 2024
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For Lunar New Year 2024, set your table with an appetizing menu of caramelized salmon with sauteed baby bok choy, lemongrass and soy beef, chicken dumplings and a smoky vegetable chow mein. Top it all off with a celebratory glass to bring out your meals’ sweet and salty flavors. Here’s to a Happy Lunar New Year!
ON THE MENU: Neua Naam Tok
A savoury beef or pork dish is an ideal pairing with a glass of 2017 Beringer Knights Valley Cabernet Sauvignon . Grown in Napa, this full-bodied wine showcases flavors of blackberry, black cherry, currants and raspberries, ending with an oak and spicy finish. It’s well-rounded and holds up to BBQ meat dishes, ribs or poultry.
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Photographer: Food photographer: Austin Bush
Source: Recipe excerpted from Pok Pok by Andy Ricker (2013 Ten Speed Press).
ON THE MENU: Smoky Stir-Fried Vegetable Chow Mein
No celebration is complete without a tasty noodle dish and Chow Mein is an Asian staple. The trick here is to cook everything separately, then combine it all at the end with the sauce for an even distribution. If you want to add any protein, like chicken, beef, shrimp or pork, make more sauce (sesame oil, soy, hoisin, chili bean, chili oil) to use as a marinade and cook these before the vegetables. When done, remove from the wok or skillet and then add them in to the final fry. A bold wine like a 2019 Mission Hill Family Estate Quatrain delivers flavors of blueberry followed by white pepper and cinnamon bark that holds its own against the smoky vegetables.
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Photographer: Food Photographer: Maya Visnyei, July 2019
Source: Recipe: Eshun Mott
ON THE MENU: Chinese Chicken Dumplings
With the ability to offer a wide variety of fillings — from chicken to shrimp to mushrooms or chives — dumplings are always a crowd-pleaser. Whether you buy them frozen or make them from scratch, it’s best to have a few options, along with a selection of favorite dipping sauces like soy, chili garlic or plum. Honor these delicious small bites with a bold and intense wine like Penfolds 2019 Cabernet Shiraz Bin 389 where the fruit flavors of wild berries are balanced by a coffee and chocolate finish.
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Photographer: Food Photographer: Maya Visnyei, April 2020
ON THE MENU : Orange Granita
Oranges, mandarin, clementines, kumquats — these citrus fruits are popular during Chinese New Year for multiple reasons: they represent health, good fortune and prosperity, and their color resembles gold or money. It’s only fitting to end a multi-course meal with a light and refreshing Orange Granita (it can also feed a crowd!). Pair it with The Dalmore Aged 18 Whisky , an exceptional single malt with a unique, rich toffee finish.
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Photographer: Food Photographer: istockphoto.com/Ben Phillips
Source: Recipe excerpt from Bob Blumer’s The Surreal Gourmet: Real Food for Pretend Chefs (1992 Chronicle Books).