Food mistakes to avoid over Lunar New Year holiday, from eating congee to chopping chicken
The Lunar New Year holiday is a time to eat foods with auspicious meanings, but there are also some that the superstitious should avoid
The Lunar New Year holiday is associated with indulgence. During the festival, dinner tables heave with whole fish, platters of sticky glutinous rice cake, or nin go, and turnip cake, and prosperity boxes overflow with symbolic sweet treats.
Whether it is eating dumplings – thought to resemble gold ingots – for good luck or a multi-course menu whose every dish has an auspicious-sounding name, what you eat and what fortune you attract is believed to be tightly intertwined.
Having a plump whole fish represents abundance in the new year, and ordering a plate of pig’s trotters with lettuce suggests receiving fortune and wealth.
But what about the taboo dishes or culinary faux pas you should be avoiding during the Lunar New Year festival?
We take a look at dishes and practices to avoid in the lead-up to and during this most superstitious of festivals.
