Essential foods for Chinese New Year's Eve

(chinadaily.com.cn)

[Photo/VCG]

Lion-head meatballs

One of the representative dishes of Huaiyang cuisine, it has a lucky connotation from its name.

[Photo/VCG]

Poon choi

A regular dish in southern China, the magnificent and auspicious poon choi contains up to 20 luxury ingredients served in a big wooden or clay-pot bowl.

[Photo/VCG]

Eight treasure rice cake

The eight treasure rice cake is a quintessential Chinese New Year dessert. Many families across the nation choose to finish their meal with this dessert.

[Photo/VCG]

Hot pot

Those in Southwest China's Sichuan province may choose to have a meal of hot pot for their New Year Eve's dinner. As everyone eats from the same pot, it is also a symbol of reunion.

[Photo/VCG]

Braised pork

During less economically developed times, people often had to wait a full year to enjoy a meat dish. Braised pork, or hongshaorou in Chinese, is part of a mouthwatering memory of New Year's Eve dinner for many Chinese of the older generation.

[Photo/VCG]

Buddha jumping over the wall

This is a soup that is popular in South China. It uses luxury ingredients, such as sea cucumber, abalone, shark fin, dried scallops, ham and more. Its name comes from the tantalizing scent of the soup, enough to lure a Buddha, who is vegetarian, to want to jump over the wall and drink it.

< 1 2