W ith the Lunar New Year fast approaching, the prospect of the traditional family dinner to see in the Year of the Tiger is beginning to weigh on the minds of many. This elaborate meal once would have had mothers and grandmothers working for days on the multi-course banquet with its complement of traditional auspicious dishes and fancy preparations. These days, few in the country’s cities have the time or the facilities to create these exotic feasts themselves, and the catering industry has stepped in with a slew of options to meet every budget.
The choices can be bewildering, with prices ranging from a couple of thousand to tens of thousand of NT dollars for a set menu. For those with an eye for convenience and price, pre-made frozen banquets from one of the convenience store chains such as 7-Eleven or Family Mart may be the way to go; while for those willing to splash out a little more, freshly prepared menus, for delivery or pickup on the day, are available from major hotels and restaurants.
By way of example, the Ambassador Hotel (台北國賓飯店) has put chefs from its popular Sichuan and Cantonese restaurants on the case, turning out banquets in these two distinctive regional styles. The Cantonese set (NT$8,800 for eight people) has seven dishes including a mixed platter with jiu kong (九孔), honeyed pork and stewed beef tendon, abalone with ginseng, grilled shrimp, steamed chicken and lamb cutlets a l’orange. The Sichuan restaurant provides a different twist on Lunar New Year cuisine with delicacies such as whole black-boned chicken in broth and crispy deep-fried fish for the same price. A wide variety of a la cart dishes are also available for takeout for those who want to make up their own menu, from popular favorites such as red bean rice cake (紅豆年糕) for NT$400 to various incarnations of the Lunar New Year favorite “Buddha Jumps Over the Wall” (佛跳牆).
As ever, this dish, a stew of many ingredients, a good number of which are rare, expensive or purportedly exploding with health-giving properties, features prominently on many menus, with prices ranging from NT$699 (from 7-Eleven) to an astronomical NT$16,800 (to serve six) from the Lalu Hotel (涵碧樓) in Sun Moon Lake (日月潭). Even at prices like these, the hotel reports that sales have been brisk.
Indeed, price is little obstacle for this great event, and costing a family dinner can easily reach into the tens of thousands. The Sheraton Hotel’s Guest House restaurant offers a Lunar New Year set menu (鴻福年菜) for NT$10,800 for six people, and is highlighting its various exotic hot pots, which are often the centerpiece of any Lunar New Year banquet. Its superior but decidedly ecologically unsound shark’s fin and chicken with Yunnan ham soup in a clay pot (黃金勾翅一品雞), notable for its labor-intensive preparation and rare ingredients (NT$12,000 per pot to serve six to eight persons) might be a bit hard to swallow, but other tasty options, such as the blessing superior scallops and chicken soup (如意瑤柱一品雞) at NT$3,000 a pot and conpoy and chicken soup with conch in clay pot (響螺一品雞) at NT$3,000 a pot, are also available.
MODERN MEALS
While traditional dishes such as Buddha Jumps Over the Wall are the main event coming out of hotel kitchens, many hotels are also highlighting the talents of their chefs with their own signature versions of favorite dishes. L’Hotel de Chine Group (雲朗觀光) is showcasing its Tungpo pork (雲饗一品東坡肉, NT$888), yet another labor-intensive dish that subjects prime belly pork to slow-frying, stir-frying, stewing, boiling and steaming over many hours to get the texture and taste just right.
Sweets are just as much a part of the Lunar New Year as rich meat and fish dishes, and they also provide an opportunity to inject some bright colors into the menu. The Grand Formosa Regent Taipei this year has released a range of Qing Dynasty-themed desserts that are the perfect way to bring the Lunar New Year banquet to a sweet conclusion. The imperial Qing Dynasty dessert — eight treasures cake (NT$588 for 6-inch size) recreates a dish that was purportedly a favorite of the imperial household, and is about as full of tasty ingredients and auspicious references as a rice cake can be.
Most major hotels will only be offering limited quantities of their most exotic dishes and popular set menus so it is important to get orders in early. Available pickup times also vary considerably, with some hotels closing the service on the afternoon of Feb. 13, while others allow collection through to Feb. 15.
If you want your Lunar New Year banquet packed away neatly in the fridge in preparation, choosing a frozen banquet from one of the convenience store chains is probably a better option. There is no shortage of quality, and many of the chefs brought in to design menus for the likes of 7-Eleven are A-listers on the local culinary scene.
The Buddha Jumps Over the Wall from 7-Eleven created by Taiwan’s “Kitchen God” (廚神) Shih Chian-fa (施建發) — better known by his moniker Ah Fa Shih (阿發師) — for NT$3,599 is a case in point. Shih has also created a wide range of cheaper options starting from NT$699. Convenience stores have been offering pickup or delivery of Lunar New Year banquets for a number of years, and have received high marks for convenience, as one might expect, but a mixed response in regard to quality. Comments range from dishes being too highly seasoned, too tough to simply tasting little better than a TV dinner, though blog commentators this year have already picked out a (small) number of items that are highly recommended as providing real value for money.
Many convenience stores offer low-temperature delivery to ensure their food is brought to your home at its most hygienic. Other delivery options include the use of high quality Lock&Lock containers by the Westin Hotel (六福皇宮). The Grand Formosa touts the advantages of its specially designed Chinese take-out hot box.
Finding the right balance between quality, price and convenience is no simple matter, but one thing you can’t complain about for Lunar New Year’s Eve dinner this year is a lack of choice.
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