Roast Peking Duck, Pata Tim, other Chinese New Year lucky food take center stage
MANILA, Philippines — Special celebrations deserve extra special dishes. So expect this Chinese New Year celebration, taking place on January 28 and 29, to be brimming with sumptuous dishes.
Roast Peking Duck, Pata Tim, Charsiu, assorted dumplings, and other dishes that are considered lucky take center stage this entire week — and beyond — as the world welcomes the Year of the Wooden Snake.
Roast Peking Duck is actually one of the top favorite Chinese delicacies of all time. People travel to Hong Kong for a taste of it, and then they usually bring home several boxes of it as pasalubong to family and friends and also for their own enjoyment later.
Originating from Beijing (formerly known as Peking), China, and tracing its history back to the Imperial era, Roast Peking Duck has always been part of Chinese culinary traditions. Served to persons of high stature, it undergoes several preparation and cooking stages and is quite tedious to prepare at home, so people rely mostly on Roast Peking Duck prepared the authentic way by Chinese restaurants to enjoy them to the utmost.
Due to the popularity of Roast Peking Duck, there are now a number of local restaurants that offer really good renditions of the dish. And during special occasions such as Chinese New Year, people get to enjoy it even more because restaurants such as The Alley by Vikings, located at UP Town Center, offer it as a special treat. The Alley is serving Roast Peking Duck in its famous buffet, both for lunch and dinner, on January 28 and 29 so diners get to have their fill of the famous — and lucky — dish.
Also on the buffet of The Alley by Vikings for Chinese New Year are Pata Tim, Char Siew, Long Life Noodles, and Fortune Cookies to treat diners to a real Chinese New Year celebration replete with good food and traditions.
Pata Tim happens to be another top favorite of diners who love authentic Chinese food. A pork stew braised long and slow for several hours in aromatics to achieve a melt-in-the-mouth tenderness and robust flavor, it is often served on special occasions.
Char Siew, which is a delicious Cantonese barbecued pork, has long commanded a huge following among local Chinoys and Filipinos alike. So has Long Life Noodles become a tradition to serve on special occasions to symbolize long life. And Fortune Cookies? It’s a fun Chinese tradition to crack open crisp Fortune Cookies to read the fortune written in a piece of paper within each cookie. It is actually more of a saying or an inspirational message more than a prediction.
Take a bite and enjoy these lucky Chinese celebration dishes this Chinese New Year. Kung Hei Fat Choy! Kiong Hee Huat Chay!
