Lunar New Year

These easy miso-maple walnuts are crunchy, savory, a little sweet, and beautifully caramelized.

The combination of tender chicken and sweet chestnuts makes for classic Chinese comfort food.

Encased in these mooncakes are a filling of coarsely ground pistachios, fragrant honey, and a generous sprinkling of salt.

If you’re lucky, you’ll find mooncakes with an egg yolk or two, which means there’s more of the best part to share with your family.

This dish is full of a bewitching fragrance that comes from steaming it under a generous cap of fermented greens, exchanging aromas and flavors.

The defining characteristic of this chile sauce is the crispness, and in my version I’ve included old-fashioned rolled oats and coconut flakes for extra crunch. You will find me adding it to pasta, eggs, jook, pizza and, of course, roasted vegetables. 

Pork belly is ubiquitous throughout the Philippines; the fat is glorious and tastes great grilled. Getting a nice char on the fatty bits is important, as it adds another level of flavor to the salty-sour-tart-sweetness of the soy-calamansi marinade.

Qiāng bǐng is crispy on the outside, fluffy and chewy on the inside, and truly magical when fresh off the stove.

Shanghainese enjoy rice balls in both sweet and savory preparations. I love both, so I included them here. All Shanghainese buns and pastries have simple identifiers for telling the difference between sweet and savory. Sweet versions are always round and smooth, while savory ones will have a tail hinting at the filling inside.

The crunchiness and juiciness of flowering chives combined with tender, lightly seasoned pork is an unbeatable combination—and this dish is super quick to make.

We took roasted peanuts and coated them with sweet-spicy kochujang, Korean chile flakes, and garlic salt as a topper for the kale and cabbage salad at Tin Roof.

These chicken and mushroom spring rolls are spiced with the sweet and salty flavors of kecap manis, the syrupy soy sauce for which Indonesia is famous.

These savory Indonesian cookies from cookbook author Lara Lee are perfectly buttery, crumbly, and cheesy. Make a big batch and enjoy them with coffee or tea all week long.

Serving whole fish during Chinese New Year symbolizes the wish for prosperity throughout the year and many happy returns. When you serve whole fish, it's traditional to point the head toward the most distinguished guest.

This mixed vegetable dish takes its inspiration from Buddhist vegetarian cooking and can include any combination of ingredients that represent good luck, prosperity, happiness, family wholeness, and longevity. 

Rice cakes are available sliced, marble-shaped, and in batons. There are dried versions, but the refrigerated version is widely available and easier to work with. You can use any combination of vegetables and seasonings here, so feel free to experiment with flavors.

One great thing about dumplings is that you can use practically anything in the filling—and you can pan-fry them, or boil them, or deep-fry them.

Packed with greens, these boiled dumplings easily go vegetarian by switching out the ground pork for crumbled tofu.

Named for the famous 8th century Tang dynasty consort, Yang Guifei, this dish of juicy dark-meat chicken and peppers is sweet, sour, and just a little spicy.

The goal of longevity noodles is to create one long, slick, uniform strand, gently pulled over and over again until you get the right thickness.

These pan-fried dumplings are among the best selling items at Nom Wah Tea Parlor in New York City. The chicken gives the dumplings body, while the cabbage gives them volume.

The slightly sweet but mostly textural wrapper of the rice roll is the canvas for the sweetness of the shrimp.

Want showstopping presentation? Make homemade dumpling wrappers to stuff with a filling of spinach, hearty tofu, vermicelli, and fruity Sichuan peppercorns.

Making noodles by hand is a fulfilling cooking project. The results are perfectly chewy noodles, even with ragged edges and imperfect lines.