In Chinese traditional culture, "New Year culture" is always the most indispensable item, and the most solemn event of the year is undoubtedly the New Year's Eve dinner. However, different foods and cultures in each region create different understandings and stories. The Spring Festival is getting closer and closer. What will be the most popular dish on the Zhejiang people’s New Year’s Eve dinner table? On the most important day of the year, what’s on the table in Zhejiang?

Hangzhou

Sauce duck

In the old city of Hangzhou, the sauce duck was like Sichuan people hanging bacon. Hangzhou sauce duck has long been a part of Chinese New Year. "Golden partner", as long as the Spring Festival is approaching, the streets and alleys are always filled with a salty fragrance. For Hangzhou people, a year is not complete without sauce duck. Hangzhou people’s New Year celebration starts with a sauced duck, which heralds a prosperous year ahead.

Yuanbao Fish

Cut the fish into three sections, join the head and tail, put the middle part of the fish body on top, and tilt the two ends upward. From the appearance, it looks like a "Yuanbao Fish" ". According to the custom of old Hangzhou, Yuanbao fish is not for eating. The fish is cooked on New Year's Eve and will be kept until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, which means there will be more than enough every year.

Babao Cai

It was also called "Ruyi Cai" in the past. It consists of eight kinds of vegetarian vegetables - water chestnuts (water chestnuts), fried tofu, carrots, black fungus, winter bamboo shoots, shiitake mushrooms, and soybeans. Bean sprouts and winter pickles.

Ningbo

Ningbo Tangyuan

“Yuan” means reunion, and eating Tangyuan symbolizes family auspiciousness and harmony. On New Year's Eve, the whole family makes glutinous rice balls, knead them into balls with glutinous rice flour and add lard and sesame fillings. Take one bite of the glutinous rice balls, they are smooth, glutinous and sweet, leaving a fragrant aroma in your mouth. What spreads on the tip of your tongue is a strong feeling of reunion, happiness and New Year's hope.

Red paste crab with red paste

Red paste crab with red paste is like a repertoire of traditional opera, and it would be impossible without it. "Red paste crab" is braised with salt and is another delicious dish that combines salty and fresh Yong cuisine. Taking a bite of crab roe is delicious and salty. It is the best side dish to accompany the meal after tasting other seafood dishes at the banquet. Therefore, Ningbo people call it the "rice-stuffing hammer".

Jinhua

Braised silver carp

A big silver carp is one of the indispensable New Year’s Eve dishes for old Jinhua people. After the silver carp is cooked, it is placed on a long On a long plate, the fish is placed on the table ceremoniously. The way the fish is placed is very particular. The fish head is often facing the eldest member of the family. The eating is even more particular. Generally, only the body of the fish is eaten, leaving the head and tail. , meaning "more than enough every year".

Jinhua Steamed Buns

Jinhua people eat steamed buns during the Chinese New Year, which has the meaning of "reunion and prosperity" in traditional customs. At the New Year's Eve dinner, the steamed buns are served with pork belly and dried bamboo shoots, which is very delicious.

Tofusin buns

In Jinhua, almost every household makes tofusin buns during the Chinese New Year. There are many kinds of fillings for tofu skin buns. Many families will use radish and tofu as fillings, and then deep-fry the wrapped tofu skin buns until they turn golden brown. The tender inner layer adds to the appetite and is loved by everyone.

Wenzhou

The New Year's Eve dinner of Wenzhou people is "ten dishes of cold dishes in tall red bowls", which means "perfect in everything" and every dish is exquisite. Ten brightly colored tall bowls, when served up, show the momentum and delicacy of a "family banquet", and also express the best wishes of "prosperity and advancement step by step".

The bowl contains soy sauce meat, fish cakes, eels, soy sauce chicken, clams, jelly, crab uncooked, fried lamb tails, three-color eggs, and tangerines, all of which are authentic old Wenzhou flavors. , a piece of carrot is also placed on each dish, which is called "red dish" in dialect, which means good luck.

Fish cakes

Wenzhou fish cakes are a traditional specialty of Wenzhou. They are made of fresh seawater fish such as anchovy and mackerel as the main raw materials, with unique condiments and a traditional recipe. Refined with advanced technology. Pay attention to the color of white inside and yellow outside, which means "gold and white jade".

Fried rice cake

Fried rice cake is an indispensable dish for Wenzhou people’s New Year’s Eve dinner. Nian Gao means "every year is high", and eating Nian Gao is considered a complete year.

Cut the rice cake into slices or strips, add soy sauce meat, eel, dried squid and various vegetables. You can't stop eating it.

Shaoxing

Shaoxing people start their winter brewing every year at the beginning of winter. At the busiest time at the end of the year, the old streets are filled with homemade sauces and cured goods. Drink a few sips of the mellow and sweet old Shaoxing wine, paired with the salty, sweet and dark-soft pickled pork with pickled vegetables, meet up with relatives and friends you haven’t seen for a long time to chat about home life, watch a few plays, and feel the slow flowing water in the awning boat. , it really makes people feel like they are home.

Frozen Pork

Frozen Pork is an indispensable dish in Shaoxing people’s New Year’s Eve dinner. The fish is what we often call it. The jelly meat is cooked over a slow fire. Ancient books record: "The meat is simmered first, then the falcon is added to the simmer, and it is ready to eat when it is thoroughly cooked. In winter, it is called jelly." Salty and fresh are combined into one, fresh and crispy, Bright red, oily but not greasy, with a unique flavor.

Braised pork with dried plums and vegetables

Shaoxing dried plums are divided into three types: dried cabbage, dried rape and dried mustard. The most delicious one is dried mustard. Stewed together with the fat and lean skin-on pork belly, it is now the famous "Braised Pork with Umeboshi and Vegetables". The braised pork with dried plums and vegetables pays attention to the braised and roasted meat, which is won by the taste. The aroma is mellow, and the meat is crispy and glutinous, oily but not greasy, and melts in the mouth.

Huzhou

Stewed eggs with hoof and pig sauce

Every Chinese New Year, Huzhou people will definitely "pick up ingots" on the dining table, so braised eggs with hoof and pig sauce are It has become an indispensable dish on the table. The elders are always the first to serve this dish, saying, "Here, pick up a gold ingot. It's indispensable for everyone."

Glutinous rice and meatballs

In Huzhou, another dish as famous as fish balls is glutinous rice and meatballs, also called "rice balls". Like fish balls, this dish symbolizes reunion. Yuanyuan is also an indispensable main dish at Chinese New Year and wedding banquets.

Fishballs

Fishballs are a local specialty dish in Huzhou. They include ordinary fishballs, fishballs with Tibetan stuffing, sweet fishballs, etc. They can be made into soup or stir-fry. Huzhou fish balls are made purely from fish meat. The fish balls are white in color, tender and delicious.