New Year's Eve dinner carries China's food culture, New Year culture and etiquette culture, etc., and is very rich in connotation.

According to "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals of Jidong", the ancients beat drums on the day before the New Year to drive away the "ghosts of epidemic and tuberculosis". This is the origin of New Year's Eve.

People at that time believed that New Year's Eve dinner had the functions of warding off epidemics, exorcising evil spirits and keeping fit.

The earliest mention of the name New Year's Eve was "Feng Tu Ji" written by Zhou Chu of the Western Jin Dynasty: On New Year's Eve, greeting each other at the end of the year is called "feeding the year", inviting people to drink and eat is called "farewell", and staying up all night is called "farewell".

"Keep the year old".

When the ancients celebrated New Year's Eve, they liked to put a burning stove on the table. The whole family would eat New Year's Eve dinner around the stove, so it was called "surrounding the stove."

So what are the differences between New Year’s Eve dinners in northern and southern China?

Let’s first take a look at what is served for New Year’s Eve dinner in representative cities in the South.

New Year’s Eve dinner in the South: Xiamen hot pot and seafood. Eating New Year’s Eve dinner on New Year’s Eve is called “eating twenty-nine years old”. Most people like to eat hot pot (hot pot) and enjoy it with the whole family “around the stove”.

Hot pots include "Yipin pot" (one grid for the whole pot), "Yuanyang pot" (two grids), and "Four-color pot" (four grids).

The famous dish "Yipin Fugui" was formed from "Yipin Guo". The soup is pork or chicken and duck soup. The main dish is gold ingot (eggs) and silver ingots (pigeon eggs). The whole hoof is called "Yipin Heqi", and black thorns are involved.

Cuttlefish tied together with kelp is called "Wujin Moyu", chicken and duck wings are called "Pengcheng Wanli", winter bamboo shoots are called "rising higher and higher", vermicelli is called "longevity and longevity", fish balls, meatballs and vegetable are called "reunion and wealth".

, chicken head and chicken tail, fish head and fish tail are called "beginning and end", adding ham and feet is called "stepping into the clouds", and finally eating Changsheng fruit, which means "immortality", and eating citrus, which symbolizes good luck.

Because the hot pot is steaming, the food is constantly tumbling, the soup is constantly replenished, and good ingredients are added, it is called "the more you eat, the more you eat, the more you cook, the more you eat."

Xiamen people pay special attention to seafood, such as silver carp ("more than enough every year"), oysters, red shrimps, pearl cockles, snails, kelp and fat tofu ("rich and blessed"), etc. In recent years, beer hot pot,

Tofu hotpot, meatball hotpot, assorted hotpot, etc. are now available.

Hong Kong Poon Choi, Nostoc, Oysters, and Rice Cake. In terms of "eating", the most Hong Kong-style signature New Year dish is "Poon Choi".

Poon Choi is a dish commonly eaten by Hong Kong people for New Year's Eve dinner. Many foods are cooked together and then put in a large wooden basin to be eaten by the whole family. It is enjoyed during festivals, weddings and birthdays.

Especially at the beginning of the New Year, relatives and friends gather together to enjoy "Pon Choi", which indicates that this year will bring abundant wealth, good fortune and success, and the more you eat, the more blessings you will have and the fuller you will be.

Good year.

"Nostoc oyster sauce" is made by stewing nostoc and dried oysters together, which means getting rich and good market; and the rice cake, which symbolizes prosperity every year in festival customs, is an indispensable traditional delicacy during the Spring Festival in Hong Kong.

Guangdong Haocai Tou Food Group New Year Dinner is the highlight of the Spring Festival. It is not only colorful, but also very particular about its meaning.

Before the reunion dinner, ancestors or gods are worshiped first, and the meal is started only after the incense and candles are burned.

There are usually chickens (for good fortune), fish (for good fortune every year), oysters (for good market), lettuce (for wealth), yuba (for abundance), garlic (for good fortune), etc. on the table for good luck.

It is also popular in some places in Guangdong to have a reunion dinner. If someone who has traveled far away has not returned, the seat and bowls and chopsticks of the person who has not returned will be placed on the table to symbolize reunion and to express nostalgia.

If there are newlyweds, they should also place an extra pair of bowls and chopsticks to bring good luck to them in the coming year.

During the family reunion meal, people usually cook extra meals on purpose so that they can't finish it and save it for next year, which means there will be plenty and plenty left over.

Suzhou dried bamboo shoots, fish balls, and egg dumplings are prepared for the New Year’s Eve dinner. Traditional Suzhou families will buy some dried bamboo shoots and soak them early. The dried bamboo shoots have a good taste of “higher and higher”.

And "Fat Bamboo Shoots" is even more popular, as it implies getting rich and prosperous in the coming year.

In the New Year's Eve dinner, fish meatballs and egg dumplings are indispensable. Meatballs symbolize reunion, and egg dumplings are golden in color and shaped like ingots, which means attracting wealth.

Fans should also be prepared, which is called "silver chain". The louvered meat is said to be like "gold bricks", which means making a fortune.

In Suzhou people's New Year's Eve dinner, green vegetables, spinach, etc. are called "Chang Geng vegetables" because of their long stems.

Because green vegetables are dark green, they are also called "safe vegetables".

In the New Year's Eve dinner, soybean sprouts are a must. Because their shape resembles Ruyi, it is called "Ruyi dish".

There must be fish on the New Year's Eve dinner, and you cannot finish the fish on the table.

No matter how much food you eat, you still need to eat some rice. The adults have made it clear: New Year’s Eve dinner, New Year’s Eve dinner, must be eaten, otherwise it will be called “New Year’s Eve food”.

A few cooked water chestnuts are also buried in the rice, and they are dug out with chopsticks during the meal, which is called "digging ingots".

New Year’s Eve dinner in the north: In the old days, most people in Beijing and Tianjin would cook rice, stew pork, beef, mutton, chicken, and some stir-fried vegetables.

In Shaanxi, there are 4 large plates and 4 large bowls. The 4 large plates are mainly stir-fried and cold dishes, and the 8 large bowls are mainly stewed and cooked dishes.