The reunion dinner is the highlight of the Spring Festival, which is not only colorful, but also very particular about meaning. Worship ancestors or gods before eating the reunion dinner, and eat after the incense sticks are burned. Generally, there are chicken (with a plan), fish (with more than one year), oyster sauce (with a good market), lettuce (with wealth), yuba (with wealth), garlic (with calculation) and so on for good luck.
In some places in Guangdong, it is also popular to have a reunion dinner. If someone who has traveled far away has not returned, the table will be set with seats and chopsticks that have not returned to symbolize reunion to show his nostalgia. If there are newlyweds, put an extra pair of bowls and chopsticks to add to the good fortune in the coming year. This meal is usually cooked deliberately in the year of the Communist Youth League, and it can't be finished until next year, indicating that there is more than enough left.
2. Nanjing: Family photo, jambalaya.
Family photo symbolizes reunion, which is a must-eat dish at the old Nanjing New Year's Eve. In a steaming pot of fragrant chicken soup, there are prawns, fish balls, shrimp balls, skin belly and other meat dishes, as well as vegetables such as green vegetables and bamboo shoots. It is extremely delicious and enjoyed by the whole family, which is very reunion atmosphere.
The Chronicle of Jinling Years Old records the "Ten Scenery Dishes" (also called jambalaya) of Nanjing people on New Year's Eve. People use ten kinds of sauced ginger, cucumber, carrot, Flammulina velutipes, fungus, winter bamboo shoots, celery, dried soy sauce, venetian blinds and gluten, which are finely shredded and fried in oil. This is the so-called "Ten Scenery". These dishes have a beautiful meaning: cucumber, a symbol of melons and melons, the spread of children and grandchildren; Winter bamboo shoots, a symbol of springing up like mushrooms after rain; Venetian blinds, a symbol of obedience and smoothness, are all meant to win a lucky charm. At present, there are more than 10 species in jambalaya, even as many as 16- 18 species, adding lotus root as a symbol of Passepartout; Bean sprouts, symbolizing wishful thinking; Shepherd's purse symbolizes gathering wealth; Portulaca oleracea, also known as Anle cuisine in Nanjing, symbolizes peace and joy.
3. Suzhou: dried bamboo shoots, fish balls and egg dumplings.
Before preparing for the New Year's Eve dinner, traditional Suzhou families will buy some dried bamboo shoots and soak them early. Dried bamboo shoots have a good taste of "rising day by day". And "making dried bamboo shoots" is more attractive, making a fortune and making a fortune in the coming year. In the New Year's Eve, fish balls and egg dumplings are essential. The meat balls symbolize reunion, and the egg dumplings are golden in color and shaped like gold ingots, which means making money into treasure. Fans should also be prepared, called "silver chain", and the meat wrapped in venetian blinds is like "golden bricks", all of which mean making a fortune.
In Suzhou people's New Year's Eve dinner, vegetables and spinach are called "Chang Geng Cai" because of their long stalks. Because the vegetables are dark green, they are also called "happy vegetables". Soybean sprouts are necessary for the New Year's Eve dinner, and they are called "ruyi dishes" because they look like ruyi. There must be fish on the New Year's Eve, and you can't finish all the fish on the table. No matter how much food you eat, you should also eat a little rice. Adults make it clear that you must eat the New Year's Eve and the New Year's Eve, otherwise it will be called "big food". A few cooked water chestnuts will also be embedded in the rice, and they will be dug out with chopsticks when eating, which is called "digging ingots".
4. Shanghai: lobster slices, jellyfish skin with scallion oil, preserved eggs and smoked fish.
Shanghainese are very particular about eating New Year's Eve dinner, not only delicious, but also appealing for luck. Lobster slices are an indispensable snack on the dinner table of New Year's Eve. Jellyfish skin with scallion oil is a must-have dish on the table of Shanghai people's New Year's Eve. For the sake of necessity, Shanghai people themselves are extremely "family-oriented", and the price of jellyfish skin is cheaper than jellyfish head, so this dish is affordable and shaped. On the occasion of family reunion, no matter whether people can drink or not, they always have a few drinks. At this time, the cold dish that is indispensable is preserved eggs, but it is forbidden: eat preserved eggs on New Year's Eve and never put tofu.
How can smoked fish be missing from the menu of Shanghai people's New Year's Eve? In addition, eel bonito, originally the flavor of Jiangsu and Zhejiang coastal areas, has gradually become a deep-rooted delicacy on the Chinese New Year table of Shanghainese due to the early settlement of a large number of Jiangsu and Zhejiang immigrants in Shanghai. Baked bran, Shanghai people pay much attention to Chinese New Year, and the names of dishes need to be pleasing to the eye. The so-called baked bran means relying on the husband, which means that the men at home will achieve higher achievements in the coming year.
5. Hunan: cured fish and bacon
First of all, the smoked bacon with Hunan flavor is essential, and the imported raw seafood also enriches the Hunan menu. However, Taoyuan Chicken, as the main course, still sings the leading role of the New Year's dinner and fills the table of every household with attractive fragrance. What is more charming is a tail carp that swims from the four rivers of Hunan, Yuan and Li to lie in an oval porcelain plate. People don't need a fork and a chopstick, not because it tastes bad, but because it indicates the good luck of "having more fish every year".
A carp of 1 kg, a big elbow of about 3 kg-this is a necessary new year dish in Hunan, commonly known as "Tuannian Fish" and "Tuannian Elbow", and "Tuannian", as the name implies, means "Reunion for another year, to bid farewell to the old year and to welcome the new year". Besides elbows, you will definitely eat chicken, meat, fish, etc. on New Year's Eve, and it must be big fish and big meat. Cold dishes and cooked dishes can't get rid of the word "spicy": stir-fry bacon, sausage, dumplings and preserved beef with red peppers and chopped peppers, mix parsley and peppers with preserved fish and pig's ears, and add some vegetables-there must be vegetables, which means that the whole family is harmonious in the New Year and their career is thriving.
6. Xiamen: Hot pot and seafood.
Eating New Year's Eve is called "eating twenty-nine meals", and most people like to eat hot pot (warm pot) and "surround the stove" for family fun. Hot pot includes "one-pin pot" (the whole pot has one grid), "Yuanyang pot" (two grids) and "four-color pot" (four grids). From the "one-pin pot", the famous dish "one-pin wealth" is formed. The soup is pork or chicken and duck soup, the main course is gold ingot (eggs) and silver ingot (pigeon eggs), and the whole hoof is called "harmony". The black thorn participates in cuttlefish and is tied together with kelp, which is called "Wujin Moyu", the wings of chicken and duck are called "Pengcheng Wan Li" and the winter bamboo shoots are called "Rising".
Because the hot pot is steaming, the food is tumbling, and the soup is continuously continued and good ingredients are added, which is called "the more you eat, the more you burn." Xiamen people pay special attention to seafood, such as silver carp ("more than one year"), oyster, red shrimp, pearl clam, snail, kelp and Nostoc flagelliforme tofu ("making a fortune"), etc. In recent years, there are beer hot pot, tofu hot pot, meatball hot pot and assorted hot pot.
7. Hong Kong: Potted vegetables, Nostoc flagelliforme, oyster sauce and rice cakes.
In terms of "eating", the signature New Year dish with the most Hong Kong flavor is "potted dish". Potted dishes are often eaten by Hong Kong people on New Year's Eve. Many foods are cooked together and then put in a big wooden basin for the whole family to eat. They are tasted on holidays, weddings and birthdays. Especially at the beginning of the new year, relatives and friends gather together to enjoy "potted dishes", which indicates that this year will be rich in financial resources, auspicious and prosperous, and everything will go smoothly. Moreover, the more you eat, the more blessed you will be, the more full you eat, and the whole year will be good.
"Nostoc flagelliforme and oyster sauce" is made by stewing Nostoc flagelliforme and dried oysters together, which means making a fortune and making a good market. The rice cake, which symbolizes the annual rise in festival customs, is an indispensable traditional food during the Spring Festival in Hong Kong.
8. Hainan: Wenchang chicken, vegetarian dishes and rice cakes.
Hainanese in Haikou, Wenchang and other places have "two dishes and one cake" on the dinner table: Wenchang chicken, vegetarian food and rice cake. There is a saying in Hainan, "No chicken, no table". Now, ancestors are still worshipped before the New Year's Eve dinner in the countryside, and chicken is an indispensable memorial offering. After the ancestors were sacrificed, the New Year's Eve dinner began.
Every household in Haikou must eat vegetarian food on the first and ninth day of the lunar new year. Eating "fast" on the first day means not killing anything in the coming year and being clean; Eating "fast" on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month will make the day safe and auspicious. Hainan people have the habit of eating rice cakes during the Spring Festival. The rice cake is also called "Niannian cake", which is homophonic with "high every year".