Table Talk With Jeremy Wayne: Happy Lunar New Year!

This year, Valentine’s Day – Wednesday, Feb. 14 – falls during the Lunar New Year, so while I yield to St. Valentine as much as the next romantic, this week I’m turning all foodish thoughts to the very serious business of the Year of the Dragon and Chinese food. (The Chinese do in fact have a Valentine’s Day of their own, or at least an ancient approximation of one – the Quixi Festival, which this year will fall on Aug. 22.)  Why not celebrate both at once? 

Also known as the Spring Festival, the 2024 Lunar New Year began on Saturday, Feb. 10, and will culminate with the Lantern Festival on Feb. 24.  Food, of course, is key, with families getting together to celebrate and tables piled high with festival treats. 

These might include special spring rolls – eaten at New Year, they herald the spring season ahead; a whole chicken; a fine hot pot; and premium seafood (such as lobster). A chicken feeds a family – at least it does if there are no more than four of you – so for New Year it has come to symbolize reunion, rebirth and self-sufficiency Then there is Nian Gao, a kind of rice cake. Piled high as a dessert, these cakes are a metaphor for growing taller or rising higher each year. 

Getting hungry? Aberdeen Seafood & Dim Sum restaurant in White Plains has become well-known for its holiday menus over the years. Operator Ricky Ho’s menu this year will include an array of Cantonese-style dishes. 

Goosefeather, located in the richly decorated King Mansion on the Tarrytown House Estate, will celebrate the Year of the Dragon through Feb. 17 with special offerings for guests, including a nightly “lobster special,” red envelopes with giveaways and “lucky” Satsuma oranges for guests to take home. The red envelopes – traditionally containing money and presented to family and friends but especially children — may include prizes such as dinner for two at Goosefeather, complimentary food and beverage items, a signed copy of chef Dale Talde’s “Asian American” cookbook and more. Sounds tantalizing. But it’s really the Hong Kong Chinese food and weekend family and party vibe you come for here – or at least what I come for here.  A Goosefeather double-cheeseburger is the answer for any in your party who don’t care for Chinese food.

 Although it won’t offer a specific New Year menu,  OMandarin in Hartsdale will have a traditional Lion Dance snake through the restaurant on Feb. 24, keepingdiners entertained. Plus, there are plenty of dishes to enjoy here, all appropriate for a family New Year celebration. The spring rolls are perfect — bite-sized, hot and crisp. And while they don’t do a whole chicken, they do a whole duck, and it’s excellent. A couple of Rieslings feature on an eclectic wine list, but no Gewürtztraminer, often mentioned as the wine of choice with spicy Indian or Chinese food. My choice would actually be to go with the Duval-Leroy Brut Champagne. From a not inexpensive wine list, these bubblies, which never disappoint, are something of a steal.  They’re a good way to celebrate a New Year and new beginnings, too.  

To honor their native Chinese traditions, award-winning restaurateurs K Dong and chef Steven Chen will mark the New Year at their newest restaurant, Mōlì, with the launch of a new dim sum brunch menu that will feature traditional Lunar New Year dishes – including designer Andy Yu’s artisanal dumplings,  featured on neighbor Martha Stewart’s show “Martha Cooks.” (Stewart, Yu and record mogul Clive Davis are among the northern Westchester residents who are fans of the restaurant.) Mōlì also plans to extend specials throughout the month and sell one-of-a-kind souvenirs that will feature the Year of the Dragon and restaurant brand and benefit the nonprofit Asian American Dream. 

Up in Milford, Lao Sze Chuan will be preparing à la carte New Year specials, including appetizers of razor clams and Beijing-style braised beef shank and such main courses as not-to-be missed lobsters Bi Feng Tang (with green and red peppers); spicy pot with rack of lamb; frogs legs; and the delicacies that are sea cucumbers and abalone. A New Year Bundle – a feast serving four or more – will also be available. 

And while it doesn’t offer any specific New Year menu, the dependable Seven Woks in the Golden Horseshoe Shopping Center in Scarsdale’s Heathcote area – a restaurant that has been in business for nearly 20 years – does offer a number of “pot” dishes, any of which would make for a perfect homespun New Year celebration. My inclination would be the “spicy and numbing” beef or chicken pot, but I do like my hot pots hot. 

So there you have it, Happy Lunar New Year – or Xīnnián kuàilè as they say in Mandarin. 

For more, visit moligreenwich.com; omandarin.com; goosefeatherny.co; aberdeenwhiteplains.com; and laoszechuan1585.com.