The custom of eating New Year's Eve in southern China

The reunion dinner is the highlight of the Spring Festival, which is not only colorful, but also very meaningful. Worship ancestors or gods before eating the reunion dinner, and burn incense before eating. Generally, there are chicken (planned), fish (more than one year old), oyster sauce (good market), lettuce (rich), yuba (rich), garlic (calculated) and so on for good luck.

In some places in Guangdong, eating reunion dinners is also very popular. If someone doesn't return from a long trip, there will be chairs and chopsticks on the dining table to symbolize reunion to show their nostalgia. If there are newlyweds, put an extra pair of bowls and chopsticks to add good luck for the coming year. This meal is usually specially prepared by the Communist Youth League that year, and it will not be finished until next year, which shows that the mind is willing but unable to do so.

2. Nanjing: Family photos, mixed rice.

Family photos symbolize reunion and are a must-eat dish for the New Year's Eve dinner in old Nanjing. In a pot of steaming 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's very delicious, and the whole family likes it. It's very reunion.

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 sauce ginger, cucumber, carrot, Flammulina velutipes, auricularia auricula, winter bamboo shoots, celery, dried soy sauce, venetian blinds and gluten, finely shred them and fry them in oil. This is the so-called "Ten Scenes". These dishes have beautiful meanings: cucumber symbolizes the spread of fruits and children; Winter bamboo shoots, a symbol of mushrooming; Venetian blinds, a symbol of obedience and smoothness, are all aimed at winning a lucky one. At present, there are many kinds of 10, even as many as 16- 18, plus lotus root as a symbol of passepartout; Bean sprouts symbolize wishful thinking; Shepherd's purse symbolizes wealth gathering; Portulaca oleracea, also known as an enjoyable dish 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 sun" And "making dried bamboo shoots" is more attractive and will make a fortune in the coming year. Fish balls and egg dumplings are essential on New Year's Eve. Meatballs symbolize reunion, and egg dumplings are golden in color, shaped like gold ingots, implying the way to make money. Fans should also be prepared. It is called "Silver Chain", and venetian blinds's meat is like "Golden Brick", which means making a fortune.

In Suzhou people's New Year's Eve dinner, vegetables and spinach are called "Chang Geng vegetables" because of their long stems. Because vegetables are dark green, they are also called "happy vegetables". Soybean sprouts are an essential dish for New Year's Eve, and they are called "ruyi dishes" because of their wishful shape. There must be fish on the New Year's Eve, and you can't eat all the fish on the table. No matter how much food you eat, you should also eat some rice. Adults made it clear that New Year's Eve and New Year's Eve must be eaten, otherwise it would be called "big food". A few boiled water chestnuts will be embedded in the rice, and they will be dug out with chopsticks when eating, which is called "digging gold 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, which is not only delicious, but also lucky. Lobster slices are an indispensable snack on the dinner table. Jellyfish skin with scallion oil is a must-have dish on the dinner table of Shanghai people's New Year's Eve. Out of necessity, Shanghainese themselves are extremely "family-oriented", and the price of jellyfish skin is cheaper than jellyfish head, so this dish is affordable and stylish. On the occasion of family reunion, whether you can drink or not, you always have a few drinks. Preserved eggs are an indispensable cold dish at this time, 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 New Year's Eve? In addition, eel bonito, originally the flavor of coastal areas in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, has gradually become a deep-rooted delicacy on the Chinese New Year table of Shanghainese because a large number of immigrants from Jiangsu and Zhejiang settled in Shanghai in the early days. Baked bran, Shanghai people pay more attention to the New Year, and the names of dishes need to be pleasing to the eye. The so-called baking bran means relying on the husband, which means that the men in the family will achieve higher achievements in the coming year.

5. Hunan: smoked fish and bacon

First of all, Hunan-flavored smoked bacon is essential, and imported raw seafood also enriches Hunan's menu. However, as the main course, Taoyuan Chicken still sings the leading role of the New Year's Eve dinner, which makes the dining table of every household filled with attractive fragrance. What is even more fascinating is a carp, which swam across the four rivers of Hunan, Yuan and Li and lay in an oval porcelain dish. People don't need forks and chopsticks, not because it tastes bad, but because it indicates "more fish every year".

A carp 1 kg, an elbow of 3 kg-this is a necessary Chinese New Year dish for Hunan people, commonly known as "Tuannian Fish" and "Tuannian Elbow", which, as its name implies, means "reunion is another year, saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new". Besides elbows, you will definitely eat chicken, meat, fish and so on. New Year's Eve, and it must be big fish and big meat. Cold dishes and cooked food can't get rid of the word "spicy": stir-fry bacon, sausage, jiaozi and preserved beef with red pepper and chopped pepper, mix coriander and pepper with preserved fish and pig's ears, and add some vegetables-there must be dishes, which means that the whole family is harmonious and the business is booming in the new year.

6. Xiamen: Hot pot and seafood.

Eating New Year's Eve is called "eating 29 meals", and most people like to eat hot pot (warm pot) and "surround the stove" for family fun. Hot pot includes "Yipin Pot" (the whole pot has one grid), "Yuanyang Pot" (two grids) and "Four-color Pot" (four grids). From "a needle pot" to form a famous dish "a needle wealth". 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 "He". Black stickleback cuttlefish tied with kelp is called "Wuji cuttlefish", chicken and duck wings are called "Pengcheng Wan Li" and winter bamboo shoots are called "Sheng".

Because the hot pot is steaming, the food is tumbling, and the good ingredients of Tonga are constantly being added. As the saying goes, "the more you eat, the more you burn." Xiamen people pay special attention to seafood, such as silver carp ("more than one year"), oysters, red shrimp, pearl mussels, snails, kelp, Nostoc flagelliforme tofu ("getting rich") and so on. In recent years, there are beer hotpot, tofu hotpot, meatball hotpot and assorted hotpot.

7. Hong Kong: Potted vegetables, Nostoc flagelliforme, oyster sauce and rice cakes.

In terms of "eating", the signature dish with the most Hong Kong flavor is "potted dishes". Hong Kong people often eat potted vegetables on New Year's Eve. A lot of food is cooked together and then put in a big wooden basin for the whole family to eat together. They taste it at festivals, weddings and birthdays. Especially at the beginning of the new year, relatives and friends get together to enjoy "potted dishes", which indicates that this year's financial resources are abundant, good luck and everything goes well. And the more you eat, the more blessed you are. The fuller you eat, the better you will be all year round.

"Nostoc flagelliforme oyster sauce" is a stew of Nostoc flagelliforme and dried oysters, which means making a fortune and doing a good job in the market. The rice cake symbolizes the annual rise of holiday customs and is an indispensable traditional food during the Spring Festival in Hong Kong.

8. Hainan: Wenchang chicken, vegetarian dishes and rice cakes.

Hainanese in Haikou and Wenchang have "two dishes and one cake" on the dining table: Wenchang chicken, vegetarian dishes and rice cakes. There is a saying in Hainan, "No chicken, no table". Nowadays, ancestors are still worshipped before the New Year's Eve in rural areas, and chicken is an essential memorial. After the ancestor worship, the New Year's Eve begins.

On the first and ninth days of the Lunar New Year, every household in Haikou must eat vegetarian food. Eating "fast" on the first day means not killing anything in the coming year and being clean; Eating "fast food" on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month will make this day safe and auspicious. Hainan people have the habit of eating rice cakes during the Spring Festival. The rice cake is also called "rice cake", which is homophonic with "high every year".