More than a billion people will celebrate the Chinese New Year next week. It's the biggest holiday of the year in China, shutting down businesses and shops there for at least the first two days and bathing everyone in a sea of lucky red. The Chinese New Year (aka the Lunar New Year, aka the Spring Festival) begins on the first day of the first lunar month and continues until the 15th day. This year, Chinese New Year begins Jan. 25. And like any holiday worth celebrating, Chinese New Year often involves an elaborate feast.

The Chinese New Year feast serves as a cultural and linguistic map of the holiday and its meaning, perhaps to a degree greater than any American celebratory meal. Thanksgiving food, for example, may be symbolic in that the nature of the food itself (gourds, etc.) suggests the harvest, the season, and a general sense of "plenty." But there the symbolism ends. We don't eat nuts to preserve our sanity or cornbread stuffing to ensure that we will be well-fed. In the Chinese New Year feast, however, there is a strong awareness that symbols dictate what is eaten.

This symbolism is closely tied to language. Chinese characters are composites of smaller pieces called radicals, which carry a sound, a meaning, or both. For example, the radical for "heart" is used in the characters meaning "love," "angry" and "forget," though the sounds of the words themselves may derive from other radicals that carry sound value only. This leads to a number of (for lack of a better word) puns in Chinese that, in the case of the Chinese New Year feast, add dimension to the symbolism of the food.

There are a number of different dialects in the Chinese language, including Mandarin, Hokkien and Cantonese. These dialects are all closely related, and they share a written language. Chinese contains dozens of homonyms for the same sound, allowing a rich tapestry of these puns and interconnections. The word for "fish" (yu) sounds the same as the word for "surplus" (also yu) making fish an auspicious choice for a New Year dish. Nian Gao, a glutinous rice-flour cake, is popular because the words nian gao are a homonym for "prosperous year." Chicken, or ji, sounds like the word for "good luck," while the word for shrimp, ha, simply sounds like someone laughing.

A popular Chinese New Year dish is hot pot, a thick broth cooked in a central pot into which people can dip meats and vegetables. The dish is similar to fondue in concept, although the broth is nondairy and is usually made from beef or chicken. The word for hot pot, huo guo, sounds like the word for "prosperous." Also, the nature of the dish fosters family togetherness, as everyone consumes it together.

Other popular dishes include oysters (hao, which sounds like hao shi, meaning "good things"), lettuce (sang choi, which sounds like the word for "prosperity"), and black-moss seaweed (fat choi, a homonym for "wealth"). Gong xi fat choi, meaning "congratulations and prosperity," could also be a wish for more fiber in the coming year. Imagine attempting this kind of language-based culinary symbolism in English. Meat would be served at mixers, fish for meals at which someone is trying to acquire funding, and chicken for consolation-prize lunches, possibly for losers of drag races.

Symbolism unrelated to language dictates ingredients as well. Fresh tofu is avoided during the New Year because its white color is a symbol of death and misfortune. Dumplings are served because they resemble gold ingots. Particularly popular is a dish called chang sou mien, or "longevity noodles" because the noodles, uncut egg noodles generally fried or added to broth, symbolize long life. It is considered unlucky in general to cut things during Chinese New Year, as the act of cutting may cut some of the luck out of the dishes. Fish and chicken dishes, and even leafy vegetables, are often served whole for this reason.

Placed on many family tables during the New Year is something called a "tray of togetherness," a platter with eight compartments (eight is a traditional lucky number) filled with various foods of symbolic significance such as lotus seeds, candies and peanuts. Lotus or melon seeds suggest fertility and many children — which was once considered most desirable. Large amounts of sweets are consumed during New Year festivities, as they are said to "sweeten" it. The two characters that together mean "peanut" (hua sheng) literally mean "blossom, flower" and "to give birth to."

During the New Year, sweets also play a ritual role in protecting the family, in the tradition of the Kitchen God, Zao Shen. The Kitchen God (alternately, the Stove God) is said to keep track of the family during the year, and then reports to the Jade Emperor (the god of the Heavens). Making offerings of sweets (nian gao cakes in particular) to the Kitchen God is meant to sweeten his words to the Jade Emperor or, if necessary, glue his mouth shut so that anything he says won't be understood.

This year is the Year of the Ox, and while it is not strictly traditional to do so, it couldn't hurt to serve a few oxtail and beef dishes if you're celebrating. And if you're lucky to sit down to a traditional Chinese New Year's banquet, remember that you're not only eating Chinese food, but in a way, you're speaking Chinese.

Recipe

Longevity noodles are traditionally made from a single mound of egg dough that gets folded and pulled repeatedly until it becomes thin noodles. Feel free to use prepackaged Chinese egg noodles for this recipe.This recipe is adapted from one found at www.recipezaar.com.

LONGEVITY NOODLES

For the peanut sauce

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons minced white onions

1 teaspoon grated peeled fresh ginger

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 cup soymilk

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1 teaspoon lemon juice



For the marinated chicken

1 tablespoon dry white wine

1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce

2 teaspoons grated peeled fresh ginger

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

8 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut up into thin strips



For the noodles

8 ounces uncooked thin spaghetti or Asian long noodles

1/2 cup snow peas, trimmed

1/2 cup thinly sliced carrot

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

1/2 cup diagonally sliced green onion

To make the sauce: Heat oil in a saucepan over med-high heat.

Add minced onion, 1 teaspoon ginger, and garlic; stir/sauté for 5 minutes or until onion is tender. Stir in soy milk, peanut butter, and lemon juice; cook for 3 minutes or until peanut butter is completely melted, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and cool completely.

To make the marinated chicken: Add the first 5 marinade ingredients to a bowl; stir to combine. Add the chicken; toss to coat; cover and marinade in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

To make the noodles: Cook pasta by following the package directions, omitting salt and fat; drain and rinse; set aside.

Heat a large nonstick skillet that has been coated with cooking spray or a little vegetable or peanut oil over medium-high heat. Add the chicken mixture; stir/sauté for 2 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Add the snow peas and carrots; stir/saute for 4 minutes or until crisp-tender. Stir in peanut sauce, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the cooked noodles, toss well, sprinkle with green onions, and serve.

Contact Tantri Wija at thetwija@gmail.com.