Sydney Eat Street: Where to celebrate the Lunar New Year
As the Year of the Pig approaches, bringing with it promises of wealth and good fortune, gather family and friends to welcome it in with a feast of delicious and lucky foods around Sydney.
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As the Year of the Pig approaches, bringing with it promises of wealth and good fortune, gather family and friends to welcome it in with a feast of delicious and lucky foods around Sydney.
Take a tour of the area’s best eateries right here with The Sunday Telegraph’s Eat Street. Are you hungry for more inspiration? Follow us on Instagram.
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THE GARDENS BY LOTUS
With a vision of bringing the sites and smells of traditional Chinese street food to discerning Sydney diners, Michael Jiang, director of Lotus Dining, set out to create a space with cosmopolitan appeal yet still adhered to authentic flavours.
The result was a sort of side-alley chic venue with exposed brick walls, muted pendant lighting and a simple selection of contemporary Pan Asian food.
The real lure, however, was the delicious nipped and tucked parcels from Lucy Luo, Sydney’s “Chinese Dumpling Queen”.
Having perfected her craft over 35 years (she can make 40 dumplings a minute!) these precious packages developed a cult following that’s helped the Lotus brand expand to six venues, and now, just in time for Chinese New Year, opening a seventh one — lucky dumplings and all.
Revamping the former Teahouse at the Chinese Garden of Friendship Michael has relaunched it as The Gardens by Lotus.
The serene setting with its expansive koi pond, gentle waterfalls and lush greens is an ideal setting for a relaxed lunch or short break.
Try Lotus’ own tea blend, Lotea along with a selection from their a la carte menu, which Mindy Woods, Lotus’ director cuisine explains “is centred around our famed dumplings, each little parcel delivering a unique flavour experience”.
Besides being delicious, these tasty morsels play a special role in Lunar New Year celebrations as they each represent some elements of “abundance”.
Those shaped like a coin purse or a gold ingot represent monetary wealth while each individual filling can represent anything from good health to good family relations.
For the first two weeks in February, Lotus will be including a selection of their dumplings in two special sharing banquets ($88 and $128), each with eight courses, the latter including chilli lobster and other seafood.
“Our Lunar New Year banquets offer a contemporary interpretation of authentic Chinese flavours all the while respecting the traditions that underpin the cuisine,” Mindy says.
— Chinese Garden of Friendship; cnr of Day and Pier streets, Darling Harbour; lotusdining.com.au
BODHI RESTAURANT
Nestled amid huge Moreton Fig Trees and covered by an alcove under St Mary’s Cathedral, this award-winning vegan restaurant is a double win for parents — vegetables disguised as delicious yum cha plus plenty of parklands to occupy the kids while the adults linger a bit longer over lunch.
Opening in 1988, this forerunner of clean cuisine with market-fresh ingredients and cleverly prepared faux-meat dishes has been passed down through three generations.
“Chinese New Year is a very important and special time for us,” owner Heaven Leigh says.
“The whole family really comes together to connect with each other and give thanks for the year past and help usher in good fortune for the year to come by eating both traditional and new dishes that we have created at the restaurant.”
Throughout February, Bodhi will celebrate the Lunar New Year with two special set menus, “including dishes that aim to ensure prosperity”.
Lunch ($35) features snow pea dumplings exclusively through February, along with a selection of steamed buns, blanched vegetables, glass noodles and “sausage” twist buns.
Dinner consists of three courses, each with three choices including the requisite longevity noodles. There’ll also be some festive cocktails to pair well with the meals.
Heaven adds that come Chinese New Year’s Eve, Bodhi will host a Lunar New Year dinner with traditional lion performers and “celebrate with traditional dishes”, including tangyuan sweet rice balls which symbolise family togetherness.
This is then followed by the big culinary reveal.
— Bodhi Restaurant Bar, 2-4 College St, Sydney; bodhirestaurant.com.au
THE DOLAR SHOP
Hot pot at The Dolar Shop — It sounds like a cheap date but you’re in for a surprise.
It’s actually a chic 200-seat restaurant with bespoke artwork, fit-outs and individual hotplates at each place setting.
Unlike the typical hotpot restaurant with one communal bowl in the centre of the table, at the upscale outlet which features the Portuguese and Chinese flavours of Macau, each person gets their own bowl and more than likely the only things in the middle of the table are premium wagyu, red eye perch, calamari and practically any vegetable imaginable.
With a choice of six different broths ranging from pork leg bone to oxtail and tomato, everyone can customise their own meal.
Totally ideal for a family gathering and a promise of prosperity with three pages filled with “lucky” ingredients. Mushrooms for growth and opportunity; noodles (house made) for longevity; green vegetables for close family ties; spring onions for intelligence; duck for fertility; fish for “abundance“ or surplus; and of course, being the Year of the Pig, pork for strength.
Oh, and you can put aside that “kangaroo crossing” drink holder. It won’t quite fit the tall glass of fresh watermelon juice or the $2400 bottle of Grange Hermitage.
Fear not, for us mere mortals there’s also sodas, beer and an impressive wine collection.
— Market City, Level 3, 9/13 Hay St, Haymarket; dolarshop.com
BEIJING IMPRESSION
At this kitsch yet cool interpretation of Beijing street culture, guests are treated to a bit of theatre with their Chinese New Year feasts, commencing hitting a gong to announce the arrival of the Peking duck (It’s actually a “Beijing Duck” as Peking is the old spelling of the city).
“Traditionally, at a Lunar New Year dinner, a whole animal is served because it presents completeness or fulfilment,” explains celebrity chef and Market City’s 1909 Dining Precinct ambassador Adam Liaw.
In the case of duck it also represents fidelity. Once sliced and separated onto plates with the tender meat and crispy skin, a tray of special condiments including cucumber, shallot and even a sugary popping candy is passed around — or spun around if you’re using a lazy Susan.
Along with the meal, you’ll also need the hero dish of Chinese New Year — a whole fish.
There are some serious customs involved starting with the placement which entails having the head pointed towards the elder at the table. And because the word fish sounds like “abundance” it’s important to save at least half of it for the next day — thus you’re ensuring a “surplus” in the following year, and as it’s a whole fish, there’s also the promise of family unity.
Of course, there’s more after that, but safe to say at that point, you can justify tucking into the fried mandarin fish with sweet and sour sauce as heaven knows we certainly don’t want to waste our “abundance”.
Finish off with the Mahjong sweet pea treats, know as “Catch the Five Heads”. The soft sweet flavour that comes from the yellow peas makes it a perfect pairing for spicy dishes.
— Beijing Impression, Market City, Level 3, 9/13 Hay St, Haymarket; marketcity.com.au
THE EIGHT
While the kitchen may be the heart of the home, when large families get together, it can become one big hectic mess.
So for the annual “reunion dinner”, it’s often easier to book a banquet table to gather the relatives and give thanks.
For the matriarch overseeing the menu, those prayers of gratitude may be more for a clean kitchen and tidy lounge dining room as come the Yee-Sang (Prosperity Toss), a colourful dish with raw salmon, shredded vegetables and sweet dressing, things can get rather lively and a bit shambolic.
“Typically eaten at Chinese New Year, everyone at the table puts their chopsticks into the dish in preparation of the toss,” explains MasterChef Australia winner, cookbook author and TV personality Adam Liaw.
At Chinese restaurants, including one of his favourites, The Eight, he says: “You’ll likely see tables of people hurling their salad into the air. It tends to create a chain reaction throughout the restaurant because people just love the theatre of it.”
Fun aside, it’s time tuck into the rest of the meal where you’ll find plenty of greens, vegetable dishes (symbolising family unity), spring rolls (not only because they’re eaten on the first day of spring but also because they look like gold bars) and so much more.
Save room for dessert though as you’ll surely have a giggle with their novel Year of the Pig sweet bean paste dumplings. theeightrestaurant.com.au
— Market City, Level 3, 9/13 Hay St, Haymarket; theeightrestaurant.com.au
MUST TRY
KOI DESSERTS
Sydney’s royal family of pastries have created some delightful sweets to ensure good fortune in the New Year.
For prosperity, indulge in the gold chocolate mousse, ganache, caramel and hazelnut cake followed by the bright red Lucky Velvet cake.
With a red velvet sponge cake, raspberry cream cheese, hibiscus compote, dried rose and lychee all wrapped up in red chocolate, good fortune is sure to be on your side.
— KOI Dessert Bar; Chippendale, Ryde and Macquarie Centre; koidessertbar.com.au
SICILIAN PROSPERITY TOSS
In the middle of the table sits a platter with neatly wrapped angle hair pasta and an abundance of Australian seafood sashimi, divvied up as neatly as a Kardashian closet.
Encircling this decadent dish are ramekins with a generous helping of Sicilian spices, Olio’s own olive oil and a balsamic glaze. The symmetry doesn’t last long though as once award-winning chef Lino Sauro gives the word, diners at the table dig in and fling it all into the air just above the plate.
Sure Italian food can be messy, but this takes it to a whole other level.
As Lino explains though, it’s his take on the traditional Chinese Prosperity Toss.
“My idea of making Yu Sheng Sicilian style is just a way to reconnect what China and Sicily have had in common for centuries, sharing meals, celebrating family traditions and the deep and often religious belief that food has a way of uniting family and friends,” Lino says.
Of course, you won’t need much convincing to break bread with loved ones (and the tolerated ones as well) with Lino’s five-course Prosperity Menu.
In addition to the seafood extravaganza you’ll get other “lucky dishes” including red prawn ravioli with truffles, steamed barramundi and roast pork, all prepared with his signature Sicilian touch.
— Olio; Level 2, 2-10 Kensington St, Chippendale; olio.kensingtonstreet.com.au
XIAO LONG BAO
You get triple lucky points for these steamed “soup dumplings”.
Not only have you ensured prosperity thanks to their money-purse shape, but they’re also made with pork mince, which is poignant being as it’s the Year of the Pig. And as pigs are rather, *cough cough* rotund, those little purses will be loaded to the brim.
For extra credit, during Chinese New Year the Xiao long bao are made with vibrant vegetable juices to give them, you guessed it, lucky colours — beetroot red for happiness, success and good fortune, spinach green for wealth, fertility and growth, yellow from carrots for power and prosperity and purple from red cabbage representing strength and abundance.
For something a bit special try the “sky high dumplings” — all-you-can-eat New Shanghai dumplings up on the Observation Deck of the Sydney Tower Eye.
— New Shanghai, Westfield Sydney and other locations; newshanghai.com.au
CHINESE TEA CEREMONY
The young ones in the family will need to do a bit of work to garner the favour of elders and get those money-laden red envelopes. One way to get into the grandparents’ good graces is with a mere cup of tea.
Not just any cup will do though so for some added insight sit down with Tea Master, Jingxing Jao, or Jin for short, as she explains its subtle nuances through the 21-step tea ceremony.
It’s fascinating to learn such simple yet obvious thing such as how the temperature drops by 10 degrees with every sip thus the cups used are meant for only three sips, each time getting a different flavour.
While this may be a bit more than the average 10-year-old can take it, Jin notes that the simple act of kneeling and handing over the cup with both hands is a true sign of respect (plus it will probably help bring in the big bucks).
For those seeking good fortune themselves, try the regal Golden Tea ceremony made with tiny tea buds dipped in real gold.
— G&Tea; The Star, 80 Pyrmont St, Pyrmont; star.com.au
CHINESE 5 SPICED MULE
Food aside, sit back, and enjoy a Chinese New Year cocktail as you ponder your efforts towards prosperity and good fortune.
Take a seat up at the rooftop bar and imbibe in a Chinese 5 Spice Mule.
Made with their own spiced vodka, housemade spiced syrup and spiced ginger beer then topped with lime, mint, candied ginger, and finally chilli flakes. A real cracker.
kensingtonstreet.com.au
— Spritz; Level 2, 2-10 Kensington St, Chippendale; kensingtonstreet.com.au
LUNAR NEW YEAR’S SIX-COURSE MENU
Good fortune is served up in celebratory style at award-winning restaurant, Flying Fish. Recently relocated from Jones Bay Wharf, this seafood-centric venue has traded its sophisticated yet moody maritime vibe for sun-drenched elegance with the floor to ceiling windows that look out upon Pyrmont Park and Sydney’s skyline.
Fish is king here and no better time to show it respect than Lunar New Year, where a whole fish, (which symbolises “abundance”) is at the centre of the celebration.
Head chef Peter Robertson gives the Roast Green Back Flounder the royal treatment.
Being the Year of the Pig has included a Glazed Pork Belly to this six-course menu, which of course finishes off with a lucky red velvet malt cake with gold caramel. Available February 1-20.
— Flying Fish, The Star, 80 Pyrmont Rd, Pyrmont; star.com.au/sydney/flyingfish
CHATSWOOD YEAR OF THE PIG FESTIVAL
A journey through China may be in the works but until then, head to Chatswood for a full three weeks of festivities celebrating the Year of the Pig.
There’ll be an array of activities including markets, exhibits and for curious foodies, Taste of Asia Food Tours to Chatswood’s culinary hot spots.
— For more details, go to visitchatswood.com.au
DUMPLING AND WATERCOLOUR MASTERCLASSES
For those after something a bit more immersive, consider the Dumpling Masterclass with Lotus Dining’s Mindy Woods on February 9 and 23.
Not only will you learn the secrets of this fine art but also you get to finish off the session with a feast of your own making at Madame Shanghai (18 College St, Darlinghurst).
If cooking isn’t really your gig, grab a paintbrush instead and join in on a Watercolour Masterclass.
It’ll be 2.5 hours of hands-on demonstrations, plus a customised tasting menu.
— For more details, go to lotusdining.com.au or lotusdining.com.au/event/dumpling-masterclass
THE CALYX
Welcome in the Year of the Pig within the lovely surrounds of The Calyx with a Lunar New Year tasting menu.
Through February 10, indulge in bao-buns and dumplings but for something truly special, head over on February 5 for Chinese music performance in the afternoon.
— The Royal Botanic Garden, Shakespeare Place cnr Macquarie St; rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au
LONGEVITY NOODLES
In the quest for longevity, you’ll want to make sure there are plenty of noodles on your menu, as it is believed that eating unbroken noodles will ensure a long life.
So, that means no biting, just slurping. Try the Chongqing spicy noodles on Lunar New Year’s Eve, February 5 and receive a free order of Szechuan style dumplings* to encourage good fortune.
— Mr Meng Chongqing Gourmet; Market City, Level 3, 9-13 Hay St, Haymarket; marketcity.com.au
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