Shanghai Daily news

New Year's Eve dinner for a 22-person family is a challenge but head of the household, Zhou Cuiying, is more than up to the task. Here she offers some tips on how to put on a true feast, writes Fan Meijing

Zhou Cuiying, 74, has made special purchases for nianyefan (the Chinese lunar New Year's Eve dinner) in a big supermarket close to her home four times in one week.
She has bought various types of meat, fish, vegetables and beverages for the grandest dinner in a whole year, as well as dozens of different fruits, more than 10 kilograms of candies, roasted seeds and nuts for snacks between the meals.
"It's far from enough. I haven't planned all what's on the menu, so definitely more things will be needed," sighs Zhou, who was worried about starving her diners.
Having five children, five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, Zhou and her husband, the 74-year-old Li Yingen, are the heads of a 22-person big family. Although most of their offspring live far away and are always too busy to visit the aged couples, they promise to come back for nianyefan, which will be held tonight this year.
"That's why we still insist on preparing it ourselves. It's tiresome, but we feel perfect happiness while seeing our children sit around the table, eating, drinking, talking and laughing," smiles Zhou, her wrinkled face beaming. "We've been looking forward to the dinner since last year's 'nianyefan' was over."
Nianyefan, also known as tuanyuan fan (a dinner for family reunion), is regarded by the majority of Chinese people as the most important event in all celebrations for Spring Festival, or the Chinese New Year. All the dishes are traditional Chinese, and even the very popular Western foods such as cake or salad are excluded from the table on that special night.
Zhou says she has been making nianyefan for more than 50 years since her father passed away and her first grandson was born.
"But the basic courses of the dinner are kept almost the same, including eight to 10 cold dishes, eight to 10 hot dishes, a big soup, and two to three traditional Chinese snacks," she introduces. "Even in those hard times when we ate vegetables and few meats throughout the year, still we managed to maintain those complicated procedures for nianyefan."
The dinner, through centuries of succession and evolution, has for long become a sort of symbolic ritual for Chinese people to recall the past and to look into the future. Every family member is required to make toasts to one another and express best wishes for the coming year.
There are certain foods indispensable on a nianyefan table due to their specific auspicious meanings, but for families in different parts of China, the choices are frequently diverse and same foods may sometimes have different hints.
Shanghai people are accustomed to eating niangao, or the Chinese New Year cake made of sticky rice which indicates gaining promotion (meaning of the word "gao") in the new year (meaning of the word "nian"). They also like chunjuan, or the spring roll stuffed with cabbage and pork paste or sweetened bean paste, danjiao (egg dumpling) whose shape resembles gold yuanbao (currency in ancient China), and rouyuan (meat ball), which symbolizes the family's reunion, harmony and solidarity (as the word "yuan" in Chinese has such implications). Other popular foods for blessing may include tangyuan (stuffed sticky rice ball) and babaofan (eight-treasure sticky rice pudding).
Since no fixed rules regulating what foods should be served as the cold dishes, it is the cook who is the decision maker. The choices are wide, ranging from all kinds of vegetable, meats and seafoods. Usually, these foods are steamed, baked, boiled or fried in the morning, put separately in a set of plates, and placed on the dinner table before the guests are seated. The cold dishes are always stamped with distinct characteristics of the cook in different families, and how to make them delicious both by viewing and tasting become his or her biggest challenge.
To Zhou, red herring, mixed strips of jellyfish and rat-tailed radish, steamed pig tongues and guts are some of the favorites.
"Every year I rack my brains to create some really beautiful cold dishes," she smiles. "They are crimson, white, golden, green and pink, predicting a great feast and prosperity for my family."
Hot dishes are served when the cold appetizers are half eaten. Chicken, duck, fish and pork appear in sequence, being followed by two to three fried vegetables. Fried chunjuan are always served between the courses.
Then it comes the chicken, duck or pork soup, which is often contained in a huge terrine. Danjiao and rouyuan are mostly put in the soup. The final course can be fried niangao or steamed babaofan, or both.
"I've heard on television that many dietitians consider nianyefan is lavish and harmful to health. They warn people against eating too much and suggest reducing its size. But I don't agree," Zhou shakes her head. "It's about a centuries-old tradition, which should be carefully followed, valued, and handed down for centuries to come. It contains the aged dad and mom's blessing for happiness of all their children. And then," she grins broadly, pointing at herself, "it's about the glory of an old cook, who has served the same table for more than half a century."

Recipe for danjiao
Ingredients: 10 eggs, pork 400g (25 percent of fat), starch paste
Methods: 1. Beat the eggs with starch paste and salt. Chop the pork into meat paste and add flavorings.
2. Put a scoop on the fire. Rub the scoop's interior with an uncooked fat slice. Put a spoon of liquid egg into the scoop. Turn slowly the scoop so that the liquid egg is coagulated into a thin round egg crepe. Add some meat paste onto the crepe. Then use chopsticks to nip up one side of the crepe and lay it over the other side.
3. Repeat the above procedures to make more danjiao.
Recipe for babaofan
Ingredients: sticky rice 500g, sugar 200g, lard 75g, sweetened bean paste 125g, jujubes, melon seed kernels, pine nut kernels, sweetened lotus seeds, longan meat, glazed fruit strips
Methods: 1. Steam the rice, and then, mix into it sugar, cooked lard and boiling water.
2. Take out a big bowl and rub its interior with some lard. Put the jujubes, melon seed kernels, pine nut kernels, sweetened lotus seeds, longan meat, glazed fruit strips into the bowl and form a good pattern. Lay some rice over. Then add the sweetened bean paste. Lay the rice over to fill the bowl.
3. Steam the rice for an hour.
4. Overturn the rice and put it on the plate. Please be careful to avoid the rice from splitting.