The Many Flavours of Chinese New Year
The Yellow River propels life forward. When the festivals arrive New Year will always blossom brilliantly on the dining tables of the Chinese.
I’ve just finished watching the 2015 documentary on Chinese New Year by Bite of China, the acclaimed TV food show made by CCTV (China Central Television). If you haven’t heard of this TV series, put down your chopsticks, because this is the finest food television ever made.
I joke that Bite of China is the ‘Blue Planet’ of Chinese TV — because food shows are the equivalent of nature documentaries among Chinese audiences. To get some idea of how influential it is and how passionate the Chinese are about food, after one episode about the dying tradition of hand-hammered woks, one local artisan workshop in Zhangqiu sold 3,000 woks in one day and received over 100,000 orders — resulting in a two–year waiting list.
If you have a spare 90 minutes, do watch this documentary on Chinese New Year. As I mentioned in my previous article, Chinese New Year is known as the world’s largest annual human migration. This episode is a mouthwatering depiction of its epic scale — if only in the sheer diversity of regional delicacies that it features. There are dishes that I’ve never heard of, made from ingredients that I’ve never heard of, in regions that I’ve never heard of. It’s also a stunning visual feast of artisanal craftsmanship; evidence of what a lifetime of mastery can produce.
If you don’t have that spare 90 minutes, here below is one of my favourite scenes.
