Celebrating Chinese New Year with Wilson Omnifile

Firing crackers in honor of kitchen god

Celebrations for the Chinese Year of the Rabbit begin tomorrow, and Omnifile has a number of articles on the festivities that are sure to give you and your patrons some ideas for marking the occasion.

In an article from Yankee (January/February 2008), Boston restaurateur Joanne Chang offers a recipe for Chinese dumpling and soy dipping sauce, which is an ideal party food that is also sociable to prepare. For a Taoist approach to preparing a New Year's feast, find inspiration in an article from Sunset (February 2002), where a full  yin-yang menu including hot-and-sour soup, rock sugar ginger chicken, steamed sole with black bean sauce, stir-fried garlic lettuce, and steamed sponge cake is provided.

Rabbit by Nathan Oliveira

Remember that patrons can not only print out these articles to read, but also save them to an MP3 player to listen to at their leisure (they can opt for either a male or a female voice for the playback), which can be helpful when compiling a shopping list or cooking the recipes.

Those looking for some apt words for the occasion might consider a short speech from actor Nicolas Cage. After years of believing himself to have been born in the year of the dragon, he later discovered he was really a rabbit. You can read his whole speech in Los Angeles (January 2002).

(This entry is illustrated with pictures from Art Museum Image Gallery.)

Happy New Year!