Photo by Joshua Yospyn.

Dish of the Week: Dumplings, noodles, and other symbolic Chinese dishes

Where: China Bistro, The Source, among others

Gung hay fat choy! Today marks the beginning of the Chinese (or Lunar) New Year, a time for firecrackers, lion dancers, and feasting among friends and family. It’s also a time to eat all sorts of special foods to ensure good fortune in the year of the horse.

Like Passover seder, much of the food eaten during Chinese New Year is highly symbolic. Chinese is a tonal language, which means that many words are spelled and pronounced the same except for the intonation. This linguistic quirk has given way to a menu of foods whose names sound like “lucky”, “prosperous”, “wealth”, etc. Fish is a must at the dinner table because the word for fish is phonetically similar to plentiful, as are citrus fruits like tangerines (luck), oranges (gold), and pomelos (prosperity). To ensure a good year from start to finish, fruits and meats are often served whole, and noodles are left as long as possible to symbolize a long life. Some new year’s dishes — like jai, a Buddhist stew of vegetables and bean curd draped in a tangle of black sea moss — will be unfamiliar to those who didn’t grow up celebrating the holiday. But others, like dumplings and spring rolls, will be familiar to anyone who’s set foot inside a Chinese take-out. Both items are thought to resemble ancient forms of currency, and who doesn’t want to be rich in 2014?

You can eat auspiciously at plenty of Chinese restaurants around town, though this is a brief list of our favorites. For dumplings, get yourself to China Bistro (755 Hungerford Drive) in Rockville and sample one of a dozen different varieties. Thin, tender dough and juicy, flavorful filling sets these suckers apart from their inelegant, bland counterparts. If you can’t make it to Rockville, The Source (575 Pennsylvania Avenue NW) also makes a mighty tasty, if not fully authentic, pork belly dumpling. In honor of the holiday, you can even learn how to make dumplings with chef Scott Drewno on Saturday, a skill that’s sure to come in handy for many new years to come.

Small Bites

Share your love for ending child hunger
Urbana (2121 P St NW) will host a “Share Your Love” charity chef dinner to benefit Share Our Strength and their annual Taste of the Nation gala in the spring. The dinner will feature a course from each of the four participating chefs — Jennifer Nguyen of Zentan, Dennis Marron of Poste, Ethan McKee of Urbana, and Todd Wiss of Firefly — as well as wine pairings from Brabo sommelier Matthew Carroll. The collaborative menu includes pan-roasted rack of New Zealand venison with parsnip, braised kale, and Madeira-porcini sauce, as well as a foie gras terrine with terrine, burnt marshmallow, spiced molasses, and sauternes-soaked citrus segments. Tickets are $125 and can be purchased online or by calling 1-877-26-TASTE.

Are you ready for some chili with your sportsball?
Looking for some classier Super Bowl snacks? Ditch the seven layer dip for duck fat fries with truffle mayo and homemade pretzels with bourbon honey butter at Jack Rose’s (2007 18th Street NW) Super “Chili” Bowl party. Watch the game on several big screens on the (heated) third floor terrace while enjoying a complimentary bowl of chili and corn bread. Drink specials include $5 punch, pints, and whiskey, and the aforementioned fries and pretzels will be half off.

Eat like a Russian Olympian
Mari Vanna (1141 Connecticut Avenue NW) will be bringing a taste of Sochi to D.C. for the Winter Olympics. Stop by on Friday, February 7 from 6-9 p.m. to toast the opening ceremonies with a free shot of vodka and pirozhki during their Olympics happy hour. And for the duration of the games, enjoy three traditional dishes from Sochi, beef kabobs; solyanka, a spicy meat and vegetable soup; and khachapuri, a Georgian bread stuffed with cheese.