"ChineseNewYear" news and stories

• This Valentine's Day, instead of the same old box of chocolates, consider crack -- Crack Pie, that is.
• Or, in honor of Chinese New Year, use these DIY instructions to make dumplings for your dumpling.
• Il Dolce in Costa Mesa isn't just a pizza joint -- but it's the main reason you'll want to go. And you will want to go.
• At Hayat's Kitchen in North Hollywood, the garlic fries are so intense, "you might be able to use [them] to revive the recently deceased." Enough said!
• The trend in planting tea gardens gives new meaning to "growing your own."

• Philadelphia restaurateur Margaret Kuo prepares for the Chinese New Year and offers some recipes for readers to make at home.
• Topping dishes with a poached or fried egg is becoming the hottest restaurant trend out there. Happily, it is an easy trick for home cooks to replicate.
• A review of Rachael Ray's Big Orange Book says that while the images aren't appealing, the recipes are homey and tasty.
• In Table Talk, the new Center City gastropub Slate opens tomorrow and Meme finally got its liquor license.
• Every Saturday morning, the Men's Pea Soup Committee at the American Swedish Historical Museum makes 16 gallons of Swedish pea soup.
  
• Food meets comedy in the new one-man show, Cooking Con Karimi.

Want to celebrate the Year of the Ox in proper fashion? The BBC has a simple guide to the Chinese New Year, which begins today. Traditional foods - which vary greatly depending on the region - include Northern Chinese dumplings resembling gold ingots, said to bring wealth for the coming year; big family meals called "poo choi," in which everyone eats out of the same giant bowl to promote togetherness; Southern Chinese turnip cakes given as a sign of respect and honor; and glutinous rice cakes whose sticky nature is said to help families stick together in the new year.

Plus, there's a link to a bunch of the BBC Food's Chinese recipes - think red-cooked pork belly, ginger fish, stir-fried salt and pepper prawns.

The celebration of the Chinese New Year actually starts a few weeks before the actual New Year Day, and one of the traditions is preparation for the new year by cleaning the house. Chinese people believe that the house should receive a thorough cleaning in order to "sweep" away any bad luck that has accumulated in the house over the past year.

Now I'm not one for sweeping in my house, since I have carpeting, but I do like the idea of "cleaning house," or at the very least, my kitchen. Last year, I made it a point to look through the drawers, and force myself to part with gadgets that I know I will never use: a garlic peeler, a melon baller, etc. This year, I decided to look through my pantry and do an exorcism. Admittedly, it needed it. There were cans of vegetables that expired sometime last year, a small bag of all-purpose flour that was also expired (I didn't do much baking last year), and spices that were definitely long past their prime. Yes, it hurt me to toss them into the trash, but it gives me an excuse to buy anew!

What do you have in your kitchen that's past its prime and needs to be thrown out? Don't be shy...

It's February, and let's face it, by now, almost all of us have already broken our New Year's resolutions. However, we do have a chance to start over, since this coming Sunday, February 18, 2007 is the beginning of the new lunar year. Year 4704 is the Year of the Pig.

Everyone knows it's the Year of the Pig, but did you also know that it's the year of the golden pig? The Pig (sometimes referred to as "boar") is a symbol of sincerity, honesty, and patience -- an all around "nice" person. We won't go into all the deep details behind Chinese astrology, but we will say that because the year of the Golden Pig only comes every 600 years, it's pretty special -- we're talking about the difference between plain old pork and Nueske bacon! People are expecting prosperity in Year 4704, and anyone born this year is sure to be wealthy in the future.

There are a lot of traditions associated with Chinese New Year, and so many of them have to do with food! Between now and the first day of the new year, expect a few posts, aside from the ones we've already started, to celebrate the new year. Gung Hay Fat Choy!