Chinese New Year Holiday: New Year's Eve Foods

Here in Northern China, eating jiaozi (dumplings) is a must during Chinese New Year!  It is known as one of the traditional "prosperity" foods. Many families eat these at midnight so they have money at the changing of the years.  Some cooks will hide a clean coin in one for the most lucky to find--if they don't break a tooth :) Boiled, and served with soy sauce and vinegar, is the most common way to eat them like the above picture. These are pork and cabbage--one of our favorites!

These are fried jiaozi and they are my personal favorite!  Since I'm the cook, I always include some of those too:)  Some of our girls like these, but most prefer the boiled variety.  These are pork and mushroom, but I especially enjoy the lamb and onion ones!

Another of the "lucky" foods is considered broccoli. Here it's stir-fried with garlic in a thickened chicken bouillon sauce--the most popular way here.

And this is another very popular dish here in Northern China.  It is raw cucumbers with soybean paste sauce.