Vietnamese and Korean chefs recreate Lunar New Year feasts
The Lunar New Year is one of the most celebrated events around the world and is considered a public holiday in several countries.
But for those celebrating in British Columbia, it can be challenging to plan festivities when the New Year falls on just another work day.
Chi Le immigrated to Canada from Vietnam nearly 30 years ago. She's the chef of Chi Modern Vietnamese Kitchen in Vancouver and she's doing her best to keep the tradition alive.
"We don't have as much time to celebrate the New Year like how we would do in Vietnam but it's a tradition so we try to keep it here," she told CBC's Caroline Chan.
In Vietnam, she said, the celebrations would span several days.
Her family and neighbours would begin preparing nearly a week before the event and the feast would last for days after, with plenty of leftovers.
Le still cooks many of those dishes herself.
"I'm preparing all the traditional dishes that I remember my mother cooked or my neighbour had cooked," Le said. "I usually cook a lot of dishes — eight, nine or 10 dishes."
One of those dishes is sticky rice, wrapped in a banana leaf and boiled.
In Vietnam, her mother and neighbours would get together to cook the banana leaf packages in a big shared pot of boiling water, Le recalled.
"They would use coloured string so they know which one belongs to which family," she said.
Although some things may have changed, Le said the most important part of the day — spending time with family and friends — remains the same.
"Having a family meal together and sharing the food that you make, that's luck," she said. "How many of us nowadays with busy lives can find the time for family to be together and eat and talk and share stories through a meal?"
Eric Lee is the chef and owner of Damso, a Korean restaurant in Vancouver.
Since opening the restaurant, Lee spends most of the holiday with restaurant family — the staff and customers.
Every year, he makes rice cakes and anchovy-based broth for the special day.
"We usually sell it here in my restaurant for the New Year's Day," he said. "It's not a huge seller but Korean people request it and all our staff gets to eat it too."
The Lunar New Year falls on Friday, Feb. 16 this year.
With files from Caroline Chan and The Early Edition.
