Nic Chan, Jasmine Kim & Vanessa Zhao Reveal Their Ultimate Lunar New Year Dishes

Food-filled family reunions and festive feasts are a staple of the Lunar / Chinese New Year celebrations, both in Aotearoa and abroad. Whether it’s heading out to a restaurant or cooking at home, a meal with friends and family is an excellent way to celebrate prosperity and regeneration.

Mitchell Hageman speaks to Asian-Kiwi food influencers about how they celebrate the holiday, their go-to dishes, and how family fun and festive delights go hand-in-hand.

Dumpling delights

For 11 years now, Nic Chan (@Chan Can Eat) and her family have been using the Lunar New Year holiday not only to connect and spend time together, but also to engage in some healthy competition. From their shared love of dumplings and Yum Cha, the family eventually decided to get experimental and wildly creative when cooking the classic festive dish.

“My dad’s from Hong Kong, so we’re half Chinese. We would always cook hundreds of dumplings to eat, and then it organically turned into a competition,” she says.

Traditionally, dumplings are a symbol of wishing good fortune for the rest of the year. During the competition, which this year will be held at Chan’s sister’s house with two kitchens, each team gets two entries. One is traditional, so the parameters are that it must be a type of dumpling you’d be able to find at a Cantonese yum cha, and the other is a wildcard fusion creation.

Past wildcard entries have blended cultures, cuisines and traditional flavours, with cinnamon bun, palusami (a traditional Fijian and Samoan dish with taro leaves and coconut cream), and even McDonald’s-themed dumplings in the mix. This year, Chan is going all out with a mince and cheese bakery pie dumpling as her wildcard.

“It’s actually highly secretive,” Chan says, explaining how each judge votes with a lucky gold coin that’s placed in a box corresponding to the dumpling they like the most. There’s also a viewer choice poll on social media.

“It’s a sought-after position to be a judge, but they’re family friends. They’re not even allowed to know who’s voting or who’s made what, so that the voting’s totally anonymous. Well, as much as it can be.”

With her family being half Chinese, Chan says the event – and to have it during the holiday – is a nice way to get together and remember that side of their culture, as well as their Kiwi side.

“It’s really cool to get everyone involved, and everyone loves it.”

Chan’s previous entry, a pan-fried cheeseburger dumpling, was a cheeky mash-up of two of her favourite foods and was definitely a hot pick with the judges.

“I told my family that they’d better bring their A-game this year. It tastes like your classic cheeseburger, but all wrapped up in a dumpling!”

Nic Chan’s cheeseburger dumplings

• 1 packet large store-bought dumpling wrappers (check your local Asian supermarket for the bigger size)

• 250g pork mince

• 250g beef mince (go for a fattier blend)

• ¼ cup very finely diced pickles

• 1 Tbsp American mustard

• 1 Tbsp ketchup

• ½ tsp salt

• ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

• ¾ cup Nacho cheese sauce

• 4 slices American-style cheese slices, finely chopped

Method

1. Finely dice onions and pickles (if you have one, put in a food processor for a finer dice)

2. In a bowl, combine pork and beef mince. Add pickles, onion, mustard, ketchup, salt and pepper. Mix until just combined.

3. Fold through cheese sauce and chopped cheese slices.

4. Place filling into the centre of each wrapper. (Be careful not to overstuff as they’ll burst while cooking). Lightly wet the edges of the wrapper with water, fold and seal firmly.

5. Cook your way: steam for 8 to 10 minutes, pan-fry until golden on the base then add a splash of water and cover to finish, or deep-fry until crisp and cooked through.

Tip: Dumplings are forgiving. If you love extra pickle or mustard in your cheeseburger, add a little more. Taste the (cooked) mixture as you go and adjust to suit.

Serve with extra ketchup and mustard for dipping. A sprinkle of sesame seeds is optional.

Makes approximately 30 dumplings.

Pristine pancakes

Auckland foodie and content creator Jasmine Kim likes to keep things simple and delicious for her Lunar New Year food. She shared her fun, family-friendly kimchi pancakes recipe on social media.

“Kimchi pancakes are a really easy recipe that a lot of Koreans and other cultures are now enjoying,” she says.

“They are commonly available at many Korean restaurants, and a lot of people are opening up, especially Kiwis, to kimchi as a popular ingredient.”

She admits there are dishes out there that are probably “a bit more popular” during the festive period, but she liked this particular dish because it was quite easy to make, and the recipe is well-known.

“I just thought it would be really nice for all my audiences who follow me to celebrate Lunar New Year with a really easy recipe with all the ingredients that could be found at the local supermarket, without having to find an Asian supermarket,” she says.

“It’s also a sharing dish, so you can have it by yourself if you want to, but most of the time you would make several of the pancakes and just share among family members.”

Kim immigrated to New Zealand when she was 5. While Kiwi culture was a big part of her family growing up, she says they still celebrate the Lunar New Year in some way each year.

“If we were living in Korea, it’s the time when you’d have a big feast with your wider family, and someone would host the gathering.

“Here, it’s just my direct family in New Zealand, and even though we don’t have a huge celebration, we still want to share a meal or two just because it’s all about family, it’s all about celebrating the new year, wishing each other health, fortune and wealth.”

Jasmine Kim’s kimchi pancakes

• 1 medium spring onion

• 1 1/2 cups cabbage kimchi

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/2 cup sparkling water (or cold water, as this makes the pancakes crispier)

• 1 large egg

• 1 tablespoon kimchi brine

• 1 medium onion

• 1/2 cup mixed frozen seafood

Method

• Cut the kimchi into bite-size pieces.

• Make a batter by adding the cut-up spring onions, kimchi, all-purpose flour, sparkling water (or cold water), egg, kimchi brine, onions, frozen seafood and spring onions.

• Mix everything to combine.

• In a heated non-stick frying pan, portion the batter with a 1/3-cup measuring cup, and cook each pancake until the edges are crispy and golden-brown, about 2 minutes per side.

• Serve hot and enjoy.

Celebratory Carp

Every Chinese New Year, there is one non-negotiable dish for Vanessa Zhao’s (@foodiestablenz) family: Braised Carp (also called A Dish of Abundance and Hope).

“It is glossy, deep brown from soy sauce, gently sweet, aromatic with ginger and scallions, and always served whole. For my family, it is a symbol of hope, continuity, and the promise of a better year ahead,” she says.

“Carp in particular carries deeper symbolism. In Chinese folklore, there is a story of a carp swimming upstream and leaping over the Dragon Gate, transforming into a dragon. The phrase “鲤鱼跳龙门 (Carp leaping over the dragon gate) represents success, achievement, and upward mobility.”

When carp is served at New Year, Zhao says the family are wishing for advancement, breakthroughs, and transformation.

“Growing up, I remember the fish being the centre dish on the table. My parents would be very particular about where the fish head and tail are facing when placed on the table. Usually, the head needs to face the oldest and most respected person of the family, and the tail faces the youngest person. It is always tradition for these two people to have a toast and drink together.”

Serving a whole fish symbolises financial prosperity, surplus at the end of the year, and a complete and harmonious family. In many Northern Chinese households, the fish is intentionally not eaten entirely. Leaving some behind symbolises that surplus will carry into the next year.

Zhao notes that in Chinese culture, food is a love language. Love is communicated through cooking, and respect is shown through abundance on the table.

“Each dish carries a wish: fish for surplus, dumplings for wealth, noodles for longevity, rice cakes for growth.

“When we gather around dishes like 红烧鲤鱼 (Braised Carp), we are sharing more than food. We are sharing wishes for prosperity, resilience and transformation, just like the carp leaping over the dragon gate.”

Zhao says her family doesn’t have a specific family recipe for the dish and “usually just wing it”, but suggested looking online for a variety of different recipes.

Chinese Braised Carp

Method

– Recipe courtesy of WildChina

Mitchell Hageman joined the Herald’s entertainment and lifestyle team in 2024. He previously worked as a multimedia journalist for Hawke’s Bay Today.

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