Georgia author Natalie Keng celebrates Lunar New Year with an epic feast where all are welcome.
Throughout my life, I have learned grit and perseverance navigating what it means to be Asian and Southern.
My career took a much different path, although it does involve the culinary world.
Credit:Cedric Angeles
I createdCooking Up a Better Worldworkshops, which foster camaraderie and collaboration through interactive food-and-culture experiences.
I believe that minds open when mouths open.
And nowhere is the power of food more evident than at holiday time.
Natalie Keng Lunar New Year CommUNITY Banquet at Canton House restaurant on Buford Hwy in GA.Credit:Cedric Angeles
(This year, the holiday starts on January 29.)
The culinary parallels in Eastern and Western New Years traditions might surprise you.
In the American South,leafy collardsrepresent money and a hope for prosperity.
Credit:Cedric Angeles
Golden cornbread also has an Asian doppelganger: Chinese fa gao (sweet muffins made of rice).
Behind all this symbolism are universal sentiments: peace, goodwill, and may your tummy never go empty.
The idea came to me as a traveler strolling the alleyways of Taiwans famous Dihua Street.
Credit:Cedric Angeles
Behind all this symbolism are universal sentiments: peace, goodwill, and may your tummy never go empty.
Each dish has a story.
My mothers cured five-spice bean curd with garlic chives and Chinese sausage unfailingly wins over die-hard tofu naysayers.
Whole fish, a Mandarin homophone for abundance and thus a requisite banquet dish, is always present.
I use the recipe from my cookbook,Egg Rolls & Sweet Tea: Asian Inspired, Southern Style.
Join the fun!
Tickets to the 11th Lunar New Year CommUNITY Cultural Dinner are available now.
