Spice Temple welcomes in Year of The Dragon with Chinese New Year Feast of Auspicious Dishes

Tuesday, 9 January 2024: Spice Temple is embracing the Chinese custom of ushering in fortuitous times with special feasts of auspicious dishes planned for the coming Lunar New Year celebrations.

Executive Chef of Spice Temple Sydney and Melbourne Andy Evans and Melbourne Head Chef Maggie Chan have curated special banquet menus to celebrate the Year of the Dragon, which falls on Saturday 10^th February with traditional celebrations lasting for up to 16 days.

The Lunar New Year banquet menus ($149 per person) are available from Monday 5^th February to Sunday 18^thFebruary, for lunch and dinner at Spice Temple in Sydney and Melbourne.

Chef Andy explains: “We have drawn on some of our most special dishes that we save for celebratory occasions and have also created entirely new dishes featuring ingredients that are said to promote prosperity, happiness, peace, love and other aspects of good fortune.”

In Sydney, the Chinese New Year banquet menu heroes purse-shaped pipis that represent fortune, tea eggs that signify fertility, noodles that stand for longevity, and red ingredients such at baby tomatoes that stand for prosperity.

In Melbourne, the menu showcases golden bao buns that represent wealth, abalone which symbolises wealth and power, as well as classic dishes eaten during Lunar New Year celebrations, such as raw fish Yu Sheng salad, otherwise known as ‘Prosperity Toss’, which symbolises good luck for the new year.

“Diners are encouraged to toss the shredded ingredients of the salad in the air; the higher they toss the ingredients the greater their good fortune in the year ahead,” Chef Andy says.

In Melbourne, Chef Maggie has created unique dishes, including Golden Bao Buns that represent wealth. Another special dish created for the Lunar New Year feast is Shanghai Shallot Oil Noodles served with grilled Spencer Gulf prawns.

“We make the noodles by hand. In traditional Chinese custom, noodles represent longevity. Traditionally, this is a humble dish that is loved for its great flavour, but at Spice Temple we’ve included beautiful prawns to give it a premium touch.”

“Our Sichuan liang fen is another humble dish, of street food origin. On our limited-edition Chinese New Year menu these delicious slippery jelly-like noodles are paired with rich abalone to represent wealth.”