Lunar New Year, commonly known as Chinese New Year but also celebrated by Vietnamese, South Koreans, Tibetans and Malaysians, takes place this year on Wednesday January 29, 2025. This celebration, based on the lunar calendar, marks the start of a new year in 2025 under the sign of the Wood Snake.
In addition to the parades and festive events to be enjoyed in Paris and throughout the Ile-de-France region, Lunar New Year 2025 is also an opportunity to sample some of the traditional specialties eaten during the festival. Would you like to find out more about these Chinese and Vietnamese specialities?
Here are just a few of them, along with the restaurants, caterers and patisseries in Paris where you can buy them and devour them!
It's a tradition that takes on the air of a real challenge. At Lunar New Year, among the specialties that vie for the limelight are exxxxtra-long noodles prepared for the occasion. Not so extraordinary, you might ask? But it's when you actually eat them that things get complicated.
Indeed, since these noodles represent a vow of longevity, the longer they are, the better. So there's no question of cutting them when you're eating them! So it may take you a while to get the hang of it.
Where to eat: La Cantine Chinoise, Les pâtes vivantes, Happy Nouilles
This is an essential Vietnamese specialty for Lunar New Year Tet. This sticky rice cake, stuffed with pork and mung beans, is covered with banana leaves or La Dong. According to legend, this rice cake was created by Prince Lang Lieu, 18th son of King Hung Vuong. In a competition organized by Hung Vuong, each prince was asked to present a culinary creation.
Whoever unveiled the most delicious dish would then succeed him on the throne. Lang Lieu came up with this cake that brought together the simple ingredients that make up most peasant dishes. Since then, bánh chưng has become a highlight of the Vietnamese New Year. The banh tet has a cylindrical shape, a symbol of fertility.
A radish cake may seem surprising. Yet it's a very popular Lunar New Year speciality. Lok Ba Go is generally made with white radish, rice flour, vegetables and even shrimp.
For the record, this Cantonese specialty is sometimes nicknamed turnip cake or carrot cake, but it's not a carrot cake, it's actually daikon radish!
Chinese New Year cake is a rice cake made from glutinous rice, stuffed with dried fruit and steamed. It's a distinctive Chinese specialty. It can be eaten reheated, steamed or fried.
Candied fruit is a Chinese and Vietnamese New Year staple. From coconut to candied ginger and lotus pearls, they can be enjoyed throughout the festive period.
Where to find them: Saison, La pâtisserie de Choisy, Tang Frères and Paris Store.
Lunar New Year 2025 pastries - Chinese New Year - Where to buy in Paris?
For Lunar-Chinese New Year 2025, we're taking a tour of Paris's pastry shops and sweet spots to treat ourselves and awaken our taste buds to new Asian flavors. [Read more]
And don't forget to check out all our guides for Chinese Lunar New Year 2025 below!
Lunar New Year 2025 pastries - Chinese New Year - Where to buy in Paris?
