The Lunar New Year, commonly known as Chinese New Year but also celebrated by Vietnamese, South Koreans, Tibetans and Malaysians, takes place this year on Saturday February 10, 2024. This celebration, based on the lunar calendar, marks the start of a new year in 2024 under the sign of the Wooden Dragon.
In addition to the parades and festive events to be enjoyed in Paris and throughout the Ile-de-France region, Lunar New Year 2024 is also an opportunity to sample some of the typical traditional specialties eaten during this celebration. 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.
Because these noodles represent a vow of longevity, the longer the better. So there's no question of cutting them when you're eating them! So it may take a while to get the hang of it.
Where to eat them: La Cantine Chinoise, Les pâtes vivantes, Happy Nouilles
This is an essential Vietnamese specialty for the 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, which brought together the simple ingredients found in most peasant dishes. Since then, bánh chưng has become a highlight of the Vietnamese New Year. The banh tet is cylindrical in shape, a symbol of fertility.
A radish cake may seem surprising. Yet it's a very popular specialty for the Lunar New Year. Lok Ba Go is generally made with white radish, rice flour, vegetables and even shrimps.
For the record, this Cantonese specialty is sometimes nicknamed turnip or carrot cake, but it's not carrot cake but 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's 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 2024 pastries - Chinese New Year and where to buy them in Paris
To mark Lunar Chinese New Year 2024, 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 Chinese Lunar New Year 2024 guides below!
Lunar New Year 2024 pastries - Chinese New Year and where to buy them in Paris
