Celebrate the Lunar New Year with an Asian Charcuterie Board

With the Lunar New Year just around the corner, forget your standard meat and cheese platters and try your hand at putting together an Asian charcuterie board, heaped with culinary delights.

Growing up, I always coveted the compact Lunchables that my classmates snacked on at recess but looking back, I realize that I got the better end of the stick. Instead of Dunkaroos, Kraft Dinner and Spaghettios, my childhood was filled with heaps of steaming dim sum, loads of juicy dumplings and piles of bao.

I may not know much about Lunar New Year celebrations beyond red envelopes and saying “Gong hei fat choy,” but I know that food plays an integral part in any festivities.

What is Lunar New Year?

While a lot of people (myself included) know the festivities as Chinese New Year, locals actually refer to it as Lunar New Year or Spring Festival in China. I imagine it’s similar to how I think Greek yogurt is just called “yogurt” when you’re in Greece… Plus, the holiday is celebrated by other countries that observe the lunisolar calendar like Korea and Vietnam.

The festival begins on the first day of the month, coinciding with the new moon, and lasts for 15 days. This accounts for why Lunar New Year falls on a different date every year, but it’s always between January 21 and February 21.

FYI, this year the Lunar New Year is February 12, 2021 and we’re celebrating the Year of the Ox!

Lunar New Year Reunion Dinner

While there are many traditions — from fireworks to lion dances — observed during the two weeks of Lunar New Year celebrations, can you guess which is my favourite? The reunion dinner (duh)! Oh, and the red packets of lucky money of course 🤑

The reunion dinner takes place on the Lunar New Year’s Eve (February 11, 2021) and its purpose is to gather the family together to kick the year off on a good note. What better way than with an elaborate banquet of delicious food?

Lunar New Year Food

If my own family is any indication, the Chinese are a superstitious bunch (I literally canNOT punch a “4” into the microwave because it’s been drilled into me that it’s bad luck as the word in Chinese sounds like “death”). So it makes sense that many dishes that are served at the reunion dinner are imbued with meaning.

For example, dishes of whole chicken and fish signify the togetherness of the reunion dinner, while tangerines eaten at the end of the meal means good fortune. Longevity noodles represent hope for a long life and candies symbolize a sweet one (maybe more literal than symbolic…).

Asian Charcuterie for Lunar New Year reunion dinner - dumplings

Photo by Mae Mu via Unsplash

The most common Lunar New Year food you’ll find amid the array of traditional dishes is jiaozi, or dumplings. The plump parcels in white or egg wrapping are supposed to resemble silver and gold ingot (respectively), money used in ancient times. Imagine you have so much money that you can eat it! Even the fillings have special meanings (avoid Chinese sauerkraut-filled dumplings if you don’t want your future to be difficult).

So, what are you bringing to the feast?

Asian Charcuterie Board

The way my family does get-togethers is potluck-style. We all bring a little something-something to the party so the responsibility doesn’t fall on just one person.

While I can throw together a mean stir-fry ramen, I will leave the whole chicken and fish dishes to the chefs in the family (a.k.a. not me). Instead, I thought take this time in lockdown to practice arranging an easy Asian charcuterie board in anticipation of when we can safely celebrate Lunar New Year with family again in the future.

First, let’s start with the basics:

Charcuterie 101

Charcuterie is a French term (chair for “meat” and cuit for “cooked”) for the culinary art of preparing cured or smoked meats. It was originally a way for chefs to preserve meat in the time before refrigeration became a thing.

Now it has grown in popularity among the millennial crowd who are nostalgic for childhood Lunchables. Charcuterie boards have evolved into social media masterpieces that include everything from complexion-destroying cheeses, fruits, nuts, crackers….pretty much anything you can dream of.

My friend even brought over a vegan charcuterie before and I didn’t hate it! I just take issue with the trickery of labelling something made of nuts “cheese”… It’s all about expectations.

Tips for Making A Charcuterie Board

+ Variety, variety, variety: The beauty of a charcuterie platter is that you get a little bit of everything — different foods (cheese vs meat), textures (crunchy vs soft), flavours (sweet vs savoury), even size. Variety is the spice of life and the key to a killer charcuterie board.

+ Build around anchor pieces: When you’re arranging your board, start by choosing your anchor pieces, whether it’s a premium wedge of Brie or a rich paté, and build around it. You can fill in the empty spaces with smaller or more flexible items.

+ Condiments: Bring your charcuterie board to the next level with fancy condiments like truffled honey or fancy AF jams or spicy mustards. It’ll be the cherry on top of an already delicious sundae!

+Boards for charcuterie: You can use anything from a drink tray to wooden cutting boards to baking sheets with a lip!

Asian Charcuterie for Lunar New Year reunion dinner - charcuterie platter

(Photo by Erik Dugan via Unsplash)

Accompaniments

For a regular ol’ charcuterie board, people use nuts, pickles, olives….whatever odds and ends are kicking around the shelves or lying forgotten in the fridge. For an Asian-inspired charcuterie board, try adding a variety of sweet and/or savoury Asian snacks like:

- - Haw Flakes: Disc-shaped sweets, made from the fruit of the Chinese hawthorn
  - Shrimp Chips: Prawn-flavoured chips, like the Asian Cheetos
  - Roasted Wasabi Peas: Exactly what it sounds like
  - Pocky: Thin biscuit sticks covered in varying flavoured cream
  - White Rabbit Candy: Milk candy with a thin, dissolvable rice paper wrapping
  - Egg Rolls: Super crumbly biscuits rolled up like a cigar
  - Kasugai Roasted Nuts: Asian version of a nut mix but crunchier
  - Rice Crackers: Light and crunchy seasoned crackers
  - Hot Sauce: Can’t forget dollops of sriracha or chilli garlic sauce to dip the dim sum into

Going HAM at a Chinese grocery…what to choose? (Photos by Victoria Denstedt)

Chinese buns

The air thick with the scent of butter and sugar, browse the aisles of a Chinese bakery in Toronto for delicious pastries to add to your Asian-inspired charcuterie board. You know I don’t discriminate against buns. Grab a bunch of your fav like:

- - Pineapple Buns: The top is brushed with a sweet paste that looks like a rind once baked
  - Coconut Buns: Split down the middle filled with a salty-sweet cream and dusted with dried coconut
  - BBQ Buns: Chopped up char siu (barbeque pork) filling with sweet glaze
  - Salted Egg Yolk: Like a lava cake but with cured, salted yolks blended with sugar and evaporated milk
  - Egg Custard Tarts: Like the Portuguese pasteis de nata but more egg-y
  - Gai Pie: Hong Kong-style chicken pie but with richer crust (my faaavvv!)
  - Mooncake: A staple for lunar-related festivals with dense, rich fillings of red bean or lotus seed

All the buns at Hong Kong Island Bakery

If you’re looking for Chinese bakeries in Downtown Toronto, check out Hong Kong Island Bakery, Ding Dong Pastries or the Chinatown staple, Chinese Bakery. I always walk away with a huge bag for under $10.

Dim Sum and Dumplings

- - Har Gow: Plump shrimp-filled dumplings
  - Siu Mai: Steamed pork and shrimp dumplings in an egg wrapper
  - Xiao Long Bao: Delicate soup-filled dumplings served with a dash of vinegar and sriracha
  - Sticky Rice: Glutinous rice bundled in lotus leaf then steamed
  - Taro Dumplings: Mashed taro and ground pork within a thin, lattice crust
  - Deep-Fried Shrimp Rolls: Super flakey, perfect for a sweet dipping sauce
  - Chicken Feet: Steamed, braised and deep fried until soft then submerged in a sticky marinade

Bao on Spadina is considered by Mr. Yum Yum to be the best Chinese restaurant in Toronto (downtown at least) and it probably has the best xiao long bao, but for budget-friendly ones I go to Juicy Dumplings. My standard haunts for the best dim sum in Toronto are Rol San (hands down) and Rosewood Asian Cuisine (for convenience). For the best dumplings in Downtown Toronto, you can try fan-fav Mother Dumplings or the Dumpling House Restaurant.

My Asian charcuterie board didn’t turn out exactly the way I had imagined it would….but that’s ok! This was a test drive for future Lunar New Year celebrations when there are more people to partake in the excessive amounts of food I’d have to get to create aesthetically pleasing patterns. Also, trying to move fragile dumplings around without tearing the wrapping is hard….

If you now have a serious craving for Chinese food, here’s the lowdown on the best restaurants in Chinatown Toronto.

Keep your stalking game strong and follow me @teriaki if you aren’t already!