It’s Chinese Epoch!

Oriental Bar & Kitchen, Park Hyatt, have organised a 10-day Happy Chinese Food Festival which started from Feb 19 and will continue till March 1. Different people with different cultures all across the globe have varied traditions, rituals and beliefs related to the celebration and beginning of a New Year. The Chinese have quite a bold and ceremonious style of celebrating their traditional New Year.

The Chinese New Year, as the name suggests, is one of the main festival for Chinese and each year is celebrated as the year of different zodiacs and the animal associated with it. This year is the year of goat. The festival is a 15-day celebration with family feasts, food and reunions that are believed to bring good luck in the commencing year.

Grippingly, most of the festive customs heavily rest upon food. From the method of cooking to the way it's served and eaten, every delicacy on the traditional menu carries a distinct story. And, this time, the celebration is playing with food to a whole new level.

Talking more about the Chinese food, its speciality and celebration, Chef Phongthorn Hinracha said, “We usually celebrate the Chinese New Year for 2-3 days but this time, we have extended it to 10 days. And most of our recipes for this occasion are from Hong Kong and Cantonese inspired.”

Sharing more about the ingredients and his comfort food among all, he said, “Roasted honey chicken will be the highlight and would be served with Man Tao (Chinese steamed buns). And, yes, we are using a lot of new ingredients like scallop from US for soup, soaked shitake mushroom, Bamboo shoot julienne and many more. We are keeping the food medium in terms of spice but it would be roasted and crispy. Variety of delicacies are surely going to leave you asking for more.”

By:Meenakshi Sengupta