CBS2 meets 2 chefs adding a twist to traditional dishes for Lunar New Year
NEW YORK -- This weekend marks the start of the Chinese Lunar New Year.
It is customary for families to gather and eat foods that are believed to bring luck for the coming year.
On Thursday, CBS2 met two chefs adding a twist to traditional dishes for the Year of the Water Rabbit.
READ MORE: "From Chinatown, With Love" project merges art with businesses for the Lunar New Year
Chef Tom Lei was firing up the menu at Chi on Ninth Avenue in Hell's Kitchen with a touch of his Beijing roots.
His smile said it all, saying through a translator his favorite part is "making the food for the people that who also have the same feeling, like, come here. It's like coming back home."
It's a tale of two Toms. Lei has teamed up with co-owner Tom Lo to bring in the Year of the Water Rabbit with traditional foods from all over China.
Every new year's table has steamed fish signifying abundance. St Chi, they make a squirrel fish with a Szechuan garlic sauce, and, no, it's not a real squirrel. It's snapper.
"It's a fish that is shaped like a squirrel and it's based on how we basically debone it," Lo said.
This year, Lei created a dish called the Emperor's Purse." It has shrimp and fruit and it signifies wealth.
"The one everybody has money, help the economy go," Chi general manager Nancy Xiao said.
Noodles are for longevity. Making food from scratch for the 15-day festival is how Lo was raised.
"We would basically all sit around making dumplings all by hand, from scratch," Lo said.
The menu is available until Jan. 29, but the holiday is still observed even 15 days later, Xiao said.
"We have another celebration called 'Yuan Xiao Jie,' the finish, the end of the new year," she said.
And before it all begins, this is an opportunity for people of all backgrounds to cleanse their palates-and celebrate life.
