Lunar New Year Comes to Wonderful Chinese Restaurant

CHINESE New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, is the most important day of the year for millions of people around the world, and is celebrated in a festival lasting 40 days. 2022 is the year of the Tiger, associated in the Chinese zodiac with power and rebellion, and anyone born under this sign could be sharpening their claws, grooming their attire, and making important life decisions, such as a career change, marriage, whether or not to have more children, or the possible advantages of emigration.

Cold tofu with soy sauce.

There was a palpable sense of excitement last  week at Wonderful Chinese Restaurant on Churchill Avenue, a few days before the second new moon after the winter solstice, heralding the Lunar New Year. George and I arrived for Sunday lunch at Wonderful , and were greeted as we entered with sounds of merry making in either Cantonese or Mandarin. I had made a reservation, and a pleasant waiter directed us to the front room, and a table for two by the window, looking out over the  rain-soaked garden of cycads, shrubs and palm trees. Festivities were clearly taking place in private rooms, and the diners in our section of the restaurant were ninety nine per cent Zimbos.

Certain dishes often feature on the menu over the Lunar New Year. Steamed fish ensures success in the coming year, spring rolls resemble gold bars, and attract wealth, sweet rice balls signify harmony and family togetherness, while the number of dumplings you eat, whether steamed or fried, predicts the amount of money you’ll make in the new year.

Stir fried aubergines with green beans.

A starter of steamed pork dumplings (said to resemble ancient Chinese money) was stodgy, but made more palatable by the addition of soy sauce and a home made chilli-in-oil sauce. In the hopes of improving my finances in 2022, I managed to eat three.

Would the steamed bass pictured in the menu ($18) bring success? Although tempted, we opted for garlic trotters ($8), egg plant with green beans ($6) and cold tofu in soy sauce ($6).

The cold tofu was silky, smooth and fragrant with soy sauce and chopped spring onions. An excellent sauce of vegetable protein, said to lower cholesterol levels and prevent dementia, it seemed an appetising way to promote good health, if not to attract wealth.

Egg plant with green beans was another winner; made with long, slender egg plants (aka aubergines and brinjals) cut into uniform matchsticks, and stir-fried with garlic, ginger, soy sauce, and crisp string beans, the flavour was one of umami – savoury and almost meaty. This was a dish I would order again and again.

Garlic and chilli pork trotters at Wonderful Restaurant

Pork is the most popular meat in Chinese cuisine, and is prepared in many different ways. Not everyone shares the love for pigs trotters, but once you’ve tasted garlic and chilli braised trotters at Wonderful Restaurant, you’ll be searching for recipes to make them in your own kitchen.

A Chinese meat cleaver, a force of both strength and precision, must have been used to cut the trotters into manageable sized pieces. Brought to the table enclosed in tinfoil to preserve flavour and heat, we opened up the parcel and realised there was no polite way in which to eat these delicacies. Neither chop sticks or knives and forks were equal to the task, so we picked them up in our fingers and made short work of them.

Fortunately the ladies loo, identified by a sign saying ‘Woman’, was well equipped with both hot and cold running water, liquid soap, a functioning paper towel dispenser and a functioning electric hand dryer. It was also spotlessly clean.

A nice feature was a G Plan sofa in an alcove a few metres away, a place to wait in comfort should there be a queue for the loo. Hanging above the sofa, a floral wall plaque inscribed with the word ‘Home’ seemed a friendly touch.

As the strong, reliable and conscientious Ox bows out, the aggressive and ambitious Tiger takes centre stage in 2022, ushering in a year of resilience and strength. The year of the Tiger will be the time to take charge of your life, and to fulfil lifelong ambitions.   By Charlotte Malakoff  A Matter of Taste