Foodie Future Fortune – how to eat your way to a great new year
1. 2011 was really hard; everything from the Drachma debacle and the US sovereign debt downgrade to the home-grown horrors of Malema madness and Mzansi manufacturing sector weakness have left us hungry for happiness and eager to eat our way into a better 2012.

2. Throughout the ages and across cultures certain foods have been symbolically served up at New Year in an attempt to engender luck on a fork or chopstick.

3. It’s a bit late for Eurocentric Christian New Year but there are a range of other new years so what follows is an all-you-can-eat buffet of good fortune new year gourmet goodies.

4. In a nutshell it is your gourmet guide to what to eat in order to ensure good luck in 2012.

Chinese Style Luck

1. The 23rd of January 2012 marks the beginning of the Chinese Year of the Dragon.

2. The Chinese have got the alimentary absorption of New Year luck down to a fine art. A range of different foods have distinct symbolic significances.

• Sometimes it is the look of the tasty treat that brings the luck. For example, in northern China, Jiaozi (crescent shaped pork and cabbage dumplings) which resemble ancient Chinese silver ingots are eaten at midnight to mark New Year.

• Other foods have special significance because of the way its name sounds. For example, the Cantonese word fish, "Yu," sounds like the words both for wish and abundance. As a result, on New Year's Eve it is customary to serve a fish at the end of the evening meal. It is important for the fish be served with the head and tail intact to ensure a good year, from start to finish.

• Aspirant grandparents should know that the Cantonese word for "sour" sounds like the word for grandchild so slip sweet and sour dishes into your New Year menu for the patter of tiny feet in 2012.

• And let’s not forget cake! Nian gao (rice and sesame seed and date cake) means New Year cake, but gao sounds the same as the word for tall or high so the cakes symbolize achieving new heights in the coming year. The steamed sweets are made of glutinous rice flour, brown sugar with white sesame seeds, red dates, or nuts in them and are thought to bring forth the sweetness of life.

According to custom they are fed to the Chinese Kitchen God so that he will report favourably on a family's behaviour when he returns to heaven.

3. So where to go if you want to please the kitchen God and your own palate in 2012? The Cyrildene, Johannesburg Chinatown is hosting its annual New Year celebratory street party on Saturday 28 January 2012. Be sure to book a pavement table (the place is packed and there will be no room at the inn for last minute walk-ins) at your favourite restaurant and watch while dragons dance and fireworks bang and pop all around you.

CAKE LUCK: Those wanting sweetness in 2012 should head for Mei Sin Pastry (13D Derrick Avenue, no telephone #) where Chef-patronne Mei Je speaks almost no English so you will have to point and smile your way to sugary good fortune.

DUMPLING LUCK: Northern Food (20B Derrick Avenue. 082 6688082) is where Chef Zengcai Li and his wife Feng Qin Hu make marvellous Manchurian dumplings.

FISH LUCK: For a whole fish try Sai Thai (Shop 1, Cyrildene Centre, cnr Marcia Street and Derrick Avenue, Cyrildene. 011 615 1339) where the Thai head chef’s Cantonese husband, Dennis Liu, does a steamed ginger and spring onion fishy from heaven.

Not able to get to Chinatown but still want fishy good luck? Kind Chef Dennis Liu has given us his recipe for Cantonese style steamed fish with ginger and spring onions:
700g whole Red Roman or Rockcod
50g fresh ginger, julienned
4 spring onions (2 inches each and finely julienned and put in fresh cold water)
1 red chilli, finely julienned
3 Tablespoons cooking oil
Mix and melt the following ingredients for seasoning the fish:
1/3 cup light soy sauce
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon Hong Kong style chicken stock powder

• Score the fish with 3 cuts – this will allow the fish to cook faster and make it easier to pick the flesh when eating. Put a handful of sliced ginger onto the steaming plate and then place the fish on top. Sprinkle the remaining ginger slivers on top of the fish.

• Steam the fish for 12 to 15 minutes. When the fish is almost done then heat up the soy sauce mixture in a separate pot. Heat the 3Tablespoons of cooking oil to a very high heat (wait until you can see a little bit of smoke coming up).When the fish is cooked through remove it from the steamer and drain all the fish juices from the plate.Garnish with spring onions then use a stainless steel table spoon to pour the very hot oil on top of the fish. This seals the fish skin and brings up its natural flavours. Pour all the soy sauce mixture onto the fish and garnish with the red chilli.

Hogmanay Happiness
1. New Year's Eve and New Year's Day celebrations in Scotland are known as Hogmanay.

2. Hogmany has a deliciously daft “first-footer” tradition in which the first person in one’s home after midnight on New Year’s Day sets the tone for the year to come and is expected to bring shortbread and whisky.

3. I know we have technically missed the shortbread and whisky deadline but it sounds so nice that I think it should be done anyway.

SO WHERE TO GO FOR SHORTBREAD HAPPINESS IN 2012?:
Shortbread is simple to make and available all over the place but if you want to be the best first footer ever take a packet of the lavender, ginger or choc-chip shortbread from the Foodbarn Deli in Noordhoek. These butter and sugar treats are so delicious that you will be dancing the highland fling with pleasure. Food Barn Deli Noordhoek Farm Village, Noordhoek, Cape Town. 021 789 1966

Piggy Pleasures for 2012:

1. Pork is very commonly associated with progress, prosperity and abundance because of their plump bodies, high fat content and the widely held belief that these animals never move backwards!

2. While pigs must occasionally retreat bum first it is certainly fair to say that they push their snouts forward along the ground when rooting for food (as opposed to chickens who scratch at the ground and then reverse into their dinner – and which must never ever be eaten in and around new year!).

3. If its pork you want there is nothing in the universe nicer than Nigel Slater’s honey and star anise slow roasted pork ribs. Recipe below:

Nigel Slater’s Pork Rib Perfection Recipe
(Serves 2 – 4 people depending on greed).
6 Tablespoons thick honey
3 Tablespoons oyster sauce
¼ tsp chilli flakes
4 whole star anise
Pinch salt
Pinch of ground black pepper
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
1.5kg meaty pork ribs

• Combine the honey, oyster sauce, spices and garlic. Mix well then toss the ribs in the marinade and set aside for as long as possible – at least one hour but over night is better.

• Roast the ribs at 160C for one hour (Nigel says 90 minutes but my ribs burn if I leave them this long – perhaps English pigs are fleshier).

• Turn the ribs in the sauce every now and then.

• After an hour, turn up the heat to 200 C for a final 5-10 minutes. Watch the ribs carefully as they can
burn!

Food to stay away from (or to feed to people you don’t like):

• In Spanish and Mexican foodie folk law eating anything with wings is an absolute no-no at New Year because it could fly away, taking all your luck with it. Chicken is thought to be especially inauspicious because the bird scratches backwards which can cause setbacks.

• In Chinese culinary culture white is a symbol of death so white food such as eggs, tofu and white cheeses should be avoided at New Year.

• It is very bad luck to clean your plate too thoroughly on New Year’s eve. In Germany, it's customary to leave a little bit of each food on your plate past midnight to guarantee a stocked pantry in the New Year. Likewise in the Philippines, it's important to have food on the table at midnight if you want a plentiful year to come.

And the good news is if you slip up on your new years resolutions there is always a chance to start again with Thai New Year in April but that is a story for another day…