HONG KONG, Jan 21 — Asian dining tables will be groaning under the weight of traditional Chinese dishes for the Lunar New Year, many of which will usher in the Year of the Dragon with miles of long noodles, dumplings and lettuce wraps to symbolise good fortune and prosperity.

Here’s a round-up of traditional Chinese dishes with symbolic meaning to help you celebrate the lunar year January 23 and bring good luck. Many of the dishes are considered lucky simply because of their phonetic similarities to words of good fortune in Chinese.

Lettuce wraps

In Cantonese, the word for lettuce sounds like the word for ‘rising fortune’ and the dish appears most commonly at the beginning of the meal. When it comes to lettuce, there’s no need to get fancy: traditional wraps use iceberg lettuce.

Food.com has a recipe for chicken lettuce wraps that also calls for egg noodles, shiitake mushrooms, water chestnuts for texture, and is seasoned with hoisin, soy and and chili sauce.

http://bit.ly/wV5RPi

Jiaozi dumplings

A favourite in northern China, these dumplings are eaten at midnight on Chinese New Year’s Eve and symbolise wealth and prosperity, as their crescent shape resembles ancient Chinese silver coins, the ingot. Some families will also hide a clean coin in one of the dumplings for an especially lucky eater. The word 'jia' is also the Chinese word for home and family and symbolizes reunion. Unlike wontons, these dumplings have a thicker, chewier skin.

Epicurious.com has a recipe for Jiaozi dumplings, as well as a recipe for homemade wrappers.

http://epi.us/zwo6TN

Lion’s head meatballs

A crowd pleaser for its presentation, oversized meatballs lie on a bed of Chinese cabbage, which is meant to represent the lion’s mane. In Chinese culture, the lion symbolises power and strength.

A recipe from the Cooking Channel calls for Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, sesame oil and ginger.

http://bit.ly/vZoOSE

Steamed whole fish

The word for fish ‘yu’ sounds like the words for both wish and abundance in Chinese, and the dish is often served as the finale to meal. It’s important to serve the fish whole, however, as the head and tail represent happy beginnings and happy endings for the year.

Food and Wine magazine has a 20-minute recipe that uses ginger, scallions, soy sauce and Chinese wine.

http://bit.ly/xm9YXd

Noodles

Whatever you do, and however you’re eating them — in a soup, or stir-fried — refrain from cutting the noodles. Long noodles symbolise longevity.

Celebrity chef Ming Tsai has a recipe for sweet and spicy pork noodles that calls for Chinese egg noodles.http://bit.ly/yrimQQ. — AFP-Relaxnews