Lunar New Year foods in the Skylands

A Vietnamese story, set down in the 14th century, has a king choosing his heir by asking his sons for the best dish for the ancestors’ altar. The others went after rare foods. Lang Liêu, the poorest, had rice and pork, and he won with bánh chưng, the square cake that stands for the earth. It still goes on the altar at Tet.

The word for fish sounds like surplus, so it comes to the table whole. Nian gao sounds like “higher year,” and an old belief has the sticky cake gluing the Kitchen God’s mouth shut before he can complain about the family to the Jade Emperor. Jiaozi look like old ingots, and some cooks hide a coin in one. Tangyuan got that name when President Yuan Shikai objected to yuanxiao, which sounded like “remove Yuan.” In Korea, a bowl of tteokguk, rice cake soup, on Seollal makes you a year older, and a 19th-century book of customs records people asking age by asking how many bowls you’ve had. Cold sikhye, a malted rice drink, often follows the meal, as does sujeonggwa, a cinnamon and ginger punch.