Hello again from Hong Kong! This year's Lunar New Year, also known as Chinese New Year, coincided with my time abroad here in Asia. Similar to Christmas and the holiday season back in America, Lunar New Year is a time traditionally spent with family and relatives. And like Christmas cookies, eggnog and candy canes, Lunar New Year is often spent eating a number of different and unique foods.
Before I start, think for a minute about all of the Chinese food you would usually find at a Chinese takeout place in the United States. You’re probably thinking of sweet and sour chicken, fried potstickers and fortune cookies. While this isn’t exactly the type of Chinese food you’ll find back in China (it is, in fact, quite different), a lot of what we think of as Chinese food is actually cuisine brought over and invented by Cantonese Chinese immigrants from Southern China.
While today's immigrants from China come from many diverse places in this country (China is roughly the same size as the United States), historically, most of them came from Guangdong Province, Think of it as similar to a state in the U.S.). Therefore, it's crazy how most of what we think of as Chinese food comes from one small region of China!
