Food for Good Luck!
 

Many of us have traditions like eating Hopping John or other black-eyed pea dishes for New Year, or King Cake for Epiphany or Fat Tuesday. I know various tamale traditions from Christmas through Epiphany as well.

My own tradition is coming up on the 10th -- Lunar New Year or Tet. I eat "long noodles for long life". Not quite sure where or when I started this but it's been a couple of decades now. This is the Year of the Dragon, btw.

Anyone have traditions they follow or want to share?

Lent starts on Valentine's Day this year! February 14. Ramadan is in March, starting March 10.

Iceblossom what are your long noodles & how do you cook them?
My mom had the black eyed peas and corn bread on New Year's Day - but I didnt continue it. His aunt would tape a dine to the bottom of the plates on NYD for a prosperity in the New Year.

I would usually go to a Vietnamese restaurant and have someone else cook for me... but we can make it be anything we want. Pad thai or rice noodles or spaghetti is closer enough if it isn't your culture (it isn't mine...). Ramen counts too! The thing is to cook them whole and not break the noodles.

Here's a general article from CNN from last year --
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/l...ntl/index.html

I love Pad Thai which is very similar to the Indo-Dutch Bahmie. I haven't had it in a while, so think I will cook up some soon or order it at the Asian restaurant. Happy Tet to you, Iceblossom!

When I taught in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, most students were from the Mexican culture. They taught me about eating uvas (grapes) on New Year's Day to bring good luck. We have always eaten black eyed peas on NYD.

Interesting topic. Humm...we don't do anything for good luck. Maybe we should. We usually make tamales at Christmas time but it's not for good luck, it's for good eating. :P

One very easy hack that I do is to buy a premade Thai Curry deli soup and add noodles and maybe some shrimp to it for a Curry Ramen kind of thing. If I don't have Asian noodles, I like to add angel hair pasta.

We do do gumbo, jambalaya, Kings cake for Mardi Gras. I think it is fun and i want my grandkids to remember some “traditional” times we had. They love finding the baby in the cake! We used to do Red dinner on Valentines. All red foods. Have not done that one since kids got married but daughter carries on the tradition with her family

In PA pork & sauerkraut is tradition for New Years.

What is a baby in a cake?

Never heard of that before, but sounds interesting!

Is a little plastic Christ child usually... There are several traditions and dates for eating the Kings Cake.

Is part of Mardi Gras for some, or there is Rosca de Reyes (translates also to King's Cake) on Epiphany/12th night.
https://www.ksat.com/sa-live/2021/01...aten-on-jan-6/

There are other items baked into cakes in different cultures -- he's a breakdown of a lot of them and what they mean:
https://kingkingcakes.com/the-hidden...n-just-a-baby/