My mother cooks

The menu at my mother's house tonight to jump start the Lunar New Year, our third celebratory meal this week:



Shark's Fin Soup

Poached Whole Chicken with Minced Ginger and Scallion

Crisp Roast Pork

Steamed Whole Fish Topped with Slivers of Ginger and Scallion

Pig's Feet Braised with Bean Curd

Shrimp Stir-fried with Snow Peas, Sugar Snap Peas, Cauliflower, Carrots and Water Chestnuts

Shiitake Mushrooms Braised with Slices of Sea Cucumber

Stir-fried Chopped Oysters, Chinese Sausage, Celery, Carrots and Scallions Served with Lettuce Leaves

Vermicelli Stir-fried with Slivers of Barbecued Pork, Egg and Scallion

For dessert: oranges and tangerines

Eating Chinese

Lunar New Year celebrations are as much about food as they are about family. They center on traditional dishes such as whole fish, chicken, lettuce, and oysters, eaten to ensure luck and prosperity.

These help with meal preparations and inspire me to go again to China someday:

"Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey Through China," by Jen Lin-Liu

Raised in San Diego, Jen Lin-Liu does not develop a strong interest in Chinese food until she goes to Beijing as a Fulbright scholar. There, she writes reviews, practices her Mandarin and enrolls in cooking school.

In "Serve the People," Lin-Liu recalls experiences eating in both dive-y and dazzling restaurants. She relays the basics, for instance, of noodle-making and noodle-cooking. She handles issues of identity with spunk and humor.



"My China: A Feast for All the Senses," by Kylie Kwong

Lin-Liu learns to cook in Beijing. But Kylie Kwong is already a chef in her native Australia when she ventures to China. She has opened a popular restaurant, Billy Kwong, in Sydney and written cookbooks.

On her trip, she visits her ancestral village, the birthplace of her great-grandfather in 1853, as well as major cities Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. She goes farther afield, too, to Yunnan province and Tibet.

The observations she makes in "My China" are fascinating. Simon Griffiths' color photos of the people Kwong meets and the foods they eat enhance the narrative. More than 80 recipes also make the book practical.

"Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China," by Fuchsia Dunlop

Like Lin-Liu, Fuchsia Dunlop has taken cooking courses in China. The London resident is the first foreigner to train at the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine. Like Kwong, she has published a couple of books.

In "Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper," Dunlop offers a look back at her career thus far. She writes, for example, of encounters in Chengdu markets. She becomes increasingly omnivorous, unfazed by the ingredients and work generally involved in creating good meals.

Though the women arrive in China under different circumstances and travel for different reasons, they share a love for the country and its food - how to cook it properly and eat it joyously. Fortune indeed for the coming year.