Silver and Gold Magazine Winter 2015 | Page 23

A Winning Holiday Dining Guide Chinese New Year Fun Facts Planning to celebrate the season with family, friends or co-workers? Take a look at Mandarin Restaurant’s top three tips for holiday dining: Chinese New Year is an exciting celebration of gathering and feasting. Here are some interesting facts about this special time of year: 1) Pick the perfect place – If you’re dining out, choose a restaurant that will satisfy even the pickiest eater’s tastebuds, and that can easily accommodate the size of your group – regardless of how large it may be. A location that offers a buffet with large, inviting dining rooms is always a good choice. 2) Get it to go – If the perfect place for your holiday event is at home or at the office, get your feast to go or have it delivered right to you, which will help in ensuring a stress-free dinner party. Order from a restaurant that has a wide variety to really give your guests a great feast! A restaurant such as Mandarin offers over 100 delicious dishes, prepared fresh to order, for take-out and delivery. 3) Include holiday favourites – The holidays are a special time and a festive menu is part of the tradition. Consider serving traditional dishes such as turkey with all the fixings, Glazed Ham and Holiday Log Cake. Unexpected surprises such as hot & sour soup are a great idea! Visit page 21 for the Mandarin’s recipe (our favourite!). • Chinese New Year falls on Monday, February 8. • The year coincides with the 12-year cycle animal zodiac. This time it will be the year of the Monkey. • Red envelopes containing money are exchanged to wish others a blessed and prosperous year ahead. • Chinese families often have large reunion dinners during the Chinese New Year festivities. • Dragon dances and street fairs are very popular. Dancers dress up as lions and dragons, and perform for onlookers. • Locally, restaurants such as the Mandarin add new dishes to their buffet in honour of this special holiday. This year the promotion runs from mid-January to late February at all their locations – visit online for a sneak peek of the delicious dishes that are coming: www.mandarinrestaurant.com – By Cidania Cutone Winter 2015/16 23