Ring in the Lunar New Year with Chinese Spring Festival dishes and other goodies from Peter Chu’s Skyroom at Redding Regional Airport. It’s the year of the adventurous fire horse, according to those who follow the Chinese lunar calendar, so why not put some hot drama into your dining?
The hard part is choosing from the incredible variety of dishes, many on display at night markets in China and American Chinatowns. The markets are “like a fair on crack,” said Angel Whitney, bartender and server at Peter Chu’s. Food presentation and “the attention to detail on decorations takes your breath away. I did not always know what I was eating, but everything was so fresh.”
Like a play foreshadows its ending in the first scene, what you do starting Feb. 17 sets the stage for the rest of the year, according to Chinese culture. In Cantonese, the number eight means “prosper” or “wealth,” so many Chinese families dine on eight dishes to kick off the new year with good fortune.
You can have a Lunar New Year/Spring Festival dinner of your own. Peter Chu’s Skyroom serves cuisine from Mandarin, Szechuan and Hunan regions, some of which include traditional festival fare. So gallop to new gourmet experiences during the year of the horse with these Lunar New Year specialties, including some dishes on Peter Chu’s menu.
Dumplings in spicy sauce
Jiaozi — steamed dumplings — represent wealth and family. For centuries, Lunar New Year festivities included the little crescent shaped savory treats. Legend says wrapping ear-shaped dough around the filling was the invention of Sage of Medicine Zhang Zhongjing to cure villagers with frostbite on their ears, according to the History Channel.
These tasty pockets of pork, shrimp and/or veggies are a popular appetizer or side dish at Peter Chu’s. They’re served in hot red spicy sauce ($15), Whitney said.
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Whole fish (or sub a duck)
It’s common to serve a whole fish on a platter in celebration of the Lunar New Year. The Chinese word for fish “yu” sounds a bit like the word for abundance, according to Chinese culture. People seated around the table cut pieces from the fish after it’s brought whole to the table. When done, diners may leave a little bit of the fish on the plate to symbolize hope for abundance — more than enough — throughout the year.
While Peter Chu’s doesn’t serve whole fish, you can substitute an entire duck ($24), Whitney said, laughing. It’s served “head and all.”
Long noodles
Long noodles represent long life in the new year, and the clear hearty broth in which they’re often served represents purity, according to Chinese tradition.
At Peter Chu’s, long noodles come in chow mein entrees with chicken, pork, beef, prawn, barbecued pork or vegetables, said Whitney; or just order plain noodles. ($14.45 to $19)
Citrus fruit
Tangerines, Mandarin oranges, other citrus fruit traditionally represent good luck and happiness in the coming year; so much so, they’re a popular gift in Asian countries.
Popular in school lunches, the easy-peel variety called “Cuties” are sold at Redding grocery stores including Raley’s.
Whitney puts an adult twist on citrus at Peter Chu’s bar with her Lemon Drop: Citrus vodka with triple sec, sweet and sour juice and fresh squeezed lemon juice, served in a glass with sugar on the rim. ($10) Sometimes she adds an almond twist, a good flavor pairing for lemon, she said.
The drink is “very refreshing” and is popular with her customers year round, said Whitney, who makes as many as 20 lemon drops per 4-hour shift.
Spring rolls
Thinner than an eggroll, spring rolls are fried and usually long and tightly wrapped in a crispy pastry shell.
Peter Chu’s substitutes chicken and vegetable eggrolls. These are similar to spring rolls, but they’re “short and fat,” Whitney said. They’re “deep fried until they’re golden brown and crispy,” then served on a plate of four as an appetizer. ($10)
Diners at Peter Chu’s can round out their Lunar New Year feast of eight dishes with two of the restaurants most popular menu items, the General Tso chicken and the marinated Mongolian beef, Whitney said. An entree, served family style on a platter, feeds two people. Pair an entree with other a la carte dishes for larger family style meals or parties. Diners can add soup, eggrolls, deep fried wontons and rice for an additional $6.
Glutinous rice cake/nian gao and sweet rice balls/tang yuan
Not available a Peter Chu’s, these sticky or glutinous rice treats are often sold in various forms at Asian grocery stores. More than rice, the round treats are stuffed with sweet red bean, sesame or peanut paste. When formed into balls they symbolize completeness as well as mimic rounded money, according to Chinese tradition.
Lao Market at 2680 S. Market St. sells a similar Japanese treat called dorayaki ($6), five “pancakes” filled with red bean paste, with or without chestnuts. Pre-packaged brands are also sold online, including at Amazon.com.
Want to visit a Chinese night market? USA Today voted San Francisco Chinatown’s the best night market of 2025.
California home to Chinese communities for more than 175 years
Chinese communities have been an integral part of California’s identity and culture since before the Gold Rush.
Chinese workers migrated to the United States to work in California’s gold mines and help build the country’s railway system. A number of Chinese immigrants and their children “…became entrepreneurs in their own right,” according to the Office of the Historian at the U.S. State Department, becoming economically successful and growing anti-Chinese sentiment among other workers.
In spite of prejudice — and because of it — Americans of Chinese heritage grew their own California communities throughout the state, including in Yreka, Old Shasta, Weaverville and Redding. Larger Chinese communities grew from Sacramento to the Bay Area. Chinatowns in San Francisco and Los Angeles are two of the three largest in the country. The third is New York’s.
In Redding, Chinatown sprang up in the area of Tehama and California streets, near the former Bing’s Automotive, now a parking lot in the downtown just south of Bell Plaza.
“Not only the building is historically significant but the site itself is very significant because of the potential archaeology there,” Shasta Historical Society’s former executive director Christine Stokes said in August 2015.
Chinese Americans celebrate and share their rich tapestry of cultures during the Lunar New Year with parades and festivals. Annual Lunar New Year events within a day’s drive of Redding include the annual festival at Weaverville’s Joss House — the oldest continuously used Chinese temple in California, and parades in Sacramento and San Francisco.
If you go: Peter Chu’s Skyroom
Jessica Skropanic is a features reporter for the Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. She covers science, arts, social issues and news stories. Follow her on Twitter @RS_JSkropanic and on Facebook. Join Jessica on Record Searchlight Facebook groups Get Out! Nor Cal , Today in Shasta County and Shaping Redding’s Future. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today. Thank you.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: What to order at Peter Chu’s Skyroom for Lunar New Year, fire horse
Reporting by Jessica Skropanic, Redding Record Searchlight / Redding Record Searchlight
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