chinese new year - your favourite foods

Happy Chinese New Year! Or as we say in Cantonese Sun Leen Fai Lok (Happy New Year) and Gung Hai Fat Choi (Wishing your prosperity)!

Chinese New Year is all about family and food. Which is what any great holiday should be about. Plus, food at Chinese New Year takes on all kinds of special meanings. Long noodles for a long life. Oranges & mandarins for prosperity. Hair seaweed for riches. The list is quite long.

As my family prepares to ring in the Year of the Horse with our own Chinese New Year family feast tonight, I asked some of my friends on Twitter what their favourite Chinese New Year dish was and why and got some great responses.
Here's just a few of the tweets I got back (clicking on the tweet will take you to that person's Twitter page):

Lots of family-related favourites too (one of the great things about Chinese New Year is getting together and preparing the feast together!

Ok, I always thought I was a little um, "odd" as a child because of the way I approached eating hair seaweed. It's definitely an acquired texture, although I never hesitated eating it. I love the taste, but as a kid, it was the fact that it resembled hair that made it kind of fun. Is that weird? That sounds weird, right? Then I got this tweet and realized...I'm not the only one!

Plus, we must not forget all the Chinese New Year sweets!

My sister, @suziesaurus, didn't even bother with words and tweeted me this photo:

Happy Chinese New Year everyone and thanks for sharing your favourite dishes with me!

What about you, dear readers? What's YOUR favourite Chinese New Year dish? Or, if you don't have one, which of the ones in the above tweets sound like something you'd like to try?