(LI MIN / CHINA DAILY)
On Jan 13, the first day of the 12th lunar month, the number of searches for “Lunar New Year’s Eve dinner” on the online food ordering platform Eleme quadrupled compared with the same day last year.
Fang Jie, who is responsible for the platform’s Lunar New Year’s Eve dinner project, said the number of searches usually rose only after the Laba Festival, also known as the Rice Porridge festival, which falls on the eighth day of the 12th lunar month.
However, with new cases of COVID-19 reported in several Chinese cities, people are being encouraged to remain in the cities where they work to celebrate the Spring Festival holiday, which this year runs from Feb 11 to Feb 17.
Many people have started to make early preparations for their Lunar New Year’s Eve dinner, Fang said.
“Last year, due to the pandemic, online business in the catering industry grew significantly. We expect that for Lunar New Year’s Eve dinner this year, takeout choices will rise further — from the number of restaurants to the variety of dishes,” she said.
For many people working away from their hometowns, the family reunion dinner on the eve of Spring Festival this year will mean missing their parents’ signature dishes.
These meals are traditionally home-cooked, but this year, takeout dinners are set to become a popular choice for Lunar New Year’s Eve. Restaurants and online food ordering platforms are ready for their busiest night of the year.
Some restaurants are offering takeout set meals for two to four people, but are also catering to single people.
Fang said Eleme is collaborating with restaurants to launch set meals for one to four diners, especially in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou and Shenzhen, Guangdong province.
“It’s going to be different this year, with many couples and single people having to celebrate Spring Festival on their own,” she said.
The platform has distributed many thousand pairs of gloves and kneecaps to its delivery riders, who are also being given a special payment to work during the holiday, Fang said. It is also preparing an online gala and special dinner on Lunar New Year’s Eve for deliverymen who do not return to their hometowns.
Peking roast duck restaurant chain Dadong offers a dinner set for Lunar New Year’s Eve. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
In 200 cities nationwide, Eleme has collaborated with more than 30,000 restaurants and stores to set up courier stations for deliverymen to take a break. The stations also offer a free charging service for the riders’ scooters and motorcycles, along with hot drinks and food.
The Nanjing Dapaidang restaurant chain usually offers a Lunar New Year’s Eve dinner set for eight to 12 people, but marketing director Han Yan said that this year set meals for two to four diners are being provided at a cost of 398 yuan (US$61).
These meals, which feature duck, fish, chicken, prawns and vegetables, comprise four cold dishes, five hot ones, two staple foods and a fruit platter.
“The dishes in our restaurants are mostly served in small portions, so for our 398-yuan set we have included nine dishes with a variety of our signature menu offerings. This way, customers can sample more food for this special dinner,” Han said.
“We are preparing Lunar New Year’s Eve dinners in all our 80 restaurants across China. Take Nanjing (capital of Jiangsu province) for example, where we have prepared 1,200 set dinners to ensure each of our dozen restaurants in the city can offer some 100 sets,” she said.
Han said that due to the pandemic, the chain’s eateries have put more effort into online services. They have also changed their menus more often to meet customer demand, and upgraded meals offered for delivery.
Nanjing Dapaidang has prepared special packaging for Spring Festival. “We have tested it to ensure it retains the heat of the food for an hour and a half,” Han said.
She estimates that 80 percent of the company’s 6,000 employees will work during the holiday.
“Our purchasing and kitchen staff members are ready for the busiest season of the year, and if the delivery platforms are short of manpower, our employees are ready to join these teams,” she said.
Han said a crisis plan has been drawn up in the event of a COVID-19 outbreak emerging in a particular area. If a community needs to be quarantined, Nanjing Dapaidang will collaborate with residents to ensure food is delivered.
The chain has also launched several gift boxes featuring semi-cooked dishes that only need to be heated. These dishes include traditional Nanjing food such as boiled salted duck and preserved meat. Han said tens of thousands of the gift boxes have been sold.
“It’s a special year for the catering industry, with most restaurants preparing to deliver food for Lunar New Year’s Eve dinner. All we can do is prepare well and meet customers’ needs,” she said.
During the pandemic, the Meizhou Dongpo restaurant chain has launched semi-cooked takeout dishes and online vegetable stores. Both services have proved popular and have been upgraded for Spring Festival.
Takeout dinners are set to become a popular choice for many people working away from their hometowns during Lunar New Year’s Eve. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Zhou Miao, who is responsible for the chain’s brand marketing, said they selected six signature dishes for takeout services, including Dongpo braised pork hock and spicy boiled blood curd.
“For these meals, we use a sealed lid to avoid the soup spilling. They can also be heated directly on a stove, so customers don’t have to wash their own pots,” Zhou said.
The chain is offering takeout Lunar New Year’s Eve dinner sets ranging in price from 399 yuan to 1,899 yuan, together with an onsite chef.
Zhou said all its restaurants nationwide will remain open during the holiday.
For those eating alone on Lunar New Year’s Eve, Japanese restaurant Nadaman in Beijing has launched a Spring Festival special hot pot set, which will be available throughout the holiday.
These meals, which cost 688 yuan, feature a bottle of sake, two types of sashimi and a hotpot set comprising prawns, salmon, beef, pork, chicken and a variety of vegetables.
In addition to eat-in dinners and takeouts, Peking roast duck restaurant chain Dadong offers a service in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, where chefs and waiters visit customers’ homes to cook and serve Lunar New Year’s Eve meals.
Luo Ruixin, Dadong’s marketing director, said a menu has been prepared for the special dinners, and customers can also order their own dishes.
“Typically, a family of six to 10 uses this service, which costs about 1,500 yuan per person. We send a roast duck chef, two chefs for hot dishes and one or two servers.”
All tableware and even an electric oven for the roast duck are also supplied.
She added that chefs and servers sent to customers’ homes have been vaccinated against COVID-19 and comply with anti-pandemic measures.
Luo is optimistic about this service, as she thinks that people are not that worried about the pandemic, and they are also not traveling overseas during Spring Festival.
“In previous years, we limited the number of takeout orders, to maintain our service for dine-in customers. However, this year we are expecting more online orders.”
Dadong is offering coupons for Spring Festival sets and gift boxes that include its signature dishes such as abalone, roast duck and braised pork. The sets and gift boxes have nearly sold out.
“Many companies buy the coupons as gifts for their employees or clients. They can use them to order takeouts or to eat at our restaurants,” Luo said.
Afternoon tea is another option for Spring Festival family gatherings.
From Feb 11 to Feb 13, the Park Hyatt Beijing is offering a Chinese New Year afternoon tea package for customers to enjoy the views from its 63rd floor. The package, which costs 699 yuan, comprises a dessert set with tea, coffee and two glasses of champagne. Bookings must be made at least a day in advance.
Executive chef Martin Aw Yong said the package includes savory and sweet desserts that combine Chinese and Western cuisine.
Main courses made from quality ingredients and which take a long time to cook are a popular takeout choice for Spring Festival, and poon choi is one of the best-loved dishes at Cantonese restaurants in Beijing such as Xin Ming Yuen, Jia and Dining Room.
Believed to date to the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the dish is said to have originated in the walled villages of the New Territories in Hong Kong.
The ingredients usually include abalone, ginseng, fish maw, prawns, crabs, beef, pork, lamb, chicken, duck, fried eel, dried shrimp and pig skin.
Peng Aiqiang, executive chef at Jia, who has more than three decades of experience in Cantonese cuisine, said the ingredients for poon choi have become more plentiful each year.
His version of the dish features a variety of premium seafood and rare mushrooms stewed to perfection.
Peng also makes a takeout dish that comprises braised Dongshan lamb from Wanning, Hainan province, that has less fat and more protein than other types of lamb. The meat is stewed slowly for more than 90 minutes with chestnuts, water chestnuts and winter bamboo shoots.
Peng said lamb is a meat best suited for winter, and as this dish has been popular at the restaurant, he decided to make it a takeout option for Spring Festival.
“It’s suitable for family gatherings,” he added.
