Chinese New Year Traditions

For Chinese and other Asians around the world, Chinese New Year is the biggest holiday observed. Chinese New Year symbolizes the first lunar New Year month and this year is 4,712 in Chinese calendar years. Chinese New Year is always a full 15 day celebration that starts with the beginning of a new full moon.

Common festivities include parades, dinners, reunions, gift exchanges, food festivals, dragons, and more! Common rituals include cleaning your home and putting up decorations such as flowers and money trees.  Other essentials include wearing the color red, putting food in front of the door and for bad spirits to stay away.

Before Chinese New Year arrives, the following items are recommended to be bought; Traditional foods like dumplings, Yuanxiao, and Laba Zhou are common. New red envelopes, and new clothes are custom and for women a qipao.  Most Chinese will go to temple to worship ancestors and welcome the New Year. Families bring fruit, dates, incense, and money to offer the spirits. Red envelopes, known as hongbao, are given to unmarried adults and kids.

The fifteen day celebration is broken up into special days for worshiping, socializing, visiting relatives, and honoring gods. Chinese New Year in 2014 is the year of the green wood horse. People born in this year are cheerful, hard-working but very impatient. They are also independent, popular, and intelligent. 

This year at Wonderful Restaurant we will be having specials all weekend long. Come in and host your family dinner with us! We have a wide selection of Taiwanese favorites such as stinky tofu, Newport Style lobster, hot pots, and `smoked duck. 

2014 Horse Year Advice

Is your birthday year a horse in Chinese astrology?  If so we have some suggestions for how to use traditional Chinese Feng Shui to improve your outlook and luck for the year. This is year is a green wood horse.

Overall 2014 is predicted to be a relatively good year for horse birthdays. Astrologers suggest being quiet and patient. There is predicted that wealth and career will have good energy for most of your endeavours but the key for this year is to be patient and wait for the best timing. There are many things you can do to improve your work life. The horse, is always known to be a popular one so you will want to refrain from your natural competitive nature.

2014, is good for wealth, careers, love, and health if you are able to take the necessary precautions it can also increase energy levels. We recommend exploring Feng Shui tips for your home office and bedroom to help channel positive energy at both your personal life and career life. Tips for a good Feng Shui bedroom include opening your windows as much as possible, have appropriate lighting, use neutral colors for balance,
have your bed accessible on both sides, have to bedside tables, and avoid having the bed directly to the door.

Taiwanese Dishes We Can’t Live Without

Small eats are a big deal for most Taiwanese who live the simple mantra “eat often and eat good.” In Taiwan tons of streets are dedicated to snack shacks boasting loads of popcorn chicken, noodle soup, stinky tofu, and Japanese influenced favorites.

Our restaurant has influences from Teochew, Hokkien, and Japanese cuisine which make it’s flavorful dishes extremely unique. It’s hard to say which dishes are hands-down our absolute favorites but here are a few to get you started. We hope you'll stop by and visit Wonderful Restaurant if you're in San Gabriel Valley. 

Stinky tofu (臭豆腐)

This is the world's best love-it-or-hate-it snack and Taiwan does it just right. 

The "fragrant" cube of bean curd is deep-fried and draped with sweet and spicy sauce. It you hold your nose, it looks and tastes just like a plain ol' piece of fried tofu, with a crisp casing and soft center like pudding.

But what's the fun in eating that? Inhale deeply and relish the stench, the smellier, the better.

Spicy hotpot (麻辣火鍋)

Taiwanese are mad for spicy hot pot.

And who wouldn't be? The bubbling pots of broth are filled with all sorts of Chinese herbs and spices to create an incredibly rich flavor for all the raw, fresh ingredients that diners will dip into it.

New hot pot places pop up almost every day, each with a gimmick to attract insatiable hot pot diners.. 

But it is spicy hot pot with quality ingredients that stands the test of time. While Taiwan's spice-levels can't come close to Chongqing's, they're pretty piquant.

Three-cup chicken (三杯雞)

Three-cup chicken is cooked in a cup of rice wine, a cup of oil and a cup of soy sauce. To this Taiwanese culinary triumvirate is added some fresh basil, chilies and garlic for an irresistible combination.

Some kitchens have a different definition of three-cup chicken, such as a cup of wine, a cup of sesame oil and a cup of sugar.

Simple Taiwanese Fried Rice

Right now, Wonderful Restaurant has some pretty amazing deals on our fried rice and noodle dishes! We have pork, beef, seafood, and assorted variations! If you can't make it in before the month's over we have a simple Taiwanese fried rice recipe below for your enjoyment! Happy holidays from all of us at Wonderful Restaurant! 

Ingredients:

3 tbs. peanut oil

2 large eggs

½ tsp. mushroom soy

¾ tsp. salt

¾ tsp. sugar

¼ tsp. ground pepper

4 cups cooked Jasmine rice

¼ cup green scallion onions

1 cup seafood or meat

Directions:

1.     Break up leftover rice

2.     Heat wok to a high temperature, then add in oil and egg

3.     Stir into a thickened consistency

4.     Add rice and toss in, breaking up lumps with a spatula

5.     Add seafood mix and meat

6.     Coat all the rice grains and meat in the oil mixture

7.     Add mushroom soy and seasonings

8.     Remove from fire

9.     Add garnish of green scallion onions

Three Ways to Enjoy Stinky Tofu

Have you ever tried stinky tofu? Many people are not interested in tasting this dish because of it’s offensive smell. People who tend to enjoy the dish are open minded and tend to enjoy fermented dishes. For Asians, stinky tofu is the equivalent to a blue cheese. Stinky tofu aka choudoufu, 臭豆腐, is a dish that goes all the way back to the Qing dynasty.

At Wonderful Restaurant we like it in a soup. If you crave spicy you have got to try this dish! We serve ours in a spicy, tongue-numbing broth garnishes with peppers and herbs.  Other popular variations are fried stinky tofu and grilled versions.

Stinky tofu is composed of a mixture of brine of salt, amaranth, and cabbage and then fermented for up to two weeks. Of course there is various variations of fermented but this a popular one among the Taiwanese community.

We hope you’ll come in and give ours a try! Let us know how you like it and how our version compares to others in the San Gabriel Valley! 

Baked Seafood Dynamite Recipe

Our famous Japanese Dynamite recipe is always a crowd favorite at Wonderful Restaurant. It can be referenced as a comfort food in Asian culture. For those of you who cannot come out to try our dish we wanted to share with you bits and pieces of our recipe straight from our head chef, Frank.

For those of you who aren't sure of what "dynamite" may be referencing to, it's the special sauce in this dish that is noteworthy to share! We use nothing but the best quality of assorted seafood to prepare each and every batch of dynamite and each is made and baked to order!

Here's what we use in our sauce:

• Kewpie mayonnaise
• Sriracha
• Masago

This dish after being baked is a spicy, creamy flavorful dish! The spicy seafood dynamite sauce goes excellent with a bowl rice and Sapporo! We have some great deals going on this month! Spend $10, get a FREE scallop roll for liking us on Facebook or buy one entree and receive a FREE fried rice! If your in the San Gabriel Valley area stop on in and join us for lunch or dinner!

Check out our Facebook page for more great deals and promotions!
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Or tweet us your favorite recipes
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About Wonderful Restaurant

Wonderful Restaurant is a landmark restaurant in San Gabriel. It has been in business over 14 years and was founded in 1988 by noted Taiwanese immigrant Charlie Feng. He is married to Juanjuan Zou, a noted Taiwanese singer in the 1970's. On the back of the restaurant memorable photographs of Chinese celebrities cover the wall. It is great to browse through decades of celebrities and autographs while your dining.

What are some of our best dishes you might ask? As a manager and sushi lover, I highly recommend the sashimi boat. It is great for groups and a great value for $75. You can easily feed five people or more and it is a great centerpiece of assorted raw fish. On the Taiwanese menu, I recommend trying the "three cup" chicken and squid dish which goes perfectly with some white rice and stinky tofu!

At Wonderful Restaurant, we are all about family style dining, which is why we are proud to offer the community two types of cuisine in one establishment. We even have two private rooms, perfect for get togethers. Each room has a television and the larger of the two rooms is sound proofed for karaoke! We are proud to offer something for everyone with our extensive and diverse menu.

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