WHY THIS BOOK Mom Says: “When can we get together with the cousins again?” My daughter’s voice was filled with longing for a family dinner we wouldn’t be able to host for an unknowable period of time. Lunar New Year, birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, all the celebrations that mark the passing of the year suddenly changed shape when a virus shut down the world. What we valued about the togetherness of a shared meal sharpened when the ability to gather evaporated.
As a parent, I never know what practices and traditions stick with my two kids and their five cousins. Teenagers are especially inscrutable. So Meilee’s wish for dinner with our extended family broke my heart, because I didn’t know how long the pandemic would restrict our lives. And it also signaled that all the past dinners had imprinted their memories in her consciousness. In a painful moment, I found hope—and the seed for this book. I can share recipes and their stories through headnotes. But passing on traditions requires someone to receive them with intention. It’s also the responsibility of the bearer to invite the next generation into the narrative, to make space for the perspectives of those who will carry on our histories.
Conversations with Meilee taught me that she and her Asian peers constantly grapple with bias in subtle and blatant ways, struggle with their mixed-race identities, and are figuring out their social justice voices. In the midst of the fight, food is where they meet to find joy and deliciousness. Co-creating this book with Meilee means she can find herself in the story and explore future evolutions of herself without fear of losing her way. Meilee, her brother, Shen, and all of their cousins are mixed-race. The experiences of this generation of young people and how they bond through food are important to how we talk about celebrations.
The phrase in Mandarin 團圓, or “tuan yuan” (tuan = together and yuan = round or circle), signifies the act of coming together for a family meal, especially around the holidays.
Feasts of Good Fortune is about tuan yuan meals and the roundness they bring to families and friends. I’ve featured Lunar New Year menus in both
Chinese Soul Food and
Vegetarian Chinese Soul Food but haven’t gone beyond that to share the symbolic foods and traditions of other holidays. If my first two books were “on-ramps” to everyday Chinese home cooking, this book on celebrations completes the story.
We also want to acknowledge that how we honor traditional holidays is very much influenced by where we live. I was born in Taipei, Taiwan, but I grew up in the United States in the Midwest, and I’ve now lived more than twenty years in Seattle, Washington. Meilee was born in Seattle and has grown up in this place known for wild salmon, Dungeness crab, and roadside blackberry brambles. She can dispatch a Dungeness crab with stunning swiftness! Our culture and family are forever hyphenated and so are many of the ingredients we use to make the foods we like.
The older I get, the farther away I feel from the place where I was born. That distance morphed my relationship to traditions my parents used to practice when my brothers and I were kids. I have to reach deep into my memory banks to connect with moments where we honored our ancestors or picked through our favorite mooncake flavors. Lunar New Year has always been the main holiday, filled with pomp. Without intention, holidays can become afterthoughts, and I don’t want that to be the case. So, here we are. I hope
Feasts of Good Fortune is a reminder of the moments we have throughout the year to come together. And that it bridges the nostalgia with the futures that live in my kids and their peers.
—Hsiao-Ching Chou
Meilee’s Perspective: A Year in the Life of My Family In our Chinese American family, every year holds countless celebrations big and small. These celebrations aren't just dates on a calendar; they're the moments that will stick with us forever. No matter the time of year, our home is filled with the flavors, sights, and sounds of both Chinese and American traditions. I’d like to tell you about a year in our house and just a few of our celebrations, from Lunar New Year's vibrant red lanterns to Thanksgiving's huge feast.
We begin every January ringing in the new year with our latest goals and resolutions, trying to start it off on the right track. My dad cleans up the house and makes sure we start things organized, while my brother and I grasp to our last few days off from school.
Lunar New Year typically falls between mid-January to mid-February. Lunar New Year is probably one of the biggest celebrations of the year. Preparation begins at least a week in advance. My mom begins planning a menu, making sure she hits everyone’s favorites. Then, she and my grandma head to the local Asian market. To paint a picture for those who are unfamiliar, imagine grocery stores around Thanksgiving or Christmas. It’s intense. Lots of the elderly Asian people are up bright and early to stock up on everything from meats to vegetables to red envelopes and decorations. Everyone is on their own mission to create a feast to make sure they start the new year off right. My mom has to start cooking a few days in advance to make sure everything can be done in time.
March and April mark the changing seasons. We celebrate the beauty of the Pacific Northwest as it transitions. I am very lucky to live in an area that is so surrounded by nature. I am able to look out my window every day and see the trees changing, hear birds chirping, and smell the salty bay.
In our extended family, we have at least three birthdays in May. My mom always marks her birthday with a classic chocolate cake. Whether I make it for her or we order it from a fancy bakery, she is content regardless. My brother likes to spend his birthday with his friends. Each year, the celebration gets more and more high-tech. He evolves with technology. The last birthday in May is my cousin Lucie’s. For most birthdays on my mom’s side of the family we default to a night out at Din Tai Fung. Our buzzing group of thirteen fills the restaurant to the brim with love, laughter, and memories.
June is the end of school! My brother and I are always excited and ready to embrace summertime and the freedom that comes along with it. On top of that, my Lau Lau’s (“lau lau” describes the maternal grandmother) birthday falls on a different day every year depending on the lunar calendar. I admire how she lives her life simply: Wake up, garden, take photos of plants, write her blog, watch Asian dramas on YouTube, sleep, repeat. She doesn’t mind the simplicity after a long life full of beautiful chaos.
Each Fourth of July, my dad’s side of the family comes together at my aunt Julene’s cozy Camano Island cabin. My uncle Joe, who’s married to Julene, guides us as we embark on our crabbing expedition to catch our feast for the night. We look out onto the waters, trying to find the buoys until, finally, the vibrant green and orange stripes catch our eye. After pulling on the rope for what feels like ages, our bounty of crab emerges. We boil the freshly caught crab alongside sizzling steaks, complete with plenty of sides. The meal sets the stage for a memorable Fourth of July tradition, complete with neighborhood fireworks to light up the night.
September is a busy month. My brother and I go back to school, which is always chaos. We are bombarded with back-to-school forms and the ache of getting up early in the morning. My parents celebrate their anniversary, and shortly after is my dad’s birthday (he hates getting older). It also marks the Mid-Autumn Festival. My mom and grandma will bring home mooncakes from our local Asian grocery store. We don’t eat a ton of them, or celebrate too extravagantly for that matter. But we do have our mooncakes and recognize being together and being thankful for the things we have brought into our lives.
October is the beginning of the American holiday season. My birthday is October third, so it is always nice to celebrate my day. In my family we always pick a restaurant to go to for birthday dinner and I typically pick Asian or Italian food. Halloween is always a fun celebration. No matter how old I am, I have a lot of fun dressing up and creating costumes. It’s something I have loved to do my whole life—not to mention, having candy all night is a treat for anyone.
November is known as a month to be thankful. Around Thanksgiving, my family and I head up to Whistler to meet with family friends. We aren’t big skiers, but playing in the snow is an infrequent activity in Seattle, so we do like to take advantage of Whistler’s slopes. For Thanksgiving dinner, each family brings their favorite dishes and we all cram into the Woodman Family’s hotel room for the potluck. We never stick to a specific kind of food: the past few years, it has been a mix of turkey and sides; or bo ssam (Korean-style pork shoulder), rice, and lettuce wraps. Not exactly traditional, but delicious.
The final celebrations wrap up in December. Christmas also happens to be my Yeh Yeh’s (grandpa Claude Riddle) birthday. He’s my dad’s dad and he has lived a very long and very full life. On Christmas 2023 he turns 100. Soon after, comes New Year’s Eve. It’s a time to reflect on the past year. I love being able to look back at all the memories I have made over the years. All celebrations big and small, they're all meaningful for me.
—Meilee Riddle
Copyright © 2024 by Chou, Hsiao-Ching. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
