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Alison Stewart: We are entering the year of the dragon this Lunar New Year. Today, we're talking Lunar New Year traditions and dim sum in another installment of Food for Thought, our weekly series about food and food-adjacent stories. For those looking to celebrate Lunar New Year, Time Out suggests the Chop Suey Club, Brooklyn's Children's Museum featuring live music and a rooftop lion puppet parade or catch a lion dance at South Street Seaport all on Sunday. The celebration does not stop there. The Lunar New Year festival runs for the next two weeks.

Our next guest joins us to talk about some places to gather over dim sum with your friends and family. Grace Young is a food historian, Chinatown advocate, and author of several cookbooks, including Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge: The Ultimate Guide to Mastery with Authentic Recipes and Stories. Grace, welcome back to All Of It.

Grace Young: Thank you, Alison.

Alison Stewart: Listeners, we want to hear from you. Please join the conversation. How do you plan on celebrating the Lunar New Year? What are your favorite places to gather over dim sum? Are there any special items you order that maybe aren't on the menu? Which places have the best dumplings? What fillings do you like the most? If you want to share a family tradition around Lunar New Year, we would love to hear that as well. Our phone lines are open. 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC. You may call in and join us on air, or you can text us at that number or reach out on social media, @AllOfItWNYC. This is the Year of the Dragon. What characteristics are associated with individuals who are born in the Year of the Dragon, Grace?

Grace Young: It's all about power and strength and good fortune. Those born in the Year of the Dragon are natural leaders. This is the year for good fortune for everybody, but you have to do the right things and eat the right foods.

Alison Stewart: Oh, tell me, what are the right foods?

Grace Young: The Chinese believe that if you eat meaning-laden foods, you can actually change the course of the new year. It's all about new beginnings, and there are certain foods that carry symbolic meaning. If you were to have dim sum, it's very important to eat har gow, which is the shrimp dumpling, because the word for shrimp in Chinese is har, which sounds like laughter, and so it brings you happiness. Many, many people always eat spring rolls because they're fried until they're golden and it's said that they look like ancient ingots, the old money. That's a symbol of prosperity.

Potstickers also look like ancient coins that have been fried. Have you ever had the sesame balls? In Cantonese, they're called jian dui, that's a dessert that has a kind of mochi dough on the outside and red bean paste on the inside. It's been fried and there are sesame seeds on the outside of the dough. That starts off very small. It's like a donut, and as you deep fry it, it expands. That symbolizes expanding fortunes, but it's also sticky rice, so it represents the cohesiveness of the family, and it's a perfect circle. The roundness, the perfect wholeness of life. It's quite beautiful.

Alison Stewart: I love everything you said was poetic.

Grace Young: Aw, but there's more. You could have mushroom dumplings. Mushrooms, did you know, grow very quickly? It represents growing prosperity, fast prosperity. Some people like to eat rice rolls. Have you ever had that? Sometimes they're stuffed with vegetables, shrimp, pork. You should eat the one that's stuffed with shrimp for happiness. You could do the one with barbecued pork because pork represents bounty. They're also stuffed sometimes with cilantro and scallions. Scallions represent intelligence and cilantro is compassion. It's quite beautiful when you go to have dim sum that you're eating delicious food and you'll also be showered with good fortune in the coming year.

Alison Stewart: If you don't mind sharing, how did your family celebrate Lunar New Year growing up?

Grace Young: The most important meal of the entire year is New Year's Eve. We always cooked a meal at home. It's very important to eat symbolic foods. We always had a steamed fish with scallions and ginger that represents your wishes coming true, the abundance of life. Fish swim in pairs, so they represent marital bliss. We always had stir-fried clams with black bean sauce. That was my father's favorite dish. Clams open as they cook, as they're stir-fried. That represents a fresh beginning. Clams also look like coins, ancient coins. Again, prosperity. So much of Chinese New Year's is about good fortune. It's eating for money and prosperity.

There are so many dishes. We always had stir-fried lettuce. The word for lettuce in Cantonese is san choy, which means growing fortunes. You're getting the idea. Also, we always had dim sum. The family would always gather for dim sum. Chinese New Year's is not just celebrated on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day, but it's a two-week celebration. We would gather with the other family members. When you go to Chinatown, you'll often see that there are three generations. It's a multi-generational experience to eat dim sum. For those who don't know, dim sum is the Cantonese word for a tradition of eating small dishes. I call it Chinese tapas. Anything from steamed dumplings, fried dumplings, buns, sweets, fried foods, and everything is totally delicious. It's a wonderful experience.

Alison Stewart: When you go to dim sum, do you have a particular strategy? I sometimes get a little bit overwhelmed and I want everything.

Grace Young: Yes.

Alison Stewart: What is your strategy?

Grace Young: My first strategy is that I only order three or four different dumplings or plates at a time. Some people bring on 10 different items. That really upsets me because by the time you finish the first two or three, the rest of the items are room temperature or cold. You don't want to eat a cold dumpling. It just isn't right. I like my dumplings right out of the steamer, piping hot. In fact, when the waiter brings the steamed dumplings, he always brings a whole stack of dumplings with the lid. They always take the lid away. I want the lid to stay on for the dumplings I haven't gotten to yet so they stay piping hot.

My father's strategy was he always sat at the table closest to the kitchen door, because the moment the push cart comes out of the kitchen, he wanted us to be able to pounce on whatever came right out. He didn't want everything to cool down as the push cart wove its way through the whole dining room. Some dim sum restaurants no longer have the push carts and you order the food on a menu order form. Everything comes out made to order. If my father was alive today, I'm sure he would still insist on eating at the table closest to the kitchen door because he doesn't want his steamer of dumplings or his plate of turnip cake to cool down as the waiter walks across the room.

What else are my strategies? Well, right now, I would not go to Chinatown on New Year's Day, on Saturday or Sunday, because it's going to be absolutely crazy. It's wonderful. Actually, you should go because it's such a special atmosphere. There's going to be lion dancing and firecrackers. The celebration goes on for two weeks. If you go for dim sum this weekend, for sure, you're going to be waiting in line for an hour. If you go later during the two-week celebration, you'll still get your good fortune, but you won't have to wait as long.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Grace Young. Our Food for Thought segment for this week is about dim sum and Lunar New Year traditions. Let's talk about a couple of places. You put together a list of a couple of places. Let's head out to Sunset Park, East Harbor Seafood Restaurant. Tell us what's special about East Harbor Seafood Restaurant.

Grace Young: This is one of those great dim sum dining halls. It's huge and everything that they do. You'll get the whole experience of the push carts. One of the things about dim sum, which is so different from other foods that we eat or other restaurants that we go to dine at, is that most of the time, you know what you want to eat or you see on the menu what you want. Dim sum is really about also seeing what comes on the push cart and realizing, "Oh, the shrimp dumplings look so good today," or, "Oh, my God, I wasn't even thinking about the bean curd rolls." You eat with your eyes.

It's part of the experience of dim sum is that the dim sum should not only taste good and smell good, but it needs to look very special to entice you to want to eat it. East Harbor Seafood Palace is really wonderful. Everything they do is great. I love their taro puffs. They have fabulous rice rolls stuffed, as I said, with either barbecued pork or sometimes beef or shrimp. It's a very, very solid dim sum experience.

Alison Stewart: [laughs] Let's talk about in Flushing, Asian Jewels Seafood Restaurant. The menu is pages long. Tell us a little bit about the strategy, especially when you get to one of these restaurants with pages and pages.

Grace Young: For those kinds of restaurants, there can be a huge wait because Asian Jewels Seafood Restaurant is so popular, but the quality of their dim sum is consistently stellar. I think it's been named on the Michelin Guide. It's one of these really big halls. They're famous for their crab and pork soup dumplings, which you have to know how to eat them. You have to nibble at the very top because there's hot broth inside this dumpling, and just gradually suck up the hot broth juices and not take one giant bite or to put the whole thing into your mouth. They're fabulous for their turnip cakes and their chive and shrimp dumplings. Steamed chive and shrimp dumplings are to die for.

Alison Stewart: Let's check out a place that's not a dim sum place specifically, and it's a lot smaller than some of the other places you mentioned, Petite Dumpling in Park Slope. How would you explain the feel of this restaurant?

Grace Young: This is a restaurant that's very dear to my heart. The owner, Mei Chau, had a restaurant in Manhattan's Chinatown called Aux Epices, and it was one of the first restaurants to close during the pandemic. I was really happy to see her start Petite Dumpling. She does everything from soup dumplings to traditional har gow, the shrimp dumplings, shumai. She makes everything by hand, the char sui baos. She just has an amazing selection. Also, pan-fried dumplings, spring rolls. It's not a dim sum restaurant, but she carries all the classics.

Alison Stewart: Listeners, if you'd like to get in on this conversation, if you have a favorite dim sum place you'd like to tell your fellow All Of It and public radio listeners about, we'd love to hear. We'd also like to hear about your Lunar New Year celebrations or traditions in your family. 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC. You may call in and join us on air, or you can text us at that number. Social media is available as well, @AllOfItWNYC.

My guest is Grace Young. She is walking us through some great places to get dim sum for Lunar New Year. It's our Food for Thought segment for this week. All right. Let's get to Chinatown. We know it's going to be busy, but there are some great opportunities to eat in Chinatown. You mentioned Dim Sum Go Go. Now, there's also a location in East Village as well, I believe.

Grace Young: Yes, yes. That's a new location for them. I love the Chinatown restaurant. It's unexpected. Sometimes, when you're there, they're playing Dave Brubeck. There's jazz in the air or pop music. They make a mango shrimp roll that is just to die for. They're famous for their roast duck dumpling, and they have an incredible selection of vegetarian dumplings.

I've been in their kitchen to see the chefs wrapping the dumplings, and it really gives you a whole different respect for what the art of dim sum making is about. Nowadays, so many people order dim sum on Goldbelly or they're buying frozen dumplings, but when you go to Chinatown, what's so precious about that experience is, this is really a dying art. Very, very few people know how to make dim sum.

When you see the chefs, I have not seen any 20 or 30-year-olds. They're all middle age. It is incredible craftsmanship. You can't just switch from your walk station stir frying and today, "The Dim Sum chef is sick so I'm going to fill in." This is an art form that requires great expertise. When they make har gow, they take a round of the dough, and rather than using a rolling pin to roll it into a thin round before you fill stuff it with the filling, they take a cleaver, which they've lightly oiled, they press down, and they do this sweeping motion. When they lift up the cleaver, it's this paper-thin, perfect round.

Alison Stewart: We got a text that says, "When we go to East Harbor, we always see stuff that Chinese families order off the menu to supplement the carts and feel like we're missing something. What does your guest order off the menu if you go there?"

Grace Young: Sometimes, there's turnip cake, which comes pan fried, but they have stir-fried turnip cake with Chinese chives, and it is so yummy good. It's something that not every dim sum restaurant carries, and it's one of my favorites.

Alison Stewart: Oh, actually, we got a call from somebody who wants to chime in. Charles from the Upper West Side. Hi, Charles.

Charles: Thank you so much, Alison, and thanks for having your guest. I go to a studio in Chinatown where I draw, and there's a place I love to go to, and I know you know it. It's a big place. It's called Congee Village.

Alison Stewart: Charles, thank you so much for calling in. Is Victoria on line 1 good to go? Hey, Victoria. Oh, I think Victoria's listening on the radio. She'll catch up in a second. Victoria calling in from Brooklyn. Hi, Victoria. Victoria, are you there? Oh, we'll see if we can get Victoria back in a little bit. You are on your list, Grace, we've got Ping's in Chinatown at 22 Mott Street. It uses the push carts. It's a classic. [laughs] Do you have a favorite Ping's dish?

Grace Young: Yes, they're very famous for their steam crab seafood dumpling, and it's a piece of art. The dough is the same dough as the shrimp dumpling, and they've colored it with spinach juice. It's this beautiful emerald green and it's stuffed with shrimp and crab meat. Then I think they top it with a little row. It's just a jewel to eat. They're also very famous for their shrimp dumplings, the har gow. I should say, no matter what dim sum restaurant you go to, people judge the quality of a restaurant by their shrimp dumplings.

Alison Stewart: That's it.

Grace Young: The dough needs to be so thin that it's translucent so that you can see the shrimp, and people judge the best shrimp dumpling by how many pleats there are. If it's machine-made, you'll see three pleats. I've been to restaurants in Hong Kong that have 12 or 15 pleats, but here in Chinatown, I would say Ping's is quite, quite good.

Alison Stewart: Let's see if we can get another call in. Dan calling in from Bridgewater. Hi, Dan.

Dan: Hi. Most people think about Chinatown, but a lot of us live outside of New York City, so I'd like to recommend in Somerville, New Jersey on Route 203, Golden Wok. The guy is Cordon Blue from France and Italy. He's Chinese and he has made the Chinese New York dinner, something fantastic. We have it there every year and we're going to have it there this year.

Alison Stewart: I can cosign on Dan. That is a great place. [laughs] We have just about a minute left, Grace. What would you like to leave our listeners with regarding Lunar New Year or dim sum?

Grace Young: First of all, I just want to wish everyone all the good fortune, power, and strength of this year, and of all the animals, dragon is the only one that is mythological. He or she carries the power and strength that we need. I really urge everyone to go to your local Chinatown and experience the wonders of this very, very special neighborhood.

Alison Stewart: Grace Young has been our guest for Food for Thought, all about dim sum and Lunar New Year's traditions. Happy New Year, Grace.

Grace Young: Happy New Year to you, Alison.

Alison Stewart: There's more of All of It right after the news.

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