For 2020, the 25th January marks the beginning of the lunar new year. It is traditionally a time celebrated with friends and family.  Food is central to many Chinese festivities and Chinese New Year is no different!  Many foods that are traditionally eaten have symbolic meanings, so, not only are they delicious, but they also bring sentiment to the table too.  For example, long noodles are eaten without being trimmed in order to symbolise longevity.  My favourite food tradition has got to be eating fish which is typically eaten at the family New Year dinner and is usually steamed intact with head and tail to symbolise a good start and finish to the new year!     

I like to use this time of year to encourage my patients to try some simple new foods to help promote good health. After all, what better way to start the new year than with a healthier diet?

Here are a few simple foods to try for the 2020 Chinese Lunar New Year. Not only are they healthy, they are pretty tasty too.

Mint tea bags
Mint is a cooling herb in Chinese medicine and we use this in prescriptions to help with ‘hot’ symptoms, such as sweating, hot flushes, migraines or inflammatory arthritic aches and pains.  If you are somebody who suffers with cold hands and feet, drinking mint tea is fine every so often, but we wouldn’t recommend having this daily as your regular cuppa!   

Green rooibois and manuka honey tea
You may have had the regular rooibois tea but have you tried green rooibois?  It’s naturally caffeine-free and is unfermented, whilst the red rooibois tea is made from fermented tea leaves.  Green rooibois is touted to have higher anti-oxidant levels for this reason and has a slightly bitter flavour, which is why it goes so well with the manuka honey it’s combined with! 

Taiwanese oolong high mountain tea pearls
This is my absolute favourite oolong tea!  High mountain tea (or gaoshan cha) has a beautifully clear and deep earthy and slightly bitter flavour - perfect for a pick-me-up in the mornings!  It does have caffeine so just be careful about drinking it too late in the day if you’re susceptible to the effects of caffeine.  I’ve provided loose leaf pearls in the tea sachets - use half a teaspoon for a weak tea, and a full teaspoon for a stronger one.  If possible, rinse with hot water first and then add hot water, but not boiling water, and steep for 5 minutes.  This tea is best brewed at around 80-85 degrees - to reach this temperature without bringing out a thermometer everytime, simply let freshly boiled water stand for a few minutes to cool down and the temperature will be about right.  You can re-use the tea leaves for the remainder of the day but avoid using overnight tea leaves.  

M&S Brown rice and green tea teabag
Toasted brown rice and green tea is a very popular green tea in Japan, also called genmai cha, and is another of my favourite teas!  The rice brings a more grain-y flavour to it which I think supplements the bitterness of the green tea perfectly and is a beautiful tea to have with a light lunch.  As with the Taiwanese high mountain tea, steep for around 5 minutes and with hot water around 80-85 degrees (you can also simply boil the water in the kettle and leave to stand for a few minutes to cool down). 

You can buy this one in a tea temple from M&S so that if you like this one and prefer it in a tea temple instead of loose leaf, you can re-purchase easily without having to visit an Oriental supermarket.

Goji berries
Goji berries, also known as Gou Qi Zi, are a herb that herbalists use widely in Chinese medicine to help boost the body’s Yin levels.  It can be added to soups and stews, or made into a tea by simply adding hot water to it and allowing it to steep for a few minutes.  Cooking it slightly in these ways will make bring out the sweetness to them. You can also snack on this raw with other dried fruit and nuts, or added to home-made protein-balls and has a slightly bitter-sweet taste to it when eaten in this way. 

Chinese pearl barley
Chinese pearl barley (Yi Yi Ren) is gluten-free and is another herb widely used in Chinese medicine.  This herb helps with symptoms like bloating, water retention and painful urination due to water infections and is a great one to add to soups, broths, stews and casseroles just to give a little big of a bite. If you’re interested in making a simple but tasty pearl barley drink you can check out this recipe.