Book Review: Tastes of Lunar New Year
Shining the joy of food and travel into lockdown!
Contents
PLEASE NOTE: the creators of this book had no input in the making of this review. This review was entirely to our own volition.
Meet Cheryl and Isabel from Big Cities Little Foodies
The talented ladies behind Big Cities Little Foodies are a perfect and fated pair! Despite living in different countries for most of their lives, they graduated from York/Sheridan design together… and their kids are born within a day of each other! Both are talented designers, mothers, and lovers of food and travel! Both have established incredible careers: Isabel as a graphic designer and Cheryl as a writer and app and software designer. Together, they launched Big Cities Little Foodies as part of their passion for cultural diversity and representation within children’s literature - plus, food! They are truly a match made in heaven! And presenting us with a heavenly book to make us all hungry!
Tastes of Lunar New Year is their fourth published work after their popular series of board books that focus on foods in Taipei, Tokyo and Hong Kong.
Let's read together!
I can speak multiple languages! 我会说很多门语言！
It’s one thing to learn the name of a dish in English, and it’s another to learn the name in its native language! What’s truly special about this book (and you can see how much thought they put into it) is how each double-page spread encourages readers to learn both the English and the local name for it.
Why’s this important? Well, some words and foods carry more meaning in the local language. Take the abalone with lettuce dish. The book contains a nice summary at the end to explain the importance of the abalone (鲍鱼) which also sounds like the words ‘full’ and ‘abundance’ in Cantonese. In more archaic versions of the Chinese language, abalone is sometimes written as 鳆鱼 which sounds like ‘prosperity’ and ‘abundance’ in Mandarin. Either way, it’s pretty cool!
There are other really interesting facts about the food and the names in the summaries at the back of the book!
Bilingual or not?
Sometimes, families simply want to learn more about Lunar New Year and Asian cultures that celebrate it so an English version may be ideal (and it saves you £2!). Others might want this to add to their Chinese children’s library and as another book to help them learn the language. It’s certainly nice to have the option and we have Big Cities Little Foodies to thank for that!
Note: Presently, we only have the English version at hand but we’ll add another section about difficulty etc. of the bilingual version once it arrives!
Here’s to a good one!
The major theme running through the book is about celebrating Lunar New Year through food in different places across the globe. It’s so lovely to see the book not only celebrate Lunar New Year but also Asian food, too. I’m a dragon, so I’ll take an example from the Taipei page: ‘Baked pineapple cakes, so buttery and light.’ Honestly, they couldn’t have got this description more on point!
There are little sayings or good wishes at the top right of every spread, which is a lovely touch! It’s always great to learn these things and the significance behind using such blessings during the New Year!
There’s a cute one here and a cute one there.
Cute here; cute there. Cuteness everywhere! (Get it? Old MacDonald? Animals? No…?) As you know, the theme is celebrating Lunar New Year across the world. So to amplify this theme, they used the 12 Chinese zodiac animals to introduce every dish and destination in order from mouse to pig! It’s a subtle touch - but very nice, indeed!
The bright and lively illustrations of the animals throughout the book are all made by Mori Chiang.
*grumble* Sorry, that was my stomach.
Mori Chiang’s cartoon illustrations with their vibrant colours combined with the simple but mouth-watering descriptions make me crave the different foods every time I see them. Big Cities Little Foodies have really done a great job! It’s a brilliant idea, because language and food are some of the best ways we can discover and appreciate cultures!
No air ticket? That’s fine.
The book is designed very lovingly that each page is able to convey a distinct location without you even having to look at the location tag at the bottom left. The Malaysia spread has Twin Towers in the background while the rabbit pounds glutinous rice into deliciously fragrant kuih bakul; the London spread has an mother ox and her baby strolling past an iconic red telephone box.
Bringing the book to life
Eat! Eat more! Eat in your sleep!
Just take a flip through the different dishes that are featured in the book. It’s not comprehensive (it’d be a compilation of several volumes if it was!) but it definitely lets you dip into the cultures of the locations in the book. Choose one or two or more that you’d like to try and just try it! YouTube and Google are your best buddies and they’ll provide you with a load of recipes to try!
Some of them are super easy, like the tray of togetherness (全盒), which is simply a tray full of sweets and mandarins and nuts and other treats. Some are super fun to do with friends and family, like the prosperity salad (生鱼沙拉) where you toss the ingredients in the air together while shouting blessings and good wishes for the new year! (We do this one every year!)
Just take the opportunity to make an activity out of the Lunar New Year foods and celebrate Lunar New Year!
Let’s not forget The Great Race!
The book features the 12 animals but that’s about it. It’s such a great opportunity to learn more about The Great Race that was the selection process for the zodiacs. It’s a really fun and enjoyable story for all ages and something that I’ve learnt and remembered since I was six years old! You can find a pretty good version of the story in English on by TED-Ed (lesson by Megan Campisi and Pen-Pen Chen).
Find a way to make it an interactive story… we’ve seen people make printables and some have made little figures out of the characters, playing with tangrams, some like role-play. There are lots of activities!
Other thoughts
It might be cute but…
The illustrations can get a little abstract at times. Don’t get me wrong, they look fantastic and, in many ways, they definitely serve their purpose! They carry forward a certain theme and style which makes it both endearing and energetic so it works perfectly for this book.
In my opinion, the illustrations are stunning reimaginations of the real dishes and the animals are drawn to be lovable and are deliberately anthropomorphic so as to reflect that each person has a zodiac sign they were born under. I personally love them but I’m also aware that they’re not exactly realistic or proportional and that some parents find this to be a disadvantage. So take a look at the illustrations and decide for yourself!
I want to frame it. No, seriously.
You can tell there’s been a lot of thought and deliberation on the design and the illustration of the book. The front cover is a wonderful little gathering of the zodiac animals (minus the piggy, who’s late to the feast and is on the back cover!) and the inside cover is a gorgeous array of the 12 featured dishes that immediately brings the book to life. The presentation of the dishes in the illustrations are deliberately done, with bánh chưng served on bamboo leaves (so fragrant I can smell it as I write this!). Tteokguk 떡국 is served in a bright blue bowl with a long-necked metal spoon. It’s really lovely to see cultures reflected so beautifully and thoughtfully into every design and illustration!
A Chinese-centric Lunar New Year?
This is understandable since the creators of this book are Chinese themselves and probably wanted to see themselves being represented in the book, too. In fact, I applaud this work because it does this so well for the Lunar New Year!
This is less a complaint on the book and more of a note to the readers of the book that the Chinese zodiac animals are not the same throughout Asia. In Vietnam, for example, the water buffalo is the 2nd animal and the cat is the 4th animal of the zodiac series. There are many variations of the zodiac throughout Asia, so just take note before applying the Chinese zodiac to the customs of any Asian country! We should respect their customs and traditions as much as we expect our customs and traditions to be respected!
Conclusion
It was a challenge to write this review. And that’s not because the book is bad! On the contrary, the book was so wonderful I was doing my best not to get up and scavenge the kitchen for food! There are certain dishes whose names I’ve never learnt before in other languages, so it’s really delightful to have that presented to me in such a gorgeous book. Cheryl, Isabel and Mori have done a truly brilliant job in putting this book together in such a way that respects the representation in the book. Food, culture and location come to life on the page and bring joy to your library in a book that’s perfect for almost every kid!
Did you find this review helpful or do you have this book already? Or do you have Big Cities Little Foodies’ other books? Maybe you have both! Let us know what you think of the book and drop us a comment below. It’s always such a joy to see independent authors publishing books because you can sense the amount of devotion put into each book!
If you’re looking to purchase either the English or bilingual version, you can find Tastes of Lunar New Year in our store!
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See you around!