Food & Cooking
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Chinese New Year history, superstitions, horoscopes

Bertie A. Kinser

This year, Chinese New Year falls on Feb. 1. Also known as Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival, it is an important holiday in China, as you might have guessed. Tied to the Chinese lunar calendar, the holiday is a time for celebrating and feasting, along with honoring household and heavenly deities and ancestors. Inscribed oracle bones with astronomical records indicate that the calendar existed as early as 14th century B.C. Because the Lunar New Year depends on the moon, the date of Chinese New Year changes each year, but it will always fall between Jan. 21 and Feb. 20.

While there are many stories, one fun legend tells the story of how the Chinese started keeping track of the passage of time by naming the years after different animals. Within the Chinese zodiac, there are 12 animals that gathered together for a race in the countryside. Each of

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Food & Cooking
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Best dim sum restaurants in Rhode Island for the Chinese New Year

Bertie A. Kinser

Chinese New Year is Feb. 1. It’s the Year of the Tiger.

How about six ways to celebrate?

Newport has two restaurants, Stoneacre Garden and Castle Hill Inn, offering special menus.

But for something more traditional, there’s dim sum. There are many, many Chinese restaurants in Rhode Island. But precious few offer a dim sum menu of traditional Chinese cuisine in which small plates of a variety of foods, including steamed dumplings, are served. 

But there are three contenders.

When I first met John Eng-Wong in 2008, he was researching the globalization of Chinese food as a visiting scholar at Brown University’s Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America. He is retired now but still assisting me on subjects such as where to enjoy some good dim sum.

A critics favorite for dim sum: King’s Garden at 90 Rolfe Square in Cranston 

King’s Garden at 90 Rolfe

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Food & Cooking
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Best Chinese Food in Seattle to Eat Right Now

Bertie A. Kinser

Like most North American cities these days, many of Seattle’s most exciting Xi’an noodle spots and curative Yunnan soup purveyors sit in the suburbs, but the traditional home of Chinese food, the Chinatown-International District, stays relevant and still holds the highest concentration of excellent restaurants. Big-budget modern regional Chinese chain outlets share streets with old-school chop suey spots, and takeout dim-sum counters are interspersed with all-you-can-eat premium hot pot vendors. It’s a far cry from a generation ago, when most Americans outside the Chinese diaspora barely understood the difference between Americanized Chinese food and the cuisines of China.

Food writer Hsiao-Ching credits more people traveling, or even exploring other cultures from their couches. “What’s on TV, Tony Bourdain… even people on YouTube, broadcasting from wherever they are,” she says. “That has opened up the access to these regional cuisines and ingredients, created a broader demand and customer base.”

When

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Food & Cooking
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Chinese restaurant to open near ‘mini Klyde Warren Park’ in Far North Dallas

Bertie A. Kinser

Restaurateur Howard Wang plans to open a Chinese restaurant in spring 2022 at Hillcrest Village, a growing foodie zone in Far North Dallas.

The restaurant will look out over a $4.3 million green space and a playground on Arapaho Road that’s been called a “mini Klyde Warren Park.” A lackluster shopping center has been replaced with family-friendly restaurants like Haystack Burgers, Andy’s Frozen Custard and Haute Sweets Patisserie. Don Pepe’s Rancho Mexican Grill is one of the newest restaurants nearby. Its opening in late 2021 was welcome news for neighbors, many who had eaten at owner Jose Jaimes’ Tex-Mex restaurants in the area since 1985.

By April 2022, a Cane Rosso pizza joint is expected to open at Hillcrest Village as well.

Shelby Presser, left, and Terri Hankins enjoy a pair of beverages after having lunch at Lada, the only open restaurant — so far — facing the park at Hillcrest Village in Far North Dallas. In 2021, the area behind the tree will become a 1.5-acre green space with a half-dozen restaurants with patios.

Howard Wang’s is a family-owned business named for its patriarch, who is Chinese but was born in Korea. The first Howard Wang’s opened in Preston Hollow in

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