Lucky food

I was just doing a little research about food associated with New Year… yes, I know it’s a long way away, but I was looking to see if there were any particular cakes or snacks which might be eaten in different parts of the world. I know in Scotland there is something called black bun, which a Scottish friend of mine introduced me too. The bun she had, made by her mother was a round pastry case like a big golden ball, encasing a squashed together mixture of dried fruits, chiefly currants. It was a long time ago, so I don’t know if there were any spices in it, as there might be in mincemeat which is a similar thing. looking up a recipe, I see that many of them are actually cakes covered in pastry… but what I had was definitely not cakey… it was made by my friend’s mum, so no doubt it was a family recipe!

There seems to a consensus of between seven and ten ‘lucky’ foods. Some of them are definitely Chinese and Japanese traditional foods, but others are European. I guess most countries have some sort of ‘special’ thing they would eat as the Old Year falls away and the New Year starts:

• grapes
• noodles
• beans/legumes
• whole fish
• pickled fish
• round fruit
• cornbread
• pomegranate
• pork
• greens
• cake – sometimes with a coin hidden in it

Well, all these things sound delicious! Maybe I should plan to prepare all of them for the family… it wouldn’t be difficult to include them throughout the whole day… hmm, I must think about this!