February 7, 2024

Happy Lunar New Year! Four Seas Crispy Chicken & A Family Listen

By Erin Murphy

Ring in the Year of the Dragon with a delicious meal, and a great audiobook for company.

The Four Seas Crispy Chicken from Mister Jiu’s in Chinatown by Brandon Jew and Tienlon Ho requires a little bit of planning ahead (dry-brining, anyone?). Press play on Alex’s Good Fortune while you prep to learn about Lunar New Year traditions as a family!

“I always thought my grandfather Yeh Yeh disapproved of me cooking. But the week after I signed the lease to take over the Four Seas space, he gave me a clipping from the San Francisco Chronicle that he had carefully saved in a filing cabinet for fifteen years. It was the recipe for **Four Seas Whole Crispy Skin Chicken (金牌炸子雞) by Chef Jing Yu Tan**, which called for salting, blanching, and then at least a day of basting with maltose (a wheat-and-soy-based syrup) and red rice vinegar to get a crackly, golden skin. Before that moment, it hadn’t totally registered that all those papers in Yeh Yeh’s cabinet, all those books stacked around his recliner, were recipes and cookbooks.”

Pair your New Year feast with a sweet story the whole family will love to celebrate with

Chinese New Year is the most important holiday for Alex and her family, so it’s even more special when she gets to share her favorite traditions with her best friend, Ethan. Together, they join the Chinese New Year parade and get to help make the dragon dance. Then they prepare for the festivities by tidying up, decorating, and making dumplings. After that, it’s time to open red envelopes, eat a great big feast, and enjoy the lantern festival!

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