Unconventional Dishes To Put On Your Menu For Chinese New Year 2023

Peru has given birth to the popular Japanese-Peruvian cuisine called nikkei, but less known is chifa, which blends Cantonese and local flavours. Discover it at Canchita, which is serving items like ceviche with peanuts, pickled vegetables, and sesame, and pork chifero, which shares similarities to char siu save for the addition of green mango salsa. For something heartier, aeropuerto taypa combines fried rice and fried noodles with crunchy red quinoa, soft shell prawns, crispy calamari, pork, and octopus.

S$22++ – S$45++

3-15 January 2023

(Image credit: Canchita Peruvian Cuisine)

Chopsuey Cafe’s two Chinese New Year set menus open with their lucky lunar lo hei, a healthy spin with trout, kale, celeriac, sprouts, red radish, blueberries, and wild rice, plus a topping of gold leaf. Other highlights include young coconut seafood soup, melt-away tamarind beef ribs, crispy smoked duck egg, and typhoon shelter soft shell crab. Orange brings a touch of festive flavour to chocolate pecan pie, while lemongrass granita provides a refreshing finish.

S$108++ – S$138++

9 January – 5 February 2023

(Image credit: Chopsuey Cafe)

DB Bistro & Oyster Bar adds some CNY flair to their à la carte menu with a yu sheng featuring thick cuts of fresh Tasmanian sea trout and hamachi, soya-steamed sea bass with ginger and scallion relish, and flower crab bisque. They also reimagine Singapore chilli crab with Australian lobster, braise Irish duck with spices and orange, and turn fried rice decadent with foie gras.

S$40++ – S$135++

20-23 January 2023

(Image credit: DB Bistro & Oyster Bar)

If you prefer your yu sheng without the yu, Fat Cow has your back. The Japanese restaurant has come up with the gyu sheng, which showcases slices of A4 Miyazaki wagyu on top of jellyfish, seaweed, uni, ikura, and caviar. Joining them are white radish, carrots, and pickled gingers glazed with goma ponzu sauce.

S$99++

16 January – 5 February 2023

(Image credit: Fat Cow)

If you’re curious to see how a vegetable-centric French restaurant does yu sheng, Jag offers an example. Their version features French, Japanese, and regional produce including orange and black carrots, yellow and red beetroots, green and red radishes, daikon, and cabbage, which are served raw, cured, and pickled. Joining them are cured Scottish salmon, smoked Hokkaido scallop, and marinated Japanese shrimps, as well as watercress crackers, sesame, peanuts, and gold leaf. The dish is tossed with the aromatic sea buckthorn with blood orange dressing, and there’s the option of adding caviar.

S$128++ – S$198++

5-28 January 2023

(Image credit: Restaurant Jag)

Kinki Restaurant applies a Japanese sensibility to its ultimate yu sheng with three different types of sashimi – salmon, tuna, and swordfish – which are topped with ikura and tobiko. Dried wakame and deep-fried crabstick strips bring crunch together with shredded Japanese cucumber, daikon, carrot, and pickled daikon radish, which are encircled with Japanese fish floss and dressed with truffle oil and sesame. A final sprinkling of diced beetroot adds a sweet earthiness and pop of red hue.

S$88++

16 January – 5 February 2023

(Image credit: Kinki Restaurant + Bar)

Fish and duck are enduring symbols of prosperity during Chinese New Year, and Level33 leans into them with two specials.The first is the whole sustainable turbot, which is lightly seasoned, baked, and glazed with a sauce made with shiitake, black fungus, cordyceps and soy. The other is whole free-range roasted duck.The bird is first dry-aged, glazed once with a sauce of mandarins and LeVeL33’s own IPA, then roasted, with a refreshed glaze applied every 10 minutes.

S$118++ – S$148++

22 January – 5 February 2023

(Image credit: Level33)

Restaurant Gaig marks the Year of the Rabbit by cooking one into a stew. A dish commonly found in Catalonia, executive chef Carlos Martinez slow-cooks the meat for 40 minutes with onion, tomato, carrot, and potato, then seasons the stew with bay leaves and black pepper.

S$68++

25-28 January 2023

(Image credit: Restaurant Gaig)

Sky22, the restaurant at Courtyard by Marriott, injects subtle contemporary touches into its Lunar New Year set dinner. Available in two or three courses, highlights include crispy chicken and prawn dumpling with mozzarella and garlic aioli, preserved duck in lotus leaf rice with seared foie gras, and pork belly with mashed taro. Desserts range from osmanthus goji berry jelly with limoncello granita, to double-boiled peach gum accompanied by longan, white fungus, lotus seeds, and red dates.

S$36++ – S$48++

5 January – 5 February 2023

(Image credit: Courtyard by Marriott Singapore Novena)

Modern European restaurant Tablescape took inspiration from the Peking duck for this black truffle version. Made with a whole bird, it is stuffed and coated with a truffle-butter-and-salt mixture, and marinated for a day. It is then blanched with red and white vinegar, squid ink, truffle oil, and maltose, turning the skin charcoal black. To finish, the duck is dried for six hours before being baked in low heat. Diners can order traditional accompaniments such as crepes for an additional S$20.

S$128

9 January – 5 February 2023

(Image credit: Tablescape)