Several Utah restaurants holding special Chinese New Year celebrations to ring in the Year of the Black Water Dragon. How cool does that sound? And what does it mean to you?

Whether the Year of the Black Water Dragon will bring you good luck or bad luck can be determined if you know your own lucky element–metal wood, water, fire or earth. At this point I get totally bogged down, so if you want to know more, go here.

What I am clear about is that you have some good options to celebrate the beginning of the Year of the Black Water Dragon. A couple of them feature the traditional Lion Dance–if you’ve never met a lion in person before, here’s some etiquette tips:

Chinese lions love lettuce, metaphorically and actually–as he writhes past your table, put dollar bills in his mouth. At the end of the dance, he does an acrobatic jump to reach a head of lettuce, sort of like a piñata. Feel free to get up from your table to watch, and let your children follow the lion around.

There are dozens of variations of this thousand-year-old dance, but that’s the way they’ve done it at J. Wong’s Asian Bistro in years past. And that’s the way they’ll be doing it at the Chinese Year’s Celebration on Saturday, January 28 at 7 p.m. Make reservations!

The Mandarin in Bountiful will hold a two-week Chinese New Year celebration starting tonight and running through Feb. 4. A special menu for parties of four or more people is available for $20 per person. Chicken lettuce wraps, pork pot stickers, black bean beef and Mongolian pork with Chinese sausage are just a few items planned. (The regular menu is also available.)

A traditional Lion Dance will be performed by an eight-person troupe Wednesday, Feb. 1, at 6 p.m. Reservations are accepted for eight or more people; parties of fewer than eight may call ahead and have their name placed on the waiting list.

Posted: Thursday, January 26th, 2012 @ 4:31 pm
Categories: On the Table.
Tags: black dragon, Chinese, chinese food, dinner, j. wong's asian bistro, new year, the mandarin.