Essential foods for Chinese New Year's Eve
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Buddha jumping over the wall
This is a soup that is popular in South China. It uses luxury ingredients, such as sea cucumber, abalone, shark fin, dried scallops, ham and more. Its name comes from the tantalizing scent of the soup, enough to lure a Buddha, who is vegetarian, to want to jump over the wall and drink it.
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Rice cakes
Most people in South China will have rice cakes for Spring Festival due to its auspicious meaning: Wishing to be elevated (in whatever area one desires) in the New Year.
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A dish of tofu
The Chinese pronunciation for tofu sounds similar to "luck for all" – "Tofu, Tofu, mouthful of 'Fu' (happiness)". Tofu is also winning over people's hearts and stomachs for its health benefits.