What has not changed is the Spring Festival Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, and what has changed is the content and method of the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner. People who have been busy for a year are now preparing the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner for the Chinese New Year's Eve of the Year of the Dragon, but how to prepare and enjoy the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner is also difficult for people.
According to tradition, the Chinese New Year's Eve Dinner (also known as Tuan New Year's Dinner, Reunion Dinner) is the dinner on Chinese New Year's Eve (the last day of the lunar calendar every year), a beautiful time for families to reunite before the New Year, and a finale to welcome the arrival of the Spring Festival. Since it is a reunion, the tradition of the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner is of course hearty, varied and delicious.
Different families have different Chinese New Year's Eve meals, but the average family has to prepare at least 8 dishes, and some families can prepare more than 10 or even more than 20 dishes. This symbolizes the abundance of the family and the surplus of each year. But the hearty Chinese New Year's Eve meal and the Chinese New Year diet represent a marker and genetic evolution in human evolution, and remind people that it's time to change, from abundance to simplicity.
Not only the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, but also the content and way of eating and drinking during the Spring Festival and other holidays are the products of the environment and economic development. DeLong, an economist at the University of Berkeley, believes that 97% of human wealth has been created in the past 250 years under the conditions of a market (free) economy. From 2000 to 2024, it is the market economy that has given birth to the information technology revolution, which means that mankind may become richer and richer in the future.
According to this development, lifestyle and diet may become an important factor in determining and restricting the direction of human evolution, and the most important result is obesity and the development of diseases of wealth, such as diabetes.
For thousands of years before the market economy, human beings have not been able to solve the problem of food and clothing, so the opportunity to eat and drink is people's greatest luxury and enjoyment, and the vigorous eating and drinking of the Chinese New Year's Eve and Spring Festival is such a manifestation. Such a way of life has also led to the adaptation and evolution of human genes.
For most of the past, mankind was starved because of the underdevelopment of productive forces. The history of developed countries being able to eat enough is only one or two hundred years, and it is only a few decades for Chinese to be able to eat enough. Therefore, driven by adequate food and nutrition, a common phenomenon is that it has only been more than 100 years since Westerners become obese, and Chinese obesity has only developed in recent decades.
This can also be found in molecular biology to find an evolutionary basis. American geneticist James Neel proposed in 1962 that human ancestors experienced too much famine, and during the famine, those who stored more fat were more likely to survive, so those with a predisposition to diabetes and obesity were more likely to store fat. This is the thrifty gene hypothesis, which can explain that today's living conditions are better and nutrition is sufficient, but obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases are in large numbers.
Of course, Chinese New Year's Eve dinner is not the direct cause of obesity, diabetes, etc., but the way of gluttony and large energy storage at the first opportunity of Chinese New Year's Eve meal is the reason why people have formed thrifty genes for thousands of years, and under today's material abundance, it has induced a variety of wealth diseases.
This also means that the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner may need to be changed, reformed or improved, from hearty to simple. Some nutritionists have put forward some principles, which are undoubtedly in line with the reality and conducive to health, and can also guide the evolution of human beings in the future. These principles can be summed up as requiring health at specific Chinese New Year's Eve meals. It is reflected in the abundance of ingredients, the combination of meat and vegetables, and the balance of nutrition. On the basis of ensuring that the variety of dishes is abundant, we strive to have half of the plant-based foods, each dish is small and refined, fresh and delicious, so that a small amount of variety, one dish and one taste. Improving the quality of dishes while reducing the amount of food can make people feel unsatisfied, have room to taste other delicious foods, and avoid overeating or wasting food.
Of course, there are still many places worth exploring for the improvement of the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner. Many families are willing to cook a few big dishes at the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, but if there is no professional chef at home, it is difficult to make big dishes. There are 14 types of squirrel sea bass, which symbolizes the abundance of squirrel sea bass every year, including sea bass, peas, carrots, eggs, ginger, green onions, corn starch, cooking oil, salt, cooking wine, tomato paste, rice vinegar, sugar, and corn starch. There are more than 10 processes, from cleaning the sea bass, to separating the fish body, slicing, juicing, marinating the fish, frying the fish, to preparing the sweet and sour sauce and finally pouring the fish, this dish cannot be made in two hours. Even if it is made, it is difficult to know how it tastes, unless it is an old chef.
The important thing is that if you spend less time cooking food, you can spend time communicating, chatting, playing, taking care of your elders and children, and people will not be too tired. Therefore, the Chinese New Year's Eve meal is also a burden for many families, especially the housewife or househusband in charge, who is not only tired but also tired after the New Year.
From this situation, the food and drink during the Chinese New Year's Eve meal or the Spring Festival and other holidays may be outsourced, which can be customized from the restaurant or pre-made dishes. For restaurant customization, the premise is, of course, that the family's economic situation can afford it, and for pre-made dishes, although there is currently a lot of opposition, if strict standards and regulatory measures are formulated, including hygiene standards and nutrition standards for pre-made dishes, and the entry threshold of enterprises is regulated, so that pre-made food enterprises can have laws, standards, and norms to follow, people may wish to use it as an option when preparing Chinese New Year's Eve dinner. According to the "2023 China New Year Gift Box Consumer Behavior Insight Report", pre-made dishes have become one of the top ten types of Chinese New Year gift boxes for the first time, with 2691% of the respondents chose to buy pre-made dishes as New Year's goods. When preparing Chinese New Year's Eve dinner and Chinese New Year meals, pre-made dishes can be an option because they reduce people's hassle and save time.
Of course, if due to economic reasons and uneasy about pre-made dishes, you can also choose to prepare your own Chinese New Year's Eve meal, in order not to be tired and time-consuming, and good for health, you can choose a small and refined simple way, do not have more than 8 dishes, five or six dishes are OK, do not make complex dishes, simple dishes can also be, such as replacing squirrel sea bass with general steamed fish, etc., this way can also form a Chinese New Year's Eve meal.
The key is that the whole family is able to sit together and have more time for New Year's greetings, networking, leisure and play, allowing the body and mind to relax rather than be stressed and tired.
Text: Zhang Tiankan.
Photo source: Visual China.
Edited by Ji Yuan.