In welcoming The Year of the Rabbit, we bid everyone a “Flourishing House Full of Gold and Jade” This is exemplified in our decadent Hong Kong style Hot Pot. Sun Wah BBQ has now concluded this promotion for the 2023 year.
This specific Hot Pot was carefully layered bottom-to-brim based on recipes from the walled villages of Hong Kong’s New Territories. Over a dozen premium ingredients are used in assembling each pot to symbolize packing your household with gold and jade for the new year!
Cherished ingredients include: house made fish balls, shell-on shrimp, abalone, dried oyster, dried scallop, black moss, roast duck, soy sauce chicken, hong kong style roast pork, house made bacon, black mushrooms, soy bean sprouts, fried soft tofu, daikon, tofu pouch
Our take-home hot pots have now been completely sold for the 2023 year. Please continue to watch our Events Schedule page for future specialties in the next Chinese New Year.
Deeper dive into the “Flourishing House Full of Gold and Jade”
Gung Hay Fat Choy and happy Year of the Rabbit to all! To celebrate the Year of the Rabbit, we will be making our ever popular Hong Kong style “poon choy”. What is poon choy and what makes it so special?
Poon choy (盆菜) roughly translates to “basin food”, as all the food is cooked, layered into a large basin (or a 15qt le creseut Dutch oven if you have one in these modern times), and then cooked on a small stove to keep the soupy sauce boiling while eating. It’s evolution has given it a new face in all shapes and sizes, but as we are a traditional family, we stayed with the original form.
Poon choy’s Hong Kong roots stem from the outer areas (walled villages) of the New Territories of Hong Kong. The ancestors of the villagers arrived in the New Territories as they were fleeing barbarian invaders in the north. Poon choy was invented when the young emperor of the late Sung dynasty was fleeing the Mongols and arrived on the outskirts of Hong Kong. The villagers felt honored to have the emperor and his soldiers among them so they cooked all the best available food they had for a feast. However, due to the large number of people, there were not enough individual dishes for everyone. So all the cooked food were piled into basins and people grouped around the basins to eat together.
Symbolically, poon choy is the embodiment of hospitality, gratitude, unity, and equality. Hospitality is due to the nature of the dish. All are welcome to the table, anyone and everyone can enjoy the meal. Gratitude to ancestors and guests is symbolized by only using the freshest and best ingredients as an offering to them. Unity is represented during the cooking and eating of this dish, as it takes teamwork to complete the dish and everyone gathers around to eat it together. Finally, equality. No matter who you are, you can sit down with someone else and enjoy this dish together. Whether you are rich or poor, educated or not, from the same village or the next, all are welcome at the table to eat from the same basin.
Our team here at Sun Wah has given this iconic dish the name of “Flourishing House Full of Gold & Jade” in the hopes that hospitality will bring you a year full of color and joy; gratitude will fill your house with happiness and wealth; unity will bring knowledge to fill your home to the brim; and equality will bring fortune to your door.