How to do Lunar New Year

 

Celebrate Lunar New Year

January 26th- February 6th: The Lunar New Year Menu is now online for scheduled orders and same-day ordering. Don't miss out on your favorite Rainbow dishes, you can mix and match from both menus to round out your Lunar New Year meal. Look for the two buttons on the website to switch to each menu. You might notice many of the items are vegan, (meaning its made without animal products), a practice observed during the Lunar New Year.

LUNAR NEW YEAR

EVERYDAY MENU

Schedule your pick-up time now. Unlike last year's Lunar New Year offering  when we offered a prix fixe 4-course menu, this year's menu is a la carte. What this means is that our specialty items are being prepared alongside our everyday menu items, and might make the need for scheduling if say, you wanted to eat at 6pm. (Our busiest time) The earlier you order, the more options you have for scheduled pick-up times, just like reservations, the most popular times get booked. Right now we are seeing that February 2nd is our busiest day for scheduled orders.

Our vegan Peking Duck

VEGAN PEKING DUCK 🐅 $18.00

Peking Duck was a staple on our menu many years ago. It took days of preparation in the kitchen, (drying and slow-roasting the ducks) and was prepared table side by the server. We set out to make Peking Duck more approachable, by skipping the duck. Some consider duck gamey, it's not like chicken, it's a flavor that can't really be re-created using any other bird- (perhaps quail). What makes duck great is the texture: the crunch of crisp skin, the juiciness of the slow-roasted duck, the flavor of caramelization, and the cool cucumbers and spring onions.  We did our best to break down the elements and reconstruct them, using traditional Chinese ingredients: Tofu skin for the crunch, Crispy fried mock duck as the protein, marinated mushrooms for the umami, house-made sauces and the usual crepes and cucumbers and spring onions. The only thing we are missing is the flavor of fat, ducks are notoriously fatty, which is why some people don't love it.  We focused on the mushrooms to bring out a well-rounded, full flavor.

How to assemble: Take a crepe, add a dallop of brown sauce to hold the toppings in place. Add pieces of tofu skin, mock duck, 1-2 cucumbers and 1-2 scallions. Wrap the crepe around these and fold the bottom over so the ingredients don't spill out. Eat as is, which is traditional, or top with the juicy slaw to brighten it up.

Traditions during Lunar New Year

While the dining room may not be open for the Dragon Dance, the drummers, and the parade of incense; and the sidewalk might not have a fireworks display this year, we are keeping our traditions alive in-house. Here are a few rules we live by on Lunar New Year. 1. Don't sweep up on New Year's Day, otherwise you’ll 'sweep all your luck away'. 2. Don't eat porridge for breakfast, otherwise you’ll 'become poor in the upcoming year'. 3. Don't wash your clothes and hair (on New Year’s Day), otherwise you’ll 'wash away the luck. Links to more traditions: Chinese New Year: What Traditions You Need to Know in the Tiger Year 2022?

Auspicious food for the new year

1. Fish — an Increase in Prosperity 2. Dumplings — Wealth 3. Spring Rolls — Wealth 4. Glutinous Rice Cake — a Higher Income or Position 5. Sweet Rice Balls — Family Togetherness 6. Longevity Noodles — Happiness and Longevity 7. Good Fortune Fruit — Fullness and Wealth With regard to #1 on the list, we certainly miss seeing a whole walleye being served in the dining room, carved table side. Tammy's walleye was either steamed or fried whole, with a ginger scallion sauce, or tangy black bean sauce. It was a popular centerpiece for a shared family meal and was once available year-round. While we don't serve sweet rice balls and "good fortune fruit" visit Shuang Hur or any of the other businesses on Eat Street this weekend to grab all the Lunar New Year goodies, most places will be closed on Tuesday. Hot tip: Pomelos a citrus fruit and gorgeous altar offering to Buddha is often very expensive, reaching up to $12 per fruit. We stumbled upon pomelo at Trader Joe's for $2 a fruit. You're welcome. Links to more food traditions: • Timeout Shanghai: The 8 most auspicious foods for Chinese New Year • Michelin Guide: Lunar New Year: Food Traditions Around Asia

Tammy often has an altogether different menu for her friends and family during the holiday with more traditional dishes that are family favorites. Her previous menus have featured a few of these items, but they were unfamiliar to enough to be considered daring, not too popular with our usual audience. So while we have this Lunar New Year menu, try something new, it's only available once a year!

5 % Get 5% off entire order! Use the code below when you pay 012 345 The reward expires on January 31, 2022. No cash value. Not transferable. Valid in-store or via Square Online, if applicable. May be canceled at any time.

Rainbow Rewards

Have you checked your Rainbow Rewards balance lately?  A good number of you now have a Rainbow Rewards account. You might not of considered joining in the past, but if we noticed that your cumulative purchases were qualifying you for a reward, we signed you up, and added the points you would have qualified for. Some of you now have an excess of 1000 points based on past purchases and get a free reward.  Sign up for Rainbow Rewards to collect and redeem points.  For each $10 you spend, you'll get 25 points. This offer applies to purchases made through Square, does not apply to phone-in orders. Sign up, or look up your balance here.

RAINBOW REWARDS

Picking up your order:

Our parking lot on the SOUTH side of the building, but we also have two pick-up parking spots in front of the restaurant. If you opted-in for Order Updates, you will be notified of its status. When your order is marked ready, make your way to the restaurant and ring the doorbell located on the front door. Please do not call us to let us know you are here, you can just walk up to the front door. We often only have one person at the desk, so please have patience when you call us or pick up your order.

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