If last month’s news of cockeyed calendars and misaligned astrological signs still has your world in retrograde, today’s Lunar New Year (a.k.a. Chinese New Year) is your chance to realign your cosmic polarity as we enter the Year of the Rabbit. Meritage’s Anne Coll is celebrating with a special Lunar New Year menu inspired by dishes from Japan, China, Thailand and Vietnam. The $45 six-course meal — honoring the lucky number six, which represents happiness, blessings and good business — includes traditional pickled baby carrot and daikon, braised berkshire pork belly, quail egg, and steamed sticky rice wrapped in banana leaf, and crispy shrimp and crab spring rolls, and is available every night through February 12.
• In Chinatown, the Imperial Inn, Joy Tsin Lau and HK Golden Phoenix are all offering traditional dim sum, with small dish tastings and morning tea.
• Joseph Poon Chef Kitchen is offering a ten-course Chinese New Year Banquet for $35 per person. The feast includes Peking duck surf and turf burger, lobster and pork dumpling salad, and crispy Peking duck foie gras roll. The banquet is available for parties of two or more through March 31.
• On Friday night the National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP) Philadelphia is hosting its Lunar New Year Jade Gala Asian Tasting Event, a food-focused fundraiser benefiting winners of the annual NAAAP Philadelphia Scholarship Program at Loews Hotel Millennium Ballroom. It will feature dishes form dozens of the area’s top Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean restaurants, including Susanna Foo, Sammy Chon’s K-Town BBQ, Margaret Kuo’s, Sang Kee Peking Duck House, Mango Moon, Vietnam Restaurant, Wasabi Asian Plates Solefood, Doma, Haru, Cups and Chairs, Loving Hut and Subarashii Kudamono. Ticket prices range from $75 to $105. Click here for ticket information.
