Category Archives: holiday food

For Lunar New Year, the Horse Gallops in with Traditional Foods of Tết

The Vietnamese celebration of Lunar New Year, Tet, serves up a range of traditional foods, including thick wedges of sticky rice filled with peppery pork and candied kumquats and nutty cookies. For the Year of the Horse, Son Tran, owner of Oakland’s aptly named Le Cheval Vietnamese restaurant, shared with me the details of these essential holiday dishes and other cultural traditions. Continue reading

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How to Buy a Live Fish in Oakland Chinatown for Chinese New Year

How to get the freshest fish? Buy it live in Oakland Chinatown. Anna Mindess gets a lesson in fresh fish buying and cooking for Chinese New Year from Lisa Li. Continue reading

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Sugar Skulls and Pan de Muerto Help Celebrate Day of the Dead

Sugar skulls decorated with neon-colored icing, sequins and feathers are the perfect emblem for this holiday that “befriends death”. Want to know where you can decorate your own sugar skull or learn to make bone-shaped Pan de Muerto bread for the upcoming Day of the Dead festivities? List of festivities and resources in the Bay Area. Continue reading

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Feed Your Inner Scandinavian at Nordic House

Berkeley’s Nordic House offers Danes, Swedes and Norwegians many tastes of home. Holiday foods hold a special place in Scandinavian hearts and Nordic House carries glogg, aeblskiver and rice pudding mixes plus Swedish brined hams, Norwegian pork ribs and Danish pork with crispy skin. Continue reading

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