Tsao Wang kitchen God

Firecrackers have been set off and a series of small feasts and festivities have taken place.
In traditional Chinese households, such activities are part of the ritual in the seven days leading up to Chinese New Year, a period known in China as Little New Year.  One of the dishes often consumed during this time is Hot Pot, the Chinese version of fondue (in China, every kitchen has a shrine, where a picture of the Tsao-Wang ( Zao Shen ) the Gods of the hearth or stove is placed, so that it faces south. Pictured next to him is his wife Tsao-Wang Nai-Nai, who carries the sayings of the household’s women to the Jade Emperor in heaven. Three sticks of incense, food, drink and flowers are offered to him to ensure the safety and good fortune of the inhabitants).
Now that the New Year has begun, Tsao Wang is welcomed back with firecrackers, incense, red candles and offerings of chicken, fish, pork, wine and fruits.
He sits, calm and resplendent, back on the wall to guard over the family’s morals for another year.The New Year is a time for cleaning up, settling debts and family quarrels, and getting haircuts.
While the younger generation dismiss many of the old customs, they still try to join their families to relax and enjoy themselves – and, most importantly, to eat.
Eighteen months ago, a  sensational new gallery dedicated to contemporary Chinese art called The White Rabbit opened in Chippendale, Sydney. Founded by Kerr and Judith Neilson, it focuses on works produced after 2000.
“Many people associate the name White Rabbit with serendipity and surprise,” says Judith Neilson

White rabbit puppet at White Rabbit Gallery

” And the White Rabbit Collection did arise from a series of chance encounters. The first was in 1999, when I came across a wall sculpture by Wang Zhiyuan in the storeroom of a Sydney art gallery. It showed whimsical fusions of humans, animals and angels, and I was immediately struck by the artist’s inventiveness and technical mastery.
“That discovery led to a meeting with Wang Zhiyuan, who became a family friend and regaled us with news of the exciting changes taking place in the Chinese art world. A few years later, as a surprise present, I took my younger daughter to China. We met up with Wang Zhiyuan, who had moved to Beijing and opened a studio.
“That led to perhaps the biggest surprise of all—seeing the extraordinary art he had been raving about. The best of it had all the qualities that had made his work leap out at me. It was bursting with ideas and energy, vibrant, often humorous, imaginative, technically superb and utterly compelling. I was hooked, and wanted to start collecting at once.
“The name for the White Rabbit Gallery popped into my head one day and just stuck. The establishment of the Gallery, though, was very deliberate. We wanted to share with Australians and the world the best of Chinese contemporary art since 2000—a turning point that I think of as the Big Bang.
“Before 2000, artists reflected on the Cultural Revolution.  Now artists are questioning environmental concerns, money worship, native and Western culture, tradition and modernity, wealth and poverty.
“I don’t have a favourite piece, but I have a popular work, Manager Zhao’s Mini Cab which is returning in the new show at the end of February.”

White rabbit made from recycled plastic water bottles, part of Chinese New Year Festival, Belmore Park, Sydney 30/1/11

Make sure you pay a visit sometime during the year of the rabbit.

Decade of the Rabbit begins February 25 at White Rabbit Gallery, 30 Balfour Street, Chippendale
www.whiterabbitcollection.org
www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/cny

Selection of Alice Cho's Chinese Teas

Sydneysiders are truly spoilt for choice:  you can find lip-smacking spring onion or pork pancakes at Mother Chu’s Taiwanese (at $2.50 – $3 a pop); sweet boat noodle soup thickened with chicken blood at Chat Thai; garlicky Russian salad and Uygur-style BBQ lamb skewers at Kiroran; and deep-fried lamb cutlets topped with roasted garlic, chillies, black beans and shallots at East Ocean. There’s plenty of theatre too: watch hand-pulled noodles from Xinjiang being made at the Chinese Noodle Restaurant, sweet conical ‘roti tisu’ being shaped at Mamak and tiny warm cream puffs being moulded and filled at Emperors Garden Bakery – one of Sydney’s best bargains at 4 for $1.
After all, this is the largest Chinatown in Australia and the largest Chinese New year celebrations outside of Asia are held here each February. For decades, most of the Chinese restaurants specialised in Cantonese cuisine.  But changes are afoot.  At East Ocean, the menu has recently been overhauled to include dishes from other areas including Shanghai, Sichuan and Beijing.   Make sure you try the lamb cutlets, a clever take on the popular salt-and-pepper combo (you can order lobster, mud crab and king crab in this style). I also recommend the wasabi prawns, an inspired dish of plump, crispy deep-fried prawns, coated with vivid green wasabi mayonnaise flecked with black sesame seeds.  If you can’t make it for dinner, go for Yum Cha, available 365 days a year, and along with Marigold and Regal, one of Chinatown’s best.
At the impressive new ‘Red Chilli’ restaurant opposite the Entertainment Centre, spicy Sichuan cuisine is all the go.  As we are ushered in, I notice a number of diners ordering the same dish: a large, beautifully engraved bowl which, we’re told, is called ‘Chef’s special hot fish fillets’. The idea is to scoop the fish out from the bowl of sizzling oil which is infused with scores of chillies and Sichuan peppercorns. Its multi-layered flavour is sensational, and the hot numbing impact of the peppercorns makes my lips tingle (make sure not to miss the luscious pieces of Chinese cabbage buried deep at the bottom).
It reminded me of the ‘piece de resistance’ at Neil Perry’s new ‘Spice Temple’, currently the hottest place in the Sydney CBD, where it is charmingly called ‘fish drowned in heaven facing chillies and Sichuan peppercorns’. It’s another multi-layered flavour hit. Perry describes ‘Spice Temple’ as a modern Chinese restaurant which pays homage to and draws inspiration from the provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, Hunan, Jiangxi, Guangxi and Xinjiang, and you’ll find more hot and numbing dishes on the menu, the hottest of which are in red letters.
While food may be the major attraction of Chinatown, this area is also well known for its markets. Paddy’s Markets is one of the biggest, selling everything from vegetables to clothing. Don’t leave without visiting the hole-in-the-wall adjacent to Emperors Garden Bakery in Dixon Street.  People queue here for the cream puffs and I know why: tiny and delectable, they are filled with hot custard while you watch, and are heaven-sent. Take them with you over to the tranquil Chinese Garden of Friendship by which time they will have cooled enough for you to eat without burning your tongue.