Photo shows the seasonings display area in a Chinese supermarket in Singapore.
BEIJING, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- When the COVID-19 pandemic persisted at the start of 2022, 85.4 percent of the 2025 office workers chose to stay in the cities where they work and cooked home meals to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, according to a recent survey conducted by the China Youth Daily.
They made such choices out of their wishes for stemming the resurgence of the epidemic and the special dishes of varied flavors they cooked for the eve of Chinese Lunar New Year, or the Spring Festival, such as dumplings, steamed fish, hotpot and others embodied their wishes for a happy and rich life in the New Year.
Li, one of the young people who usually eat at canteens and order fast-food takeaways, picked steamed fish, a dish symbolizing life of abundance, to re-experience the taste of mother in a city far from home during the holiday.
Without much cooking experience, Li made the dish under her mother's guidance via video links and completely replicated the taste of home with the soy sauce produced by a renowned Chinese soy sauce maker - Foshan Haitian flavouring & Food Co., Ltd., the key to a delicious steamed fish at her home for years.
In the cold winter, some people who stayed in other cities chose Chinese hotpot at the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year.
Zhang, a typical southerner in China, decided to use two-flavor hotpot to create the home flavors of herself and her husband. "If you have no idea about which one to choose, just pick the hot pot seasonings of Haitian," said Zhang, who happened to discover the many different hot pot flavors of Haitian when shopping in a supermarket.
Outside China, many Chinese students and overseas Chinese spent the Spring Festival during work.
For Tian who stayed in the UK after graduating, having an expensive dinner in a Chinese restaurant or a bowl of rice with signature sauce for rice when short of money is the usual way for him to spend the Spring Festival. In London's Chinatown, Tian often bought several bottles of Haitian signature sauce for rice to make his dinner given its good taste and low prices. (Edited by Duan Jing with Xinhua Silk Road, duanjing@xinhua.org)
A single purchase
