Top Melbourne chef Rosheen Kaul – most recently helming the celebrated restaurant Etta – has the fondest memories of Lunar New Year. Growing up in Singapore, the holiday was spent with her Chinese mother’s family, playing, eating and spending time together. “Even when we moved to Australia, we’d always try to be back for it,” Rosheen says. “It’s a special time, the whole country lights up for it and it’s really about the concept of homecoming. It’s the most important festival for East Asian culture, and everyone in China makes the effort to go home.”
Cooking and symbolism is a big part of Lunar New Year traditions, so Rosheen has concocted a fresh and delicious plum-based cocktail in the best colour. “It has a herbal undertone with the shiso leaf, and almost references a dark spice, like cumin, but we lighten it all up with soda so it’s more about a depth of flavour,” she says. “It’s that lovely red colour too, which is really auspicious in Asian culture.”
Not just that, but plums themselves are symbolic. “Lunar New Year is usually held in Spring in Singapore, so it’s stone fruit blossom season,” says Rosheen. “Blossoms are a really big signifier of the New Year approaching.” Lunar New Year falls in Australia’s summer, which is also the stone fruit season. “Plums, peaches and other stone fruit are the perfect thing to use for this cocktail. It ties in our sense of place with the traditional cultural symbols of the holiday.”
