She eloquently explained that just like other signature dishes served during the festivity, pork belly also had a philosophy.

“Pork belly has layered textures of fat. Since fat is identical with prosperity, pork belly that is served on the table is a symbol of prosperity in the new year. More fortune, more wealth,” she told The Jakarta Post recently. Locally called Babi Hong sayur asin, the dish generally comes in slices of gleaming brown pork belly dotted with black dried Chinese pickles. It boasts the tenderness and savory flavor of the pig’s best cuts with some mild sweetness that keeps the taste balance.

The dish, Kartika said, was a classic recipe popular among Indonesians descended from Hakka Chinese families.

Kartika added that her family’s other must-have dishes during the Imlek holiday are ang sio gurame (fried gourami with sweet and sour sauce) and longevity noodles.

“Fish must be served during Imlek because besides being used for offerings, it symbolizes prayer and hopes that we will always have leftovers [of money] throughout the year and never have a shortage,” she said.

Chinese cuisine is not only a passion that runs in the Kartika family’s veins, it is also their source of livelihood. Some decades ago, her late grandfather, who came from mainland China, settled in Notosuman, Surakarta, Central Java, where he got married to a Javanese woman and set up a Chinese food restaurant called Fung in 1965.

(Read also: Four of Jakarta's legendary Chinese eateries for reunion dinners)

Kartika is now the third generation in the family who continues the culinary venture under the guidance of her cooking-loving father, Suharjono Honggokusumo.

“Honestly, I am a part of a generation that does not learn much about Imlek traditions,” said the woman, who is in her early 30s. It was understandable, though. The entire Chinese culture, including any celebration of the Lunar New Year, was banned in Indonesia for more than three decades during the Soeharto era.

Indonesians of Chinese descent in Kartika’s generation were already in their late teenage years when then president Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid removed the ban against Chinese traditions and language in 2000. Three years later, his successor Megawati Soekarnoputri set up Chinese New Year as a national holiday. Since then, the joyful festivity has become a celebration of crosscultural understanding in the country.

Due to the government’s restriction, Kartika said she only started learning about Imlek when she grew older. She then developed a passion for cooking and married a man who came from a family that still preserved the Chinese culture.

Culinary expert William Wongso says family dining during Chinese New Year is about meaningful, delectable food cooked with great effort and showered with abundant hope for a lucky, prosperous year. “Imlek lunch tradition has one purpose only — wishing for as much luck as possible,” he said during a recent Imlek lunch held by the Ciputra Shopping Mall in West Jakarta.

All of the dishes, he said, must be made from good quality ingredients.

“Imlek dishes should cover good ingredients with a complex way of cooking. You should not present easy-to-cook dishes,” he said, adding that mushroom abalone, sea cucumber, big milkfish and jumbo king prawn could be among the fancy ingredients.

(Read also: Chinese New Year customs you need to know)

Ayam kodok (stuffed boneless chicken), a peranakan community dish, for example, involves a meticulous technique of skinning the whole chicken, seasoning the ground chicken meat and bread, stuffing the fillings into the chicken’s skin and stitching it together. After steaming and roasting it, the boneless chicken with crispy skin is served with fried potato, vegetables and some gravy.

The key to cook ayam kodok, William said, was to start the skinning at the chicken’s back and avoid using young chickens, which have more delicate skins.

Another special Imlek dish presented during the lunch was the eight-treasure soup, which consisted of basic ingredients such as sea cucumber, fish, prawn, dry scallop, black mushroom, ginko nut and lotus seed. The soup symbolizes hope that all business throughout the year will prosper.

“Choose an old free-range chicken to make the broth. Slowly cook it on low heat for four hours,” William said, adding that the light brown color of the soup came from a salty soy sauce and black vinegar.

The star of the Imlek lunch was pindang bandeng (milkfish stew), which used bilimbi (sour fruits used in sauce) and whole big red chilies. The juicy skin of the fish exploded with umami (savory) flavor. The meat was perfectly cooked, absorbing the sour and salty yellow sauce.

Fish is an important dish during the Chinese New Year dining and it is served in whole without cutting its head or tail.

“Fish always swims forward. It symbolizes hope for businesses to successfully cruise without obstacles. You never see fish swimming backwards, right?” he said.

The milkfish dish is especially popular during Imlek in Jakarta and seasonal sellers can be found in certain areas like Rawa Belong in West Jakarta a couple of days before the start of the Year of the Fire Rooster on Jan. 28.

'Yu sheng': The prosperity salad

The great expectation for a profitable year is apparent during the tradition of eating Yu Sheng, a special sweet and sour appetizer that represents togetherness, prosperity and luck.

Eating Yu Sheng is a ritual that is gaining popularity in the capital city, offered as a Chinese New Year’s dish in hotels and Chinese restaurants.

The dish that comes from the Cantonese language consists of 15 ingredients comprising shredded fruits vegetables, salmon and crackers and is served with various condiments such as cinnamon powder, sesame seeds, white pepper plum sauce, olive oil and ground peanuts.

Before savoring the crunchy and fresh cold dish, culinary expert William Wongso invited a group of journalists to stand before their round tables and repeat after him these three magical lines: “Gong xi fa cai! Wan shi ru yi! Nian nian you yu!”

While “Gong xi fa cai” means wishing you more wealth, “Wan shi ru yi” means may all your hopes be fulfilled and “Nian nian you yu” means may every year end with abundant surpluses.

After pouring the condiments, the journalists were asked to toss the fresh salad by using chopsticks. We had to hold the salad high enough with the chopsticks while trying to drop it as smoothly as possible to create minimal messiness.

“Sesame seeds represent hope for fortune that comes from every direction, while ground peanuts symbolize gold and silver. This cold dish is not commonly presented outside Imlek,” he said.

William said the dish was reportedly first made in a restaurant in Singapore in 1963, which was still a part of Malaysia back then. Both Singapore and Malaysia have since then claimed that the dish belongs to their countries.

'Kue keranjang' or Chinese 'dodol'

You can call it nian gao, Chinese dodol or kue keranjang (basket cake) as it is locally known. The Chinese New Year cake is an inseparable part of the Imlek celebration. The sweet and sticky cake that is believed to create closeness can be easily found in street vendors’ stalls in the Chinatown in Glodok, West Jakarta, prior to the celebration.

The newly made nian gao is soft, so it is tender enough to slide into our mouth and can be eaten fresh. However, you may want to enjoy it in different ways on this special occasion, especially if you have some leftovers. The sticky cake is easier to cut when it is newly made, but if it will get harder after some weeks, or after it is stored in a refrigerator.

The most common way to prepare it is to fry the cake with eggs. Slice the nian gao and dip it into beaten egg. You can add a pinch of salt if you want. Fry the slices until the egg coating turns golden. You will get tender and moist nian gao that has a thin crispy texture from the egg. You can also create a thicker coating by adding some flour to the beaten egg.

Chef William Wongso gave another tip to enhance the flavor of the fried nian gao: “Add some sliced shallots into the beaten egg. Just try it yourselves,” he said, smiling.

Nian gao can also be served with grated young coconut. You can cut it into slices and steam it first.

The Imlek lunch in Ciputra Shopping Mall also gave ideas on how to turn the sticky rice cake into a delicious sweet Javanese dessert wrapped in banana leaves. The dessert contains a small portion of the cake, some jenang sumsum (white rice flour porridge) and jenang mutiara (pearl porridge), slices of tender coconut meat and a slice of banana.

From the method, this dessert looks similar to pis roti (bread pudding with coconut milk from Surakarta, Central Java), in which the main ingredients are poured into a mixture of coconut milk and beaten egg before they are wrapped with the banana leaves and steamed.

Try to experiment with various methods to find your own way to enjoy the best of the sweet and sticky cake. Xin Nian Kuai Le! Happy New Year!

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