TASTE of Manchester loves the vibrant Dragon Parade and shares the excitement about the city securing the Lanterns of the Terracotta Warriors as a centrepiece of 2017’s Chinese New Yearcelebrations.
But these spectacles will only momentarily tear us away from the edible feast on offer to toast the Year of the Rooster, the only bird in the Chinese zodiac. The focus will be on the Chinese New Year Street Food Market in St Ann’s Square, but there’s also the iconic Yang Sing restaurant celebrating its 40th anniversary with a host of treats.Spoilt for choice. Perhaps we take our Chinatown, third largest in Europe, too much for granted.
A big red marquee marks the Street Food Market in St Ann’s Square from Thursday-Sunday, January 26-29, 11am to 7pm each day. Inside you’ll find some of the city best Chinese food and drink operators, including Yang Sang, Dim Sum Su, Rice Bowl, Mei Mei’s Street Cart (some of their dishes above) and Tampopo. Try the traditional festive dumplings, dim sum, steamed buns (Gau Bau) and those delicious Chinese crepes called Jianbing (being prepared below).
There’s more food to be found among the stalls on Albert Square on the Sunday, at the climax of the New Year festivities.
Why not try your hand, too? Over at the Yang Sing on Princess Street, Cantonese food maestro Harry Yeung and his team will be running dim sum making workshops, then on Sunday 29th from 12pm will be hosting a Rooster Lunch Banquet, featuring Chinese tea and Double Dish Prosperity Toss (a raw fish salad) among the starters, a quartet of dim sum (including ToM fave baked venison pasty with sweet soy), classic crispy duck with pancakes and then offering a variety of mains from sizlzing topside of beef with ginger and spring onion to stir-fried cuttlefish thins and king prawns with seasonal greens in XO sauce. Tickets are £45 per person.
Most of the city’s Chinese restaurants will be offering celebratory banquets of their own, but even the Hilton Deansgateis getting in on the act. The hotel is decking its hall with red lanterns from January 26-29 and serving a three courser of Chinese classics, including salt and pepper squid or classic duck spring roll with a sesame, soy and honey dipping sauce, followed by of bok choy vegetable stir fry and tempura king prawn garlic, chilli and ginger chow mein with, to conclude, banana fritters in syrup and Chinese. Or check out the Chinese-inspired cocktail and fortune cookies in their panoramic Cloud 23 sky bar plus calligraphy and Mandarin workshops.
There’s a myriad non-foodie spectacles on offer, notably the giant Golden Dragon in residence next to the Cathedral from January 26-29, perfect for selfies. Look out, too for the dancing lion (outside Boots, Market Street: 26-28 January at 1, 2 and 3pm) and the Travelling Light Circus’ giant rooster (Deansgate: 27-28 January, 12-6pm).
But it’s the presence of The Lanterns of the Terracotta Warriors in Exchange Square outside the Corn Exchange during the same period (10am – 9pm) that really captures the imagination. An astonishing installation that you can walk among.
This is a collection of 40 lit-up replica warriors inspired by the the famous ‘terracotta army’ uncovered in 1974 in the tomb of China’s First Emperor in X’ian. Artist Xia Nan’s brightly coloured lanterns, which stand at more than two metres tall, bring together two key features of Chinese art and culture – the compelling story of the Terracotta Army alongside the 2000 year old tradition of lantern-making. The exhibition was commissioned commissioned for the Beijing Olympics and has since toured some of the world’s most iconic locations. Well done Heart of Manchester BID for securing it for the city.
Elsewhere the centre will be populated, as usual, by 6,000 red lanterns, live music performances and on Sunday 29, the day after the official New Year, the traditional Dragon Parade.
Arriving in Albert Square at midday, a 175ft dragon and its entourage will leave at 1pm to weave their way through the city centre: down Portland Street to their final destination of Chinatown, where there will be live shows and a funfair from 2pm. The evening finishes noisily at 6pm with a fireworks finale there.