As Chinese New Year is upon us, we caught up with artist Joanna Hu to chat about how she’s celebrating the holiday. We spoke about her favourite food traditions which include uniting with her family to make dumplings, play mahjong and stay up until midnight to ring in new year's eve.
Known for her exquisite still-life artworks that often feature food, Joanna shares how her family traditions, ‘Chinese-ish’ identity, and Melbourne hospo experiences have shaped her creative world.
Alongside insights into her personal traditions, she tells us about treasured food memories, her inspirations, and the culinary rituals that bring her comfort and inspire creativity.
Joanna is an illustrator, painter and co-author of the James Beard award-winning cookbook Chinese-ish: Home Cooking, Not Quite Authentic, 100% delicious, alongside chef Rosheen Kaul.
How are you celebrating Chinese New Year this year?
Chinese New Years Eve, which is the 28th January this year, is the night I spend with my family. We have a big home cooked dinner where abundance is the aim. My grandmother always wants to get a mahjong game started too and we try and stay up till midnight to ring in the new year, however it's a bit hard to time it with the Chinese New Year Gala concert because we're 3 hours behind China at the moment and the days of staying up till 3am are far behind me.
What dishes are usually on your table to celebrate?
It can depend on the year, when CNY falls on a weekend and all of us can be home earlier in the day, we usually spend the whole day making dumplings from scratch. I love homemade dumplings, I feel like restaurant dumplings just can't replicate the generosity of prawn and ginger we add at home. I think traditions vary across China regarding the food but generally a lot of it is to do with the homophonic way they relate to money. Like fish (yú 鱼) sounds like the word for abundance (yù 裕 ) as well as the word for 'more than' (yú 餘); so the 'having of fish' sounds like a wish for the years to 'have an abundance or have increased fortunes'.
What do you most look forward to this time of the year?
The food! I feel very lucky to get to experience Christmas with my friends in Australia and then a month later, indulge in more feasting with family as well. Any holiday that revolves around sitting in front of an abundance of food is one I want to celebrate.
Is there a special CNY memory that stands out?
There were a couple of years when my family all lived in different countries and we didn't really celebrate CNY very seriously. However, over the last few years, I started making sure I took time off work for it, and CNY 2020 was really fun because the entire family got together and we taught my younger brother and sister how to play mahjong.
What's on the cards for the Year of the Snake?
I'm not fully across the horoscope implications for this year but for those born in the Year of the Snake, it's your 本命年 ben ming nian or year of Zodiac birth and this is believed to be a year of potentially great challenges and bad luck so you should wear something red all throughout this year to ward it off. My ben ming nian is the Dragon and I'm on my last week of wearing my red bracelet for this year and I've decided to believe it's made a difference.
Can you share one of your most treasured food memories?
When I was backpacking around Italy, there was one morning where my friend and I were so terribly hungover due to 4 euro negronis at the hostel. I no longer drink at all but I can still remember the depths of agony. Anyway, we were recommended a sandwich place which was just a little hole in the wall; I don't remember the name at all, but they made a roast pork sandwich on a ciabatta roll with truffle cream and I think it healed something in us that morning.
If we were to peer into your pantry & fridge, what are 5 things we would always find?
Jazz apples, Lao Gan Ma chilli crisp, sesame oil, sunflower seeds (Cha Cha or Lao Jie Kou pecan flavoured) and mi goreng hee hee
What sort of food did you eat growing up?
I lived with my grandparents and great grandmother growing up so it was always Chinese food at home. My family is from Hunan and we grew chillies in our backyard so everything was spicy and it was a sink or swim situation for us kids.
Take us through an average day on your plate. What does breakfast/lunch/dinner/dessert look like?
If I have time, there is nothing better than a savoury breakfast like soupy noodles with eggs. I like having lunch as my main meal of the day; involving rice and a meat/veg stir fry. Then dinner would probably be an epic sandwich, I don't know how healthy it is but I've recently enjoyed adding fried thin slices of mortadella until crispy.
Oh Pear! Tarte Tatin by Joanna Hu for Food For Everyone
Where do you draw inspiration from?
Definitely films and old paintings. The lighting and costumes in the Picnic at Hanging Rock, Age of Innocence, Gosford Park, Phantom Thread etc. always make me appreciate the beauty of visual language. I love painting portraits so my favourite artist might be John Singer Sargent. When I got covid I spent all my days in isolation just single-mindedly following Sargent painting tutorials. Spoiler alert: it's very difficult and he was a genius.
What are your favourite rituals around food and dining?
So I'm actually really impatient and once I decide on what I want to eat I actually hate how long it can take to either make it or wait for it to arrive. For that reason, I really love yum cha because the delay between what your eyes covet and what your stomach receives is greatly reduced.
Lao Gan Ma by Joanna Hu
