Gurnee eatery offers Chinese feast for Year of the Dragon

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Chef Benny Chen demonstrates hibachi-style cooking at the new Asian Gourmet restaurant at 1207 N. Skokie Hwy. in Gurnee where the chef performs the cooking in front of diners with theatrical flare such as lighting a volcano-shaped stack of raw onion hoops on fire. | Ryan Pagelow~Sun-Times Media

Updated: February 22, 2012 8:02AM

GURNEE — To usher in the Year of the Dragon with a bang, the Asian Gourmet restaurant in Gurnee is set to offer special holiday entrees.

In addition to the nearly 100 items at its all-you-can-eat buffet, the recently opened restaurant at Route 41 at Delany Road said it will feature extra entrees that are expected to pleasantly surprise its regular Chinese customers.

These include a whole roasted pig, Peking duck, crabs, lobsters which the Chinese call dragon shrimps, and steamed dumplings. There will be also an eight-treasure rice, a pudding dessert made of sweet rice with a stuffing containing dates, longans, lotus seeds and red bean paste. Lienkao (new year cake), another sticky-sweet dessert, will also be offered.

“We want our non-Chinese customers to sample some of the special dishes we Chinese enjoy during the New Year celebration,” said owner Danny Chen.

“Kung hsi fa tsai,” he said, wishing everyone a happy and prosperous New Year.

The special Chinese feast, however, will be offered through Monday, Jan. 23, the New Year’s day.

Generally, the Chinese celebrate their new year starting on New Year’s Eve which is Sunday. In China, it’s a national holiday, called the Spring Festival, that lasts from a week to 15 days depending on the workplace. It ends with the Lantern Festival on Feb. 6, when candle-burning lanterns in various designs are on display in Chinese streets.

The Chinese are particularly gung-ho about the Year of the Dragon, believed to be the most auspicious of the 12 animals on the Chinese zodiac, and therefore a hoped-for prosperous year.

The Chinese dragon is different from the western concept of the fire-breathing, villainous reptile. Rather than an evil to be slain, it is revered as a majestic, benevolent mythological animal.

The dragon symbolizes power and good fortune. Chinese emperors used it as the emblem of rule and their seat of power was called the dragon throne.

This year, by the way, is the 4709th year according to the Chinese calendar.

Much like the American Thanksgiving holiday, the Chinese tend to be homebound for the new year, with people going home for family reunions, The New Year’s Eve dinner is one family function most people look forward to.

It is not unusual for the dinner to consist of 10 to 12 dishes because such plenty portends that the year passing — the Year of the Rabbit — has been a good one. A fish dish, indispensable at the dinner, symbolizes surplus.

Traditionally, children are given a red envelop containing luck money on New Year’s Day. Tradition also calls for people to wear new clothes to show a fresh start of life.