(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-02-14 09:16

　　
　　A waiter at a Beijing restaurant serves jiaozi, dumplings, during the Spring Festival.[China Daily]

Most people agree there's nothing quite like mom's home cooking. And this is one among the many reasons hundreds of millions of Chinese pack overcrowded trains this season to return to their hometowns to feast with family and friends.

For many of them, it's the first taste of home they've had in a year. And when they finally do sit at their loved ones' tables, a wide array of terrific treats will be theirs for the tasting.

Traditionally, the celebration starts with xiaonian - the 23rd of the last month in the lunar calendar (Jan 30), and ends on the Lantern Festival - the 15th day after Spring Festival (Feb 21).

In between falls lichun (Feb 4), which marks the official beginning of spring. The special food served on this day is a thin, flat baked spring pancake called chunbing. These are larger than those served with Peking roast duck, and they come with green bean sprouts to wrap inside.

Two delicacies are considered musts during this season. Niangao, a rice or millet cake, is essential for people from both south and north. The name literally translates as "year cake", and the understood meaning is "better every year" - a particularly auspicious name, indeed.

Niangao are often featured in the first meal of the year in Shanghai, and the cakes are sometimes boiled along with round rice dumplings or noodles - symbols of a better year, family reunion and longevity.

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