Start off the Year of the Dog at one of these festive destinations:
Grand Hyatt Taipei
People tend to overdo it around the holidays, especially when it comes to food. At Grand Hyatt Taipei, revelers can ring in the Year of the Dog with a lavish Chinese New Year banquet complete with live entertainment and a lucky draw. The 10-course dinner in the Grand Ballroom will include a selection of auspicious Chinese delicacies ranging from steamed grouper to ‘Buddha Jumps over the Wall’ – a classic winter soup made with sea cucumber, pork tendon and black mushroom. Taipei’s largest luxury hotel will also host an indoor bazaar on Feb. 16, the first day of the Chinese New Year, featuring traditional handicrafts such as Chinese paper-cutting, block printing and calligraphy. Celebrants can also have their fortunes read while a dragon dance troupe will bring good luck to all in attendance.
Grand Hyatt Taipei’s Chinese New Year Gala Dinner on Feb. 15 is priced at USD 1,142 (NT$33,800) per table. The Lunar New Year bazaar will take place in the lobby of the hotel on Feb. 16 from 11am to 1pm.
Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi
The Grand Dame of Vietnam will kick off the Tet Lunar New Year with a five-day, street-style market featuring more than a dozen stalls selling traditional holiday delicacies such as banh chung (Vietnamese rice cake) and bun cha (rice noodle roll), local handicrafts, and colourful decorations. A dragon dance troupe will jump-start the celebrations on the opening day of the market, while Quan Ho, Vietnamese folk singers, will welcome guests with live musical performances. Lucky red envelopes will be presented to guests on Feb. 15 as they enjoy a traditional banquet featuring local delicacies at Hanoi’s premier fine Vietnamese dining restaurant, Spices Garden.
The Metropole’s Tet Lunar New Year market will be open to the public from Feb. 3 to 7 from 11am to 8pm with no entrance fee.
The Sanchaya, Bintan, Indonesia
The Sanchaya Bintan will mark the Chinese New Year with a delectable special menu, a Yusheng ceremony, entertainment, and bird’s nest tastings. From February 11-25, the 10-hectare beachfront estate will serve an array of dishes, ranging from braised sliced abalone, dried oyster, black moss and seasonal greens to Singapore chili crabs, and them some. For the sweet tooths, the chefs will create chilled mango pudding, red bean cream with glutinous rice ball and chilled avocado puree with coconut ice-cream. On February 16, cocktails will be served at The Bar with traditional Yusheng (prosperity toss) before Singapore’s acclaimed TENG Ensemble of talented instrumentalists perform Chinese songs in The Sanchaya’s Dahlia venue. The following day, a ‘Traditional Bird’s Nest Discovery’ with tastings, face mask treatments and more made from sustainably cultivated house Swiftlet nests, will be held. The Chinese have revered bird’s nest, known as the ‘Caviar of the East’, for more than 1000 years due to health benefits.
The special menu’s dishes and desserts are priced from USD 16.40++ (IDR 220,000++) and USD 11.20++ (IDR 150,000++) respectively.
