Oliver chats to Eva Pau, commercial director of Dublin's Asia Market about the Lunar New Year celebrations which run until the 25th of February; Listen back above.

Oliver Callan and Eva Pau exchanged wishes for 'good health and forever beauty' to mark the start of the Lunar New Year and the beginning of the Year of the Dragon. The commercial director of Dublin's Asia Market dropped in for a chat about growing up in her family's Asian food business, celebrating Chinese New Year customs and the musical and culinary events planned to celebrate the Lunar New Year in Dublin.

Food and family are what Chinese New Year is all about, Eva Pau says, and it all starts on the eve of the festival:

"Usually the community celebrate like New Years' Eve – we celebrate on the eve of the Chinese New Year. That’s where you have your family gathering, you have like, food with family and friends. You can expect a massive big banquet. Food is such an integral part of the festival."

Every region in China has special food that's prepared throughout the night for the festival. It could be sweet or savoury dumplings or puddings, depending on the location. Another important tradition is the giving of red envelopes, Eva says:

"You have these really lovely red envelopes and they’re really decorative and there are gold designs on them. And there’s a blessing on them. And then basically, your parents, like older people will give them to younger people."

The red envelopes usually contain money, so you can make quite a collection during New Years, Eva explains:

"They usually come in pairs. So when someone hands you a red packet, you would usually wish them something like good health. So they are giving you lucky money for the New Year."

Eva's company has teamed up with Dublin Town to put on a string of events over the next two weeks to celebrate the Lunar New Year. They include a street festival and music and dance performances at Dun Laoghaire's Pavilion Theatre. It's all rounded off with a Feast of Food Trucks in the Asia Market in Ballymount; where outdoor diners can eat under the lantern lights and sample the menus from ten different food trucks.

Eva's parents Howard and Helen founded the Asia Market in a small store in Dublin’s Drury Street in 1981 and their business has been integral to the popularity of Chinese food in Ireland, Eva says:

"It’s just been amazing with the taste buds in Ireland, where everybody’s got to know more Asian food, and so we’ve managed to grow and grow."

When Eva was small, her parents worked seven days a week in the business; her dad was out doing deliveries while her mum ran the shop in Drury Street – she says it’s where she grew up:

"Underneath the till, with my little den; and popping out to say hi to all the customers. Literally under the till."

Eva remembers her mum chatting to customers, often in several different languages. She says her mum also gave customers informal cookery lessons whenever they asked;

"People coming in, they’d be like 'What are these ingredients used for?’ So it was kind of introducing Asian food in the early 80s."

After her studies in Trinity College, Eva left Ireland to study in the UK, then to work in finance in Hong Kong for a number of years, before returning to settle in Ireland. When she was away, she says she was homesick for Irish Chinese food:

"The Irish Chinese food is something that I really love as well. Even if I travel, you can travel to China, you can get the authentic food, but I actually do miss the Irish Chinese food. One of my favourite dishes is the sweet and sour, the black bean."

The sweet and sour dishes originate in Hong Kong and southern parts of China, where many of the first Chinese people to arrive in Ireland came from, Eva says. The difference in Ireland is that we use a lot more sauce on the dishes. And then there’s the famous spice bag:

"The spice bag – that is very Irish Chinese. Like whenever I ask my Asian friends, have you had a spice bag? A lot of them say no. And I’m like, oh my goodness, that is definitely an Irish Chinese dish!"

The Lunar New Year is celebrated across Asia, including in Korea and Vietnam. Eva says her family food business has seen a huge increase in interest in a wide range of Asian foods in recent years, particularly in Korean food. She says that offering tasters in-store helps the Asia Market to work out what people will like:

"You can introduced new foods to people by, I think tasting is a really good way. So you introduce tastings in the supermarket and you start to see, OK, people really are liking this and they are enjoying it and you just kind of increase it and introduce more."

For more on the Lunar New Year events; from culinary experiences to theatre shows and the upcoming Feast of Food Trucks in Ballymount on the 24th and 25th of February, go here.

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