I attended a really cool event, Lunar New Year Banquet at Golden Unicorn. I have never been to Golden Unicorn, but they have been on my radar, so I was excited for this event. We had their second floor for the event, and it was all very festive! The vibrant color of red and gold covered the room, it was ready for some celebration!
I was of course excited about trying some of their Cantonese-style dishes, but I was mostly excited about the Lion Dance! I have never seen it up close, so it was gonna be great! They had two lions, one red and one blue. The red one came around to our side, the dance was very energetic, going with the rhythm of drums in the background.
They had several of these red envelops at each table, and we were encouraged to put some money in, and to feed the lion. By feeding money (fortune) to the lion, we will get good luck in return. How interesting!
So, when the lion came by our table, we all got our special envelops ready, and fed the lion. We were also told we should rub the silver ball located on his forehead for extra good luck. I totally did that!!! I hope my husband and I will get some good luck this year!
We have our version of “lion dance” in Japan, called “Shishimai” and it is kind of similar. The one I’ve seen in Japan was much less fluffy, and I think it is made with wood. It had red face with a huge mouth, strong eyes…kind of scary. Well, it makes sense for Japanese lion to be scary, as their purpose is to cast away evil spirits away from you as he dances. Very interesting how lion dance has different meaning and purpose in different countries.
Ok, let’s talk about food! One thing about the food is that they brought out many dishes, served family-style, one after another. So, I didn’t really get the name of the dish or exactly what they are…so I will do best but I might not be completely correct on what they actually are. Sorry! The first dishes we received was kind of appetizer platter. It had Seaweed Salad, Sliced Jellyfish, Fried Pork, and Fried Chicken. It was a good, easy item to start. The seaweed salad was a nice pallet cleanser, with a good amount salt to wake up your appetite.
Second one was Peking Duck Steamed Buns (I think). I got a fun action shot here! It was really tasty, the bun was soft, and the meat had tangy sauce that had a nice sweetness to it. We could’ve had another plate of that!
Then, we had Jumbo Shrimp with Walnut and Mayonnaise. The shrimp was seriously big and plump! It was quite tasty. Then large plate full of Roasted Duck. The sauce was a bit more on the sweet side. It made me think of Decoy, where we had amazing dinner including Peking Duck…I so want to go back there! Ok, let’s go back to Golden Unicorn… We had a little break from all the meat with a nice hot cup of soup. I believe it is called House Special Seafood Soup, and had some shrimps in it. Not too thick nor thin, a nice little break for our stomach.
After that, we were ready to get back to more food! They had a quite impressive spread of lobster! It was Lobster With Ginger and Scallion (I think). It was chopped us, so a bit easier to share and to eat. The meat was plump and juicy!
One of most colorful plate was a beef plate. I am not sure what it is called…but it had cubed steaks on a bed of vibrant veggies. This one was one of my favorite dish of the evening. It was very tasty, the beef was tender and the veggies were fresh. Yum! And then some fried fish, which was pretty good too. The veggies were crisp and went great with the fish. The last but not least, mountain of Fried Rice! It had some bacon bits (?) in it, a nice way to conclude the dinner.
They had a dessert which was Red Bean Soup with mochi balls, but I forgot to take a photo… It looked almost just like “Oshiruko” from Japan, which is a sweet porridge of azuki beans, served in a bowl with mochi. This one at the Golden Unicorn was not sweet, which was strange to me, since I was used to having the sweet kind from Japan. And I must say, if I was the event organizer, I would have definitely ended with their Piglet Buns with egg custards for everyone… First of all, it is the year of the pig, so it would have been THE perfect item to end the Lunar New Year celebration. Second, it is just so darn adorable!!!!! Anyways, we just have to go back to Golden Unicorn ourselves to get those piglets…
The event was really fun and interesting, I am so glad I could attend! The banquet was extra fun, since we shared a table with other food lovers from China, who were all so fun and sweet! And they taught me some Chinese traditions, including which dishes were more authentic and which ones are a bit Americanized. So interesting so hear all these insider tips! Thank you everyone! Wising all a wonderful year, good luck and good fortune!
Golden Unicorn – 18 East Broadway, New York, NY 10002