Join us for a new event for the Year of the Rabbit! A new lunar calendar begins this Sunday, January 22nd, and Nashville has some exciting offerings to help you celebrate.
In East Nashville, Joshua Walker and Duolan Lee’s Xiao Bao, a converted red trailer restaurant, offers a prix fixe family-style Chinese New Year dinner, à la carte add-ons, wine pairings and a full bar . To make your holiday even more glamorous, special guest chef Jonathan Wu will dazzle your taste buds with an as-yet-unknown menu. According to Xiao Bao’s announcement, Chef Wu is “a great cook, helped open Thomas Keller’s Per Se, has his own restaurant, Fung Tu, on the Lower East Side, and is currently working on a Chinese sauce cookbook. Tickets are required and bar-only walk-in restrictions apply.
The Gulch’s Sunda New Asian kicks off the Year of the Rabbit with your favorite Chinese dishes from Thursday, January 19 through Valentine’s Day. They offer specials such as cumin lamb dumplings, seafood his lo-men, pan-fried rainbow trout, and “luck and wealth” (a cookie and orange assortment).
Sunda’s most special product is the red envelope, a traditional Chinese gift to celebrate the Lunar New Year. These special red envelopes often contain money or other gifts, but it’s not the content that makes these red envelopes special. It is a symbol of good luck for the upcoming New Year due to its association with red color symbolism and good luck found in Asian cultures.
The Nashville Zoo, which currently hosts the nation’s largest Chinese lantern festival, will host “Zoolumination: Chinese Festival of Lights.” The zoo is decorated with traditional colorful silk his lanterns, and the Chinese artist uses more than 1,000 of his custom-made lanterns, and the show runs every night from 5 p.m. It will run until 9pm.
Finally, the Tennessee Performing Arts Center will give a presentation. Shen YunFebruary 3-4. Shen Yun Using traditional Chinese dance, breathtaking backdrops, stunning costumes and a magnificent orchestra to bring the legends of the past to life, it promises audiences the chance to return to the ancient world of China.
As the Year of the Rabbit begins, take your chance to dive into some of the great events and restaurants Nashville has to offer!