馬上過好年: Happy Year of the Fire Horse
māma mà mǎ ma?
This is Yun Hai Taiwan Stories, a newsletter about Taiwanese food and culture by Lisa Cheng Smith 鄭衍莉, founder of Yun Hai. If you aren’t yet a subscriber, sign up here.
Today, I have nothing more to do than to wish you a Happy Lunar New Year and invite you to our store this coming Sunday, February 22nd, to celebrate with us in person. We’ll have tang yuan! We’ll have red envelopes! We’ll have a community altar! We’ll be burning joss ceremonially with our friend Kim! And I’ll just be back from Taiwan with many goodies to share from the Lunar New Year markets. Hope to see you; details are at the end of this letter.
Don’t forget about our Little Dumpling Bundles, discounted 12% (打88折), and our Little Dumpling Book, included free in each order online and in store, while supplies last.
And finally, a heads up that we’re putting the finishing touches on this year’s QQ zodiac mascot, dropping around Lantern Festival in early March. More soon!
Tonight, we welcome the year of the fire horse, or 丙午年 bing wu nian.
Passionate yang fire combines with the already hot, swift, stupendous nature of the horse into an explosive formula. A raging double conflagration will bring simmering tensions to the surface, followed by rapid change and upheaval. Clarity and conviction will be needed; boldness will be rewarded and hesitation challenged. We must drive like we know where we’re going.
I hope that the fire horse will bring about swift change in the right direction, burning away destructive forces and leaving flowers in its wake, as so expertly illustrated in this decoration I saw hanging in a bawan 肉圓 shop in Hengchun 恆春 town, in the very south of Taiwan, only yesterday.
I’ve never passed the new year (guo nian 過年) in Taiwan before, but I’m here now with my family of four. It’s been so inspiring and fun to experience the frenzy of preparations, layer upon layer of decoration, and the togetherness of the communities we’ve visited.
Growing up in the states, Lunar New Year was never an official holiday. My parents celebrated with colleagues and neighbors in university halls, community centers, and Chinese restaurants, planning around everyone’s work schedules, as few had time off. We all made the time.
Being in Taiwan this year and experiencing Lunar New Year as a national period of rest, celebration, and worship is new to me. It feels like a homecoming—with the customs of my family magnified by the lens of full-on cultural immersion—and an education—with so many new things to see, taste, and understand.
We’ve been happily flaneuring and taking in the energy of the new year. In Taipei, we visited the traditional Lunar New Year Market on Di Hua Street with friends, where I sampled way too many sweet things and bought something like 5 pounds of New Year candy to give away in the shop when I’m back. Highlights for me were the traditional biscuit stand (I also bought 5 pounds of these for the store); the wide variety of dried seafood snacks, from sweet, sinewy dried squid to crispy fish chips; and the very lovely calligraphy shop selling spring couplets and auspicious decorations (also 5 lbs).
In Tainan, we lost ourselves in the streets surrounding the Yamuliao Traditional Market 鴨母寮市場 in the North District, filled with adorned fruits, flower arrangements, sticky rice cakes (nian gao 年糕) of all kinds, barbecued and stewed meats, and packets of herbal remedies and stock starters. The stalls were overflowing with abundance for family gatherings and offerings to the gods and ancestors.
As things have quieted around the arrival of the holiday, we’ve moved to Kenting National Park, with the idea of taking in the spectacular natural beauty of Taiwan as the world around us comes to rest. It’s a wonderful time to relax and reflect on life from the vantage point of Taiwan.
Lunar New Year Celebration at Yun Hai
Join us at Yun Hai Shop (170 Montrose Ave), for a Lunar New Year party to ring in the Year of the Horse this coming Sunday, 2/22, between 12 and 4 pm.
We’ll have a New Year’s toast at 2 pm, followed by a joss burning ceremony, led by our friend Kimberly Chou 周存安. Enjoy complimentary tang yuan (black sesame and peanut), Win Son pineapple cakes, Taiwanese snacks and candies straight from Taipei’s Lunar New Year markets (5 lbs, see above), hot tea, and more!
We also welcome you to bring offerings for our communal altar—citrus fruits, good luck foods, talismans, lottery tickets—as we honor past energies, transform the stagnant, and welcome in the new! Joss paper and incense will be provided.
On this day, all purchases in-store will be a lucky 88折, or 12% off. Receive a free Little Dumpling Book (our newest book of recipes) and a pack of red envelopes with every order.
RSVP is not required to attend, though we would appreciate your kind response to help us plan!
Before I Go…
I urgently need to share this image of the official face of the Year of the Fire Horse, as seen at a wedding salon in Hengchun.
And, if you’re in the New York area, I want to make sure you know about the Asian Vegetable Club, a weekly subscription of lovingly grown East Asian vegetables and herbs running from May 28 to Nov 5, 2026. Each vegetable share includes locally grown produce at its absolute peak, and will be available for pickup every Thursday from 4 to 8 p.m. at five NYC locations across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens.
It was put together by our friends at Choy Commons, “a nonhierarchical cooperative of Asian-led farms engaging our communities in building food sovereignty for the Northeast.” They’re the best. Learn more here or sign up here.
And with that, I’ll get back to my…
raging double conflagration bringing simmering tensions to the surface,
Lisa Cheng Smith 鄭衍莉
Written with editorial support by Amalissa Uytingco, Jasmine Huang, Grace Jung, and Lillian Lin. If you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with friends and subscribe if you haven’t already. I email once a month, sometimes more, sometimes less. For more Taiwanese food, head to yunhai.shop, follow us on instagram and twitter, or view the newsletter archives.
馬上過好年！ 新年快樂！ 🥳