Happy Chinese New Year!

In honour of the Year of the Tiger, this week we’re asking you for your favourite Chinese Restaurant in London.

Whether you love going to one of Alan Yau’s places for a treat (Hakkasan, Yauatcha, Cha Cha Moon), or have a favourite local budget option, or always frequent the same special place in Chinatown, this is the time of year to celebrate your love of Chinese food.

Let us know where you think the dim sum dazzles, the noodle soup has you salivating and where you can get a mean chow mein.

Noodles, rice, sweet and sour, fireworks, and… tigers?!

What a combination! Strange I know, BUT it’s Chinese New Year: the Year of the Tiger, and it falls on Valentine’s Day, 14 February. Now, I know I’ve already mentioned you should take part in Magic 105.4′s charity Gala Performance of Dirty Dancing on Saturday… so why not go for it this weekend, and join in the Chinese New Year Celebrations on Sunday as well?

If staring into your loved-one’s eyes in the privacy of your own home or over dinner at a romantic London restaurant is top of your list, you can still join in the China Town Association’s celebration on Sunday 21 February. There’ll be an amazing display in Trafalgar Square celebrating the New Year. It’ll be so much fun for the kids. My two daughters are doing a project on Chinese New Year at school, so you know where I’m going to be next Sunday! 

Firecrackers, dragons, lions… the one thing I’m really looking forward to are the Chinese acrobats. They always put on such a spectacular show, full of colour, vibrancy and energy; I can just imagine children wanting to join in the fun.

The great thing about Chinese New Year is that there’s so much for the whole family to do. The two events I’ll be taking my girls to over half term are workshops at the following :

• National Maritime Museum – arts and crafts workshops making Chinese head dresses, good luck flags and watching performances from the Greenwich Chinese Community School

And

• Straight after my show on 20 February, I’ll be making my way down to Westfield’s Shopping Centre where the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China, having officially opened the Spring Festival, will be putting on a display of Chinese dance, acrobats, and plays performed by children of Chinese origin

Now, the one thing I haven’t mentioned is food. You can’t celebrate Chinese New Year without having a good Chinese meal! So it’s prawn crackers, chicken in black bean sauce and special fried rice for me, in the heart of Chinatown!

Happy Chinese New Year (and happy half-term) to you all, and let me know what you get up to!