Celebrity Life

There's no better way to mark the occasion than with good food — and lots of it. Here's our pick of the best Chinese New Year luxury puddings and treats.

With the start of the new lunar year just around the corner, stock up on the best desserts on offer. Turnip puddings (also called radish cakes) are traditional Chinese dim sum snacks, commonly served in Cantonese yum cha. Don't underestimate the small dish — in Cantonese, its name “leen goh” or “loh bak goh” is a homophone for “year higher”, ushering in new heights of prosperity for the coming year.

And we adore the Chinese New Year chuen hup, or traditional candy box, portion of the holiday. A bright red circular box set enticingly open upon coffee tables, filled with all kinds of sweet and savoury treats — it's a time-honoured custom, along with the coconut and turnip puddings. Each neat little segment houses a treat with an auspicious meaning of its own: lotus seeds are symbolic signs of improved fertility; lotus root, of love; tangerines and kumquats sound phonetically similar to "gold"; melon seeds to money and wealth. Chocolate coins, well, are coins.

To celebrate new beginnings and the new year, we've compiled the best Chinese New Year luxury puddings and treats for you and your loved ones to welcome the Year of the Tiger with.

The Best Chinese New Year Luxury Puddings and Treats

China Tang

China Tang's artisan Chinese New Year puddings are a modern take on the classic recipe, serving up two whole new flavours to welcome the Year of the Tiger: a turnip pudding with dried tiger prawn and local preserved meat and a handmade rice pudding with Taiwanese brown sugar and purple rice. Both are crafted by executive chef Menex Cheung and dim sum chef Mok Wing Kwai, and come in these stunning gift boxes decorated with China Tang’s signature Narcissus pattern — symbolizing grace and fortune. You can order the puddings and pick them up from the restaurant.

China Tang Landmark, Shop 411-413, 4/F, LANDMARK ATRIUM, 15 Queen’s Road Central, Central; +852 2522 2148

Duddell’s

Michelin-starred Duddell's selection of Chinese New Year puddings is a trio of classic favourite flavours: turnip (HK$348), taro (HK$348) and a "New Year" Pudding (HK$298). Pick up one, all three, or a gift set including the restaurant's signature X.O. Sauce. It's all packaged in a specially designed gift box created in collaboration with G.O.D. (Goods of Desire), with an ornate hand-drawn pattern typical of the embellishments found on Chinese teacups and soup bowls, a nod to its Hong Kong heritage. You can purchase at the restaurant or order online for delivery — find out more here.

We also love the look of the "Prosperous New Year Hamper", stocked with six traditional delicacies: a new year pudding; braised South African 5 head abalone with Duddell’s Abalone Sauce; a signature X.O. Sauce; homemade walnut cookies; Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, Yellow Label Brut, Champagne; and Fook Ming Tong Fuding Jasmine Mao Feng Tea.

Duddell’s, 1 Duddell Street, Central; +852 2525 9191

Godiva

To no one's surprise, it's all about the chocolates at Godiva. The Belgian chocolatier has drawn up a new motif for the Year of the Tiger, auspicious red and gold packaging printed with swimming koi and a tiger portrait set amongst crackling fireworks as a symbolic image of wealth. For the chocolates, the bijou creations feature the same lucky tiger motif over the surface and are packed in three distinct flavours: Raspberry Orange White chocolate, Pecan Praliné Milk chocolate and 85% Dark Ganache chocolate. Order before 31 January to enjoy special offers including free gifts, including a complimentary box of chocolates, or 10% off any purchase of HK$688. Find out more and order here.

Godiva, various locations across Hong Kong

Little Bao

Little Bao is paying tribute to lucky colour red with a beetroot turnip cake, replacing turnip with fresh beetroot for a natural bold red cake. Ingredients include Sam Hing Lung rose wine sausages, Thai dried shrimp and natural seasoning for extra-healthy eating. You can also opt for the taro cake, made with Okinawan sweet potato and fresh taro for an extra soft and pillowy texture, and also to help boost the immune system. You can order them and more here.

Little Bao, 1-3 Shin Hing Street, Central; +852 6794 8414

Marco Polo Hongkong Hotel

Marco Polo Hongkong Hotel is celebrating the new lunar year with traditional Chinese recipes, serving up three classic puddings — a savoury Chinese Turnip Cake with Conpoy made from Chinese sausage and Jinhua ham; a sweet Coconut Pudding with Gold Leaf decorated with golden leaf glutinous rice and coconut milk; and a Water Chestnut Cake filled with crunchy water chestnut pieces. Bottles of homemade XO Chilli Sauce are also available to order. You can find out more here.

Marco Polo Hongkong Hotel, No. 3 Canton Road, Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon; +852 2118 7283

Ming Court

Located inside Cordis, Michelin-starred Ming Court is offering an array of festive treats to ring in the Lunar New Year. Executive Chef Li Yuet Faat has prepared three auspicious puddings: a coconut Chinese New Year Pudding; an abalone, conpoy, and air-dried preserved meat and turnip pudding; and a red date and coconut pudding. Go for the deluxe Chinese New Year hamper, with a coconut pudding, homemade XO sauce, South African premium 12 head abalone and more. You can order it here.

Ming Court, Level 6, 555 Shanghai Street, Cordis, Mong Kok, Kowloon; +852 3552 3301 

Rosewood Hong Kong

Rosewood Hong Kong is offering an array of Chinese New Year sets for gifting, featuring everything from traditional puddings to homemade XO sauce, festive candies, afternoon tea sets and more. Don't miss the well-wishes themed hampers: Harvest (HK$9,988), Fortune (HK$3,388), and Joy (HK$2,288) — for every CNY hamper purchased, Rosewood will donate 5% of the proceeds to support ImpactHK and their work to support those experiencing homelessness in Hong Kong. Find out more here.

We also love the clever Chinese New Year advent calendar from Rosewood — rather than counting down, you count on from the first day of the lunar calendar into the new Year of the Tiger. The whole set holds 15 special treats from the hotel, one for each day of the Chinese traditional holiday that lasts for two weeks. Tug open the jewel-toned drawers to discover a selection of delicious snacks from fortune cookies and egg rolls to XO sauce, palmiers, nougats, ginger candies and crunchy peanut bites. Much better than your usual melon seeds. You can order it here.

Rosewood Hong Kong, Victoria Dockside, 18 Salisbury Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, +852 3891 8732

Paul Lafayet

No crème brulée from Paul Lafayet this Chinese New Year. What you can get, though, is the patisserie's Lucky Tiger Gift Box with French illustrator Emilie Sarnel's hand drawing of two dancing tigers. The gift box set pulls open to reveal three different tiers featuring a whole afternoon experience: “Cookirons" — a cookie-based iteration of the brand's famous macaron; jasmine and hojicha tea tins with pots of honey in the second and a special fine bone china porcelain dish at the base to hold it all. The plate is specially tailored to the Year of the Tiger, featuring a sketch of two smiling tigers amongst a flowery meadow filled with macarons. You can order it online here.

Paul Lafayet, various locations across Hong Kong

Saicho

So this might not fit into traditional Chinese candy boxes, but it will still sit very prettily amongst red-adorned decor around the home. For the Year of the Tiger, Saicho has launched a very special creation of only 900 bottles — Eight Immortals — featuring the special Dan Cong Oolong tea grown atop Phoenix Mountain's Tian Liao village in Guangdong. From harvest to roast and rolling, the Dan Cong Oolong leaves are looked after by a qualified tea master. The result is a fragrant blend that adheres to the leaves' distinct complexity: bright notes of ginger mango and tangerine that rounds into a bitterness, then herbal, the likes of anise, fennel and tarragon. With Eight Immortals' earthy savouriness, Saicho recommends pairing with traditional Chinese New Year dishes including Chinese steamed fish and tang yang (glutinous rice dumplings). You can shop Saicho's Chinese New Year selection here.

Smith & Sinclair

Candy box fillings will be extra exciting with the addition of Smith & Sinclair treats, they're made after your favourite tipples! The UK-based brand crafts vegan-friendly gummies — or "Edible Cocktails" — from anything, including classic Gin & Tonic to special concoctions like Passionfruit Mojito. For the Year of the Tiger, the brand has designed a special red, tiger-printed sleeve as a symbol of good luck and fortune. These can be fitted over any of Smith & Sinclair's nine signature sets, from spirit-based "Gin Obsessed" or "Tequila Time" to themed "Love Box" or "Night In". You can order and find out more here.

Sugarfina

Sugarfina's candy cubes are a delight, both to give and receive. For this Chinese New Year, the confectioner has crafted a series of Candy Bento Boxes for easy gifting (and enjoying!) — with anything from a single cube to a lucky set of eight, featuring the brand's sweet creations in fun, auspicious names. There's the Lotus Flowers flavoured with lychee, Tangerine Bears, berried-flavoured Royal Roses and Golden Pearls. If not for the sweets within, get this set for the beautifully artistic packaging: a hand-crafted shadow box of red and gold decor motifs of lanterns, flowers and a temple to mark new beginnings.

Sugarfina, various locations across Hong Kong

The Peninsula Boutique & Café

One of the traditional elements of the Year of the Tiger is the big cat's head, symbolising strength and good health. Inspired by traditional Chinese "tiger head shoes" worn by children, the Peninsula Boutique & Café is celebrating the new year with plenty of tiger head-decorated gift sets — you can hang the box up as a Chinese New Year decoration! Pick up the festive "Robust Tiger Gift Set" (with cookies, candies, chocolate, tea and more), and any of the Chinese New Year puddings. You can find out more here.

The Peninsula Boutique & Café, The Peninsula Arcade, Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon; +852 2696 6969

Venchi

You may be spoilt for choice with Venchi's range of Chinese New Year gift boxes, but one thing's for sure: the range of lucky red and gold packaging all feature the Italian brand's signature 140-years, Piedmont Master Chocolatiers-approved sweets. Pick up The Chinese New Year Double Layer Hexagon Gift Box, an extensive collection of the brand's favourite chocolates: Cremini, Chocoviar, Truffles, and Dubledoni. Or consider the Chinese New Year Round Hamper, which features Venchi's latest creation Gianduja N.3 with Hazelnut, and is a close replica of the traditional chuen hup with the rounded exterior and organised sections within.

Venchi, various locations across Hong Kong

Yat Tung Heen

Led by celebrated chef Tam Tung, Michelin-starred Yat Tung Heen is celebrating the new year by bringing back its highly sought-after turnip pudding, classic Chinese New Year pudding and the restaurant's signature gift box (which includes housemade premium XO sauce, candied walnuts and hand-selected Ginseng Oolong tea leaves). And to minimise the environmental impact of the gifting season, each pudding is thoughtfully packaged in a 100% recyclable eco-friendly paper box. You can find out more here.

Yat Tung Heen, Level B2, Eaton HK, 380 Nathan Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong, +852 2710 1093

Ying Jee Club

Two Michelin-starred Cantonese restaurant Ying Jee Club is serving the finest delectable pastry duo, a savoury turnip pudding with conpoy and air-dried meat and a sweet coconut milk pudding with red bean and Ceylon tea. Both are handcrafted daily by executive chef Siu Hin-Chi, who has amassed 20 Michelin stars over the past decade alone — rest assured, the preservative-free puddings epitomise the highest standard of Cantonese cuisine in both texture and flavour. You can order in-person at the restaurant, or by calling 2801 6882 or emailing reservation@yingjeeclub.hk — find out more here.

Ying Jee Club, Shop G05, 107 & 108, Nexxus Building, 41 Connaught Road Central; +852 2801 6882

(Hero image courtesy of Yat Tung Heen, featured image courtesy of Duddell's, image 1 courtesy of China Tang)

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New York City in the 1920s was already a melting pot of peoples and ideas from every corner of the globe.

With the urban centre besting London to become the most populous metropolis in the world, which was home to 7 million industrious new citizens by the early 1930s, profound social change was under way in the Big Apple.

For those with the cash, it was an exciting time of swaggering ambition, of pink gins and jazz. Fortunes were being made and New Yorkers were swept along on a tide of rampant consumerism. Noisy streets filled with cars and wild speculation in real estate fostered a foot-to-floor building boom never seen before.

To reflect the toe-tapping, finger-clicking zeitgeist, fashion-conscious Manhattan society fell head over its high heels for art deco, the in-vogue design style emphasising clean, simplified lines to express the dynamism and sophistication of the modern age.

Soon art deco was generously applied to everything from cigarette lighters to cinemas, from cufflinks and cutlery to saltshakers, as well as to the sky-scraping new hotels and office blocks springing up across the city.

Today, London, Paris, Miami, Shanghai, Chicago and Melbourne brag of their art deco architectural gems, but only New York City has the cloud-busting Empire State, the shimmering Chrysler Building, the distinctive 1929 Fuller Building that has housed some of the city’s leading art galleries, and several imposing, Gotham-esque edifices on Wall Street – potent symbols of the most go-getting metropolitan powerhouse on the planet. And at the end of long days spent wheeling and dealing in the trading houses and advertising agencies within those stone and concrete temples of Mammon, Manhattan’s young urbanites would return home to art deco apartment buildings, there to kick back with their gramophone records and their whiskey sours.

[caption id="attachment_211155" align="alignnone" width="1024"] The majestic building on New York's Central Park West. (Image: Shutterstock)[/caption]

The height of chic NYC living in their day, such structures remain some of the most exclusive Manhattan addresses in the 21st century. Running north-south along the western edge of Central Park and forming the eastern boundary of Manhattan's Upper West Side, Central Park West is a landmark avenue running 50 blocks from Columbus to Frederick Dourglass circles. It's also home to some of the most dramatic art deco architecture in the city.

One of Manhattan’s most coveted avant-garde residences in the 1930s was the Majestic at 115 Central Park West. The twin-towered housing cooperative, completed in 1931, was designed by pioneering art deco architect Irwin Chanin, whose developer family championed the “streamline moderne” geometric style and was also behind six Broadway theatres.

The Majestic was designated a “New York City Landmark” by the city’s preservation commission in 1988. Notable residents down the years have included actor Milton Berle and fashion guru Marc Jacobs, who lived there as a teenager in the 1980s with his grandmother, as well as members of the Luciano crime family, including the notorious Charles “Lucky” Luciano. TV host Conan O’Brien sold his space in the building in 2010.

A luxurious four-bedroom apartment with three and a half bathrooms on the 24th floor of the Majestic is currently offered for sale by Douglas Elliman at US$12.4 million. Its height delivers exceptional unbroken views of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline, and allows the interior to be flooded with natural light.

The apartment, which extends over more than 3,000 square feet, opens into a formal gallery, making it an ideal space for the art lover with a collection to display. The huge master bedroom also delivers unrivalled views of the park. Another room, originally planned as staff lodgings with an adjacent full bathroom, makes for a study or home office. All residents at the Majestic enjoy 24-hour, white-glove service, as well as full use of the fitness centre with an adjacent children’s playroom, bicycle storage and a landscaped roof terrace with solarium.

A lazy stroll north along Central Park West brings you to the Eldorado (at 300 Central Park West). Also sporting twin spires, the massive, 30-storey structure fills the entire block between West 90th and West 91st streets and overlooks Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir.

[caption id="attachment_211156" align="aligncenter" width="682"] The Eldorado Building. (Image: Shutterstock)[/caption]

Initially financially troubled due to the Wall Street crash of 1929, it was completed in 1931 to the design of revered Hungarian-American architect Emery Roth and supporting practice Margon & Holder, the Eldorado – which is elaborately decorated with futuristic sculptural details and geometric patterns – is today judged to be one of the finest art deco structures in the city, with the lobby having been restored to its original opulence and elegance.

Early tenants of the Eldorado included Barney Pressman, boisterous founder of luxury department store Barneys New York, and New York senator and homeopathy pioneer Royal Copeland. Owners in recent years have included celebs such as actors Faye Dunaway, Bruce Willis, Carrie Fisher and Michael J Fox, as well as musos Bono and Moby.

A five-bed, five-bath duplex with park frontage, currently on the market by the Corcoran Group (corcoran.com) at a fraction under US$14 million, extends over 5,400 square feet on the 18th and 19th floors. With an exceptionally high window-to-wall ratio, the grand space is frequently filled with light, which is notable on arrival.

Entering from a semi-private landing, the visitor is greeted by a 15-metre-wide vista of Central Park that fills the eastern side of the living room. The adjacent library opens on to a magnificent terrace overlooking the reservoir. The floor is completed with spacious formal dining room, an eat-in kitchen, two staff accommodations and an additional northwest facing terrace.

A grand staircase leads to the bedroom floor, which has a generous master suite with sweeping park views from oversized windows and a large dressing room, as well as four further bedrooms. Additional amenities include a powder room and multiple walk-in closets. All Eldorado residents enjoy unlimited access to a top-flight gym, bike room, half basketball court, children’s playroom, laundry room, garage and impeccable white-glove service dispensed by a concierge, doormen and hall operatives.

[caption id="attachment_211154" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Rooftop at 55 Central Park West.[/caption]

To the south of both the Eldorado and the Majestic, 55 Central Park West holds special significance in American popular culture for its starring role in the much-loved 1984 comedy movie Ghostbusters. In the film, “550 Central Park West” (also known as “the Shandor Building”) is home to the bumbling spook-chasers’ first client, a possessed cellist played by Sigourney Weaver.

After many spooky shenanigans, the Ghostbusters learn that the building had been designed by bonkers architect Ivo Shandor as a magnet for the world’s ghouls and demons. To this day 55 Central Park West is referred to locally as “Spook Central”.

Opened in 1930 and the first art deco structure on Central Park West, 55 was actually conceived by local architects Schwartz & Gross and was considered “second tier” by the city’s snobbier socialites. That didn’t stop the building pulling in a who’s who of prominent occupants, including Ginger Rogers during her 1930s Broadway years, and society milliner Lilly Dache and husband Jean Despres of Coty Perfume. Later came Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, David Geffen and other VIPs.

A two-bed, three-bath, 1,500-square-foot apartment at 55 Central Park West, currently on the market by Warburg Realty at US$3.75 million, is entered via an entry foyer that leads to a huge, step-down living room with eye-popping views of the park. With attached gallery, library and dining room and well-appointed kitchen, this well-kept 10th-floor home also features a large, light-filled master bedroom and ample space for guests.

Not all Manhattan’s art deco apartments are on Central Park, however, and Greenwich Village’s desirable One Fifth Avenue is a prestigious pre-war landmark built in 1927 by architect Harvey Wiley Corbett, a native of San Francisco best known for his advocacy of tall buildings and modernism, with notable projects in both New York and London.

Dubbed “a thing of rare beauty” by Variety magazine on completion, One Fifth Avenue’s flat exterior incorporates bricks of different colours to create the illusion of depth. Its magnificent two-story lobby, full-time doormen and convenient location make it perfect for those embracing the 24-hour lifestyle of a city that never sleeps.

Perched on the 18th floor and formed by the merging of two smaller apartments, a two-bed, two-bath penthouse residence of more than 1,000 square feet is on sale by Ann Weintraub for just under US$7 million and is currently available for viewing.

The one-of-a-kind space benefits from two deep-set private terraces – one eight metres in length, with amazing views from the Hudson River to the Empire State Building. A formal dining room makes the space ideal for entertaining, the huge master bedroom boasts a walk-in closet and attached bath, while the second bedroom offers access to the smaller terrace.

[caption id="attachment_211157" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Walker Tower living room.[/caption]

One of the most sought-after art deco addresses in Manhattan in 2020 actually started its life as a call centre for the New York Telephone Company. Completed in 1929 at 212 West 18th Street in the heart of Chelsea, and designed by Ralph Thomas Walker (hailed in 1957 by the American Institute of Architects as “the architect of the century”), Walker Tower was reconfigured into 50 luxury condominium residences in 2010 with the promise that the building’s original design would be complemented by the conveniences of modern residential living.

Consequently, the building’s elaborate brick façade was painstakingly restored, as was the art deco ornamentation that Walker also employed at One Wall Street and at the Barclay-Vesey Building in Lower Manhattan.

All units now feature radiant floor heating, French herringbone oak flooring, Smallbone of Devizes kitchens, marble bathrooms with Waterworks fixtures and steam showers, and Crestron home automation systems. White-glove service at Walker Tower also includes a 24-hour doorman, lounge, playroom, gym, sauna and a roof deck.

Since the renovation, Walker Tower has reportedly become home to A-listers such as Cameron Diaz, Hollywood power couple Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, and former Barnes & Noble boss Leonard Riggio.

[caption id="attachment_211158" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Bedroom at Walker Tower.[/caption]

On the 15th and 16th floors of Walker Tower, a 4,700-square-foot, four-bed, 4.5-bath duplex apartment, which is currently on sale by Compass Real Estate at US$27.8 million, features a huge, light-filled double-width living room with views of the Hudson River, Freedom Tower and Statue of Liberty that leads to a private terrace with a further 686 square feet. The corner dining area has southern and western exposures and also has access to the terrace.

The kitchen boasts a wine cooler, induction cooktop, two wall ovens by Viking, speed oven and a built-in coffee maker by Miele and a Franke water filtration system. The second floor, however, is where the apartment truly becomes a home, with three beautifully designed bedrooms and a central media area. The master suite has a massive walk-in closet and a custom marble bathroom with separate vanity, double sinks, a large steam shower and a cast iron bathtub.

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