San choy bow - Chinese lettuce wraps

San choy bow are super easy and tasty Chinese lettuce wraps that take only a few minutes to prep and cook. They are great as part of a selection of dishes, such as for Lunar New Year, as well as to snack on for lunch.

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The Lunar New Year is one of, if not the most important, celebration in China as well as other Southeast Asian communities such as Korea and Vietnam (where it is called Tet).

In China, celebrations usually go from the evening before the New Year to the 15th day of the first lunar month which is the lantern festival. Many people travel across the country to celebrate with family.

Of course, it is not always possible to travel, especially for those overseas. But celebrations can still happen. I know amongst Chinese friends, even if they weren’t with family, they would always celebrate it in some way, whether joining local celebrations or making traditional foods.

Chinatowns across the world are decorated with lanterns, garlands and more. Many places have parades, particularly with lion dances, as I remember seeing when I lived in London which competes with San Francisco for the largest celebration outside of China.

For many internal migrant workers in China, it’s about the only time they get any real time off to be able to travel back to where they are from. As a result, that first evening is usually known as a reunion dinner.

Lunar New Year foods

As you might imagine, there are some special foods involved, like dumplings and whole fish as part of the reunion dinner, and tangyuan (sweet dumplings) for the lunar festival towards the end.

Many of the foods eaten are symbolic for the year ahead, either through name or shape. For example spring rolls are golden, and symbolic of prosperity, while longevity noodles symbolize longevity and happiness.

While san choy bow (also written as sang choy bao) are sometimes part of the New Year celebrations, they are certainly way too good to limit when you eat them. They're low carb, quick and easy to make. Plus you can make extra of the meat filling, freeze it then defrost and warm it when you need it.

How to make san choy bow

These are really easy to make, as all you do is separate out some lettuce leaves, and chop a couple ingredients before a really quick cook up of the meat with some tasty seasonings.

You most typically you use pork, and at least water chestnuts for contrasting texture. I also added shitake here as they're always a good idea to me. But, you can adapt to taste, such as ground turkey to be lower in fat, or using different vegetables (you could add carrot and/or pepper, for example).

There's really not too much to it, but the result is delicious. While it’s traditionally an appetizer, you can also serve any leftover meat filling with rice or noodles as a main.

These San Choy Bow, Chinese lettuce wraps, are incredibly quick and easy to make, and a fun food to eat. Great for a party, great for meal prep, the filling is a flavorful mix you'll be making again and again.

Try these other easy Chinese favorites:

• Shrimp shumai
• Scallion pancakes
• Sticky red braised pork belly (hong shao rou)
• Plus get more Chinese recipes in the archives.

See some of my favorite cooking tools and ingredients in the Caroline's Cooking Amazon store. 

This post was first shared in December 2017 and has been updated, primarily with new photos and video.

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