Celebrate Chinese New Year Jewish Style With Molly Yeh

Molly Yeh’s Chinese and Jewish sides are braided together with this loaf. Image by Molly Yeh

By Michelle Honig February 1, 2017

Popular blogger Molly Yeh came out with her first cookbook, ‘Molly on the Range.’ Image by Chantell Lauren Quernemoen

Chinese New Year celebrations are in full swing this week. And we can’t help but notice how similar the Chinese New Year is to the Jewish one. Take, for instance, the fact that the Chinese and Jewish calendars both follow the same Metonic cycle (lunar and solar), which allows holidays to fall out roughly the same time each year as they do on the Gregorian calendar (aka the calendar of the secular world). Or the fact that they both incorporate symbolism into their celebrations. Or the fact that food is featured prominently in both.

Molly Yeh’s Chinese and Jewish sides are braided together with this loaf. Image by Molly Yeh

As such, what better way to honor the Chinese New Year than throwing it back to one of our favorite recipes from one of our favorite contributors, Molly Yeh. Yeh, author of “Molly on the Range” and the popular food blog “My Name Is Yeh” (with an Instagram following of 206,000) has a Jewish mother and Chinese father, which gives her the distinction of being able to celebrate three New Years. That allows her to create mouth-watering cultural infusions like this Scallion Pancake Challah.

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Michelle Honig is food intern at the Forward. Follow her on Instagram

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