Getting lucky with food

They say it's bad luck to be superstitious, but this time of year, at least from a culinary perspective, I think it's worth the risk.

We are told that if we consume certain foods at the start of the year, we'll have good luck for the 364 days which follow, so why take a chance? Besides, I'm not about to turn down an excuse to eat. Every culture feeds on the belief that eating certain dishes on New Year's Day brings good fortune.

Perhaps the Chinese, who won't be celebrating their new year for another month, have the most New Year's food rituals. They take two weeks to ring in the new year and during that time literally everything eaten is considered auspicious. Having first domesticated the pig, the Chinese consider pork to be a lucky food, but they are hardly alone in that. The pig is a symbol of good fortune around the world, perhaps because a family who owns one is guaranteed to eat well. The animal is wholly edible, after all, from snout to foot.

Looking ahead

Moreover, some argue that the pig signifies moving forward into the new year because it always roots ahead with its snout to the ground. (You might keep that in mind if you're planning to splurge on lobster for New Year's Eve this year. They typically move backward.) Thus, in Austria the new year begins with roast suckling pig served at a table decorated with piglets made out of marzipan or chocolate. In Germany, pork and sauerkraut is the order of the day and bakeries offer pig-shaped breads for the new year. In Italy they celebrate New Year's with pork sausage. It's served over lentils, considered good financial luck because they're shaped like coins.

My favorite New Year's traditions involve cake. Perhaps the most famous is Greek vasilopita, baked with a coin inside. Assuming he or she doesn't break a tooth, the person who gets the piece with the coin should have good luck the rest of the year. For Germans, pancakes are considered so lucky they are the very first thing eaten in the new year, the batter ladled into the skillet as the clock strikes midnight.

Try your luck

In Ireland a fruitcake called Barm Brack is served, but, alas, only a few bites are eaten. The rest is thrown at the door to ward off famine from the house in the new year. Cakes, being round, symbolize continuity between the old and the new. Thus, in Holland they eat fritters for New Year's. Surely in this country Krispy Kremes would be a legitimate substitute.

Lots of foods are lucky in various cultures, including honey (a traditional Jewish new year food), rice (as in Swedish rice pudding), herring (representing abundance because they swim in large families), and grapes (in Spain eaten one at a time with each stroke of the clock at midnight). But in this country the black-eyed pea is the luckiest food, especially when cooked in the Southern dish known as Hoppin' John.

A concoction of African-American roots, there are several explanations of how it got its name, none of which is particularly compelling. Most likely it is a corruption of an African word rather than a reference to the skipping or jumping of somebody named John.

Given the nutritional benefits of black-eyed peas, Hoppin' John could well be lucky for your health. Perhaps just as importantly, it's also said to be a good hangover cure.

Listen to A Harte Appetite Fridays at 8:49 a.m. on KRCU, 90.9 on your FM dial. Write A Harte Appetite, c/o the Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0699 or by e-mail to tharte@semissourian.com.

Hoppin' John

When it comes to recipes for this quintessential lowcountry dish, there's probably no better authority than John Martin Taylor, founder of the Charleston, South Carolina, bookstore, Hoppin' John's. This version is adapted from his cookbook, "Hoppin' John's Lowcountry Cooking."

Ingredients: 1 cup black-eyed peas

5-6 cups water

1 dried hot pepper

1 smoked ham hock

3/4 cup chopped onion

1 cup long-grain white rice

Directions: Wash and sort peas and place them in a pan. Add water. (Discard any peas that float.) Add remaining ingredients except rice and boil gently, uncovered, until peas are tender but not mushy or until only 2 cups of liquid remain, about 1 and 1/2 hours. Add rice, cover, and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit without uncovering for 10 minutes. Remove cover, fluff with a fork, and serve. Makes 6 servings.