The Best Lunar New Year Cooking Essentials

Lunar New Year is one of my favorite holidays. My mom always made a point of cooking lots of food to celebrate this holiday despite our being a small family of four. Without fail, every year, our dining table would be filled with egg rolls, wontons, sticky rice, banh chung, and lots more. Now that I’ve taken on the lead for cooking our family’s Lunar New Year feasts, I’ve added my own favorites, like dumplings and longevity noodles, and rely on a slew of tools to get all of this cooking done. Ahead of the Lunar New Year later this month, I rounded up all my favorite essentials, from these $6 extra long chopsticks for tossing noodles to this $7 mini rolling pin for making perfectly round dumpling wrappers.

My Favorite Lunar New Year Cooking Essentials

• Walfos Mini Rolling Pin, $7, originally $8
• Joyce Chen 2-Tier Bamboo Steamer Baskets, $23, originally $26
• Extra Long Chopsticks, 4-Pack, $6
• Large Acacia Wood Cutting Board, $44
• Yosukata Carbon Steel Wok Pan, $60, originally $65
• Zojirushi 5.5-Cup Micom Rice Cooker, $175, originally $233
• Shun Classic 6.5-Inch Nakiri Knife, $169, originally $213
• Gramercy Adjustable Mandoline Food Slicer, $38, originally $68 
• Rice Paper Soaking Water Bowl, $14
• Dowan Soup Spoons, Set of 12, $19, originally $20
• 3-Ounce Dipping Sauce Bowls, 6-Pack, $9

Walfos Mini Rolling Pin

I love all of my rolling pins, but I love my mini rolling pin just a smidge more. At just 8 inches long, it’s the ideal size for rolling out delicate dumpling wrappers. I don’t have to break out one of my large baking pins, and its small size gives me the agility I need to work with dumpling and bao dough. I’ve had mine for years, and I’m thinking of getting a couple more this year for my bring-your-own-filling dumpling party.

Joyce Chen 2-Tier Bamboo Steamer Baskets

I love pan-fried dumplings with crispy bottoms, but the classic soft chew of a steamed dumpling can’t be beat. Tiered bamboo steamers allow for gently cooking large batches of dumplings or baos and are easy to use by simply stacking them on top of a pot or wok with some water. 

Extra Long Chopsticks, 4-Pack

I don’t know how my Lunar New Year cooking would be possible without my extra-long chopsticks. They provide plenty of dexterity for frying egg rolls, tossing noodles in a sauce, or flipping scallion pancakes. 

Large Acacia Wood Cutting Board

For so many of my Lunar New Year dishes, a large amount of working space is needed, and this 24- by 18-inch wooden cutting board provides the ideal sprawl needed for wrapping dumplings and rolling out scallion pancakes. Plus, for the enormous amount of chopping that has to be done to make the various fillings, it’s a blessing to have a large cutting board that can accommodate heaps of vegetables.

Yosukata Carbon Steel Wok Pan

To get the optimal char on my noodles or fried rice, I turn to my carbon steel wok, which heats up to intense temperatures quickly and maintains that heat for searing every ingredient I toss into it. Similar to my own, this Yosukata wok has a wooden handle that’s comfortable to hold while cooking.

Zojirushi 5.5-Cup Micom Rice Cooker

In Vietnamese tradition, a style of sticky rice called xôi gấc is made to ring in the new year. It’s bright orange and has coconut milk, making it an ideal not-too-sweet dish for the celebration. I like to make mine in my rice cooker, which cooks the sticky rice to perfection while I work on other parts of the meal. My Zojirushi rice cooker is also a kitchen workhorse in general and is used nearly every day to make the perfect pot of fluffy rice for my entire family.

Shun Classic 6.5-Inch Nakiri Knife

For slicing and dicing vegetables, my nakiri knife is indispensable. From chopping through harder tubers like sweet potatoes to cleanly julienning carrots, my Shun nakiri knife makes quick work of any cutting task thanks to its super-sharp blade. Designed specifically for working with vegetables, its squared-off tip promotes a forward-and-back motion for efficient slicing.

Gramercy Adjustable Mandoline Food Slicer

I turn to my mandoline slicer to slice much larger batches of vegetables, which can power through a cucumber in seconds. For some ingredients that can be harder to work with, like ginger root, I like to use my mandoline to add efficiency to my food prep.

Rice Paper Soaking Water Bowl

My family has made spring rolls with both egg-based wrappers and rice paper wrappers, but I prefer the rice paper version. To speed up the rolling process, I love using this dipping bowl, which is cleverly designed to hold wraps on one side and water on the other side. This way, I can quickly moisten the rice paper, and the compact design takes less space than a large bowl filled with water.

Dowan Soup Spoons, Set of 12

If I ever need a spoon in my house, I reach for a deep soup spoon that’s traditionally used to eat Asian soups like pho or ramen. These spoons allow for building the ideal bite before delivering it to your mouth, and for dishes like wonton soup, it’s much easier to scoop one up with this deep spoon instead of grappling with a slippery wonton using chopsticks.

3-Ounce Dipping Sauce Bowls, 6-Pack 

I love whisking up a tart and sweet dumpling dipping sauce filled with apple cider vinegar and spicy sesame oil. These dipping sauce bowls make for the perfect accompaniment to any plate of baos or dumplings. They’re shallow enough to allow for easy dipping yet have gently sloped sides that do a good job of containing the sauce.