Three-week festival to celebrate Chinese New Year

Forget the garnish and condiments - each dish in Chui Lee Luk's Chinese New Year banquet will be laden with symbols and good omens.

The first dish of the banquet, offered since Friday at Chow Bar and Eating House in Surry Hills, will be a tossed fish salad, which in Mandarin is called yusheng.

"The characters for yusheng can also mean having more than enough. And the fish salad is tossed, because tossing it as high as you can means your fortunes will rise," Ms Chui said.

Her 10-course feast of dumplings, steamed fish, pork ribs and egg noodles is steeped in Chinese symbols for prosperity, longevity, health and wealth. There are a Australian twists with her use of native karkalla and saltbush.

The banquet is one of 30 set meals on offer as part of the three-week Sydney Chinese New Year Festival.

The fact it's 10 courses is a noteworthy point for King Fong, president of the Chinese Australian Historical Society, who said new year banquets must have an even number of courses.

The 75-year-old's top event pick is the Dragon Ball at the Star in Pyrmont in February, one that stretches back to 1930s Sydney when young Chinese women made their society debut. He remembers his first foray when he accompanied his sister in 1957.

When his family departed Guangdong for Sydney in 1946, to avoid civil conflicts, the Sydney Chinese population sat at 3000. Now there are 380,000 Chinese-Australians in NSW.

The new year festival is the largest celebration of its kind outside mainland China, said creative director Gill Minervini. Five years ago, the organisers pursued the involvement of Sydney's Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese and Thai communities.

"We're not trying to duplicate what happens in China,'' she said. ''It's uniquely Australian with a significant international profile."

In Chinese astrology, 2014 is the year of the horse. People with this zodiac animal are characterised by grandiosity and magnificence - a source of inspiration for festival organisers.

"We have a Chinese mythological half-dragon, half-horse, called longma, in the parade this year and it's spectacular," Ms Minervini said.

One of the largest events will be the dragon boat races on the February 8 and 9 in Darling Harbour, where nearly 3000 entrants will churn the water in 12-metre boats.

Dragon boat racing wa the world's fastest growing water team sport, said Melanie Cantwell from Dragon Boat NSW. "We have 70 races on Saturday, going every eight minutes, and 32 races on Sunday. It's grown hugely in popularity.''