7 Foods to Eat for Good Luck in 2019

All around the world, different cultures celebrate the New Year with their own traditions to ensure a year of abundance, prosperity and success. Many of the world’s longest standing New Year’s traditions revolve around eating, and while we’re not one for superstitions, when it comes to eating certain foods for luck in the year ahead, we are true believers!

When planning your menu for your New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day holiday party, look to these 7 fortuitous foods to forecast a promising year.

1. Greens are one of the more straightforward fortuitous foods, as they are to represent money for their color. Eat some collards, arugula, kale and cabbage for a year full of wealth!
2. Black eyed peas, and beans in general, are also in the umbrella of representing wealth in the new year, or more specifically, coins! Try this “Hoppin’ John” recipe for New Year’s Brunch, or try out the black eyed pea salad from our holiday menu!
3. Bagels, Bundt cakes, and other ring-shaped treats are the perfect way to represent your year coming full circle. Donuts do the trick, too!
4. Pomegranates are symbolic in Greek tradition, where when the new year turns at midnight, a pomegranate is smashed – the seeds symbolize prosperity, good fortune, and fertility. Create a new tradition of smashing pomegranates, or go the less messy route and try our roasted shaved brussels sprout and butternut squash salad with pomegranate pearls.
5. Eating fish for the holiday is traditional in many parts of the world, as they are considered lucky in three ways: they travel in large groups, which symbolizes abundance, their scales resemble coins for wealth, and they swim forward, representing progress. In many Asian cultures, eating a whole fish is a New Year’s tradition to encompass all three of these good omens, whereas many Scandinavian cultures eat herring and cod to encourage a good year of fishing and bounty.
6. Pork is considered one of the luckiest foods of all to eat for the New Year! Pigs move forward with their noses, which is to represent progress, and their roundness and fattiness is symbolic of the abundance and prosperity of the year ahead (not to forecast weight gain!).
7. Soba noodles are supposed to signify longevity – in Japan, the length of the soba noodles symbolize long life, as long as you eat them without breaking them in the middle. The buckwheat flour of soba noodles represent resiliency – so you better slurp those noodles up!

Our New Year’s Eve drop-off catering menu is chalk full of “good luck foods,” and if you’re interested in a full-service event with staff, the auspicious options are endless! Ask a sales person for more information on these menus and get inspired by our menu below!