Instructions: For me, Chinese food represents a venerable antidote to myriad winter woes.

It can bolster a fragile immune system with a fragrant bowl of ginger-infused chicken broth, or fuel an energy-depleted body with a heap of chili-spiked dan-dan noodles.

Today ushers in 4699, the Year of the Snake, a time when "many challenges lie ahead," according to a prediction from Jimmy Meng, president of the Flushing Chinese Business Association, of New York City.

"There are a lot of potential opportunities this year, but you will experience some hardship, or encounter obstacles in trying to achieve your goals."

Wheres the party? For Chinese food lovers, an immediate challenge may be identifying exactly when Chinese New Year "happens" in Chinatowns around the country.

(In Modesto, a New Years Mass will be said Sunday at Our Lady of Fatima Church, followed by a Tet Culture Festival sponsored by the local Vietnamese all, the San Francisco Chinese New Years Parade, is Feb. 3. Click on

Year of the Snake celebrations will start after a pregnant pause - not until after New Years Day itself - because "traditionally, the Chinese stay home on New Years Eve to clean their house, put everything in order and prepare that evenings meal," Meng says.

Gathering at home with the family harks back to ancient times when the Chinese wait- ed for the "eve" - which, in Chinese, means

"evil" - to pass.

Then, New Years Day would be spent visiting with extended family, a symbolic act of leaving the house to greet the new year.

"The whole meaning of this holiday is about renewal and celebration of the family - its Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving all rolled into one," said Grace Young, author of "The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen" (Simon

Like a homing pigeon, she ritually sojourns from Manhattan to be with her parents in San Francisco for Chinese New Year. Shes a firm believer that

"no matter where you live, you have to go home."

Getting lucky

The labor-intensive, home-based New Years Eve meal is the most important one during a 15-day celebration.

Throughout the holiday, however, auspicious foods are chosen for their color

(green for money, for example) or shape (roundness represents continuity or coins).

Eating a whole chicken or duck is significant because "you always want to bring wholeness into the new year," said Ming Tsai, the peripatetic, fusion-hip chef-host of Food Networks "East Meets West."

In addition, the "good luck" menu focuses on homonyms and double-entendres. For example, stir-fried lotus root, "lin ngau" in Chinese, is a favorite lunar new years dish because its name sounds very much like "lin yau," which translates as "every year there will be abundance," said Eileen Yin-Fei Lo, Chinese cooking authority and cookbook writer.

Another requisite dish that capitalizes on puns is fish. "Yu," the Chinese word for fish, sounds like the word for "wish," and has evolved into another auspicious food by phonetic coincidence.

Fish is considered a favorable food for other reasons. A whole cooked fish, with head and tail intact, symbolizes good luck and abundance "from beginning to end." Because fish often swim in pairs, they are regarded as a symbol of marital bliss as well as fertility (because they produce many eggs).

According to Young, the Chinese value cooking - then eating - a live fish, especially one that puts up a valiant fight to its delicious end in the pot. Its tenacity represents immortality, enabling you to metaphorically swallow the ultimate in long life and good fortune.

Show me the money

Chinese New Year celebrations resonate with wishes for success, good fortune and prosperity.

Hoe see fat choy, a dish of dried oysters shrouded in strands of fine black seaweed (also called black moss) is commonly eaten throughout the holiday.

"Hoe see," the Cantonese word for oysters, sounds similar to

"good business," and "fat choy" (the same as the New Years greeting "gung hay fat choy") symbolizes prosperity.

Dried scallops stir-fried with lettuce are also popular because lettuce -

"saang choy" in Cantonese - sounds like "growing fortune."

For the enterprising, success is an anticipated outcome in the Year of the Snake. Thats not surprising, because Chinese astrology asserts that those born in the Year of the Snake (1905, 1917, 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001)

are characterized by their good business sense, intelligence and shrewdness.

In personal relationships, "Snakes" can be disarmingly romantic and charming, but turn possessive, demanding and vengeful if crossed. The most beautiful women and powerful men tend to be born under this sign (for example, John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, two iconic "Snakes").

Chinese who abide by ancient tradition may avoid having a baby during the Year of the Snake. A son is desirable, but a daughter is not. It is thought that a girl born in the Year of the Snake will be gorgeous, but unfaithful, with many lovers - even after shes married!

In addition, you are not supposed to eat the animal being celebrated in the lunar year.

Chinese New Year Dos and Donts

Chinese believe that if you approach New Years in the "correct"

way, you can change your fortunes in the coming year.

They also believe it is truly possible to wipe the slate completely clean and begin anew. Some words of advice from Grace Young and restaurateur Ming Tsai:

Dont eat the animal being represented in the lunar new year (this year, no snake on the menu).

On New Years Eve (last night), do clean your house thoroughly and get rid of clutter.

Before New Years Eve, do pay all your bills.

On New Years Day (today), dont touch a knife or a cutting board, and refrain from doing household chores.

On New Years Day, do wear your new clothes.

On New Years Day, dont read a book, because the Chinese word for book sounds like the word for "loss" in Chinese.

On the first three days following New Years, avoid spending money. Money that leaves your hands the first three days forecasts a "year of loss."

Do think positively; banish all negative thoughts and avoid getting into arguments.

And, most certainly, do eat auspicious "good luck foods" throughout the Chinese lunar new year to ensure good fortune, prosperity and abundance.

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