TUESDAY, February 12 will be celebrated in the Chinese quarters of many major capitals around the world with the sounds of firecrackers, drums, gongs, red banners and platters of steaming food.

Here in Jamaica, with no true designated area, the celebrations will move from the familiar Chinese Benevolent Society on Hope Road to private homes and restaurants.

Truly a pity!

Jamaicans are great lovers of sweet and sour, pork and yam, choy fan, shrimps and bleached white rice; having enjoyed the flourishing local Chinatown of 1960s, located through Luke Lane, Barry, Tower and Princess streets.

Historian Deryck Roberts remembers well the era and the Chinese influence on the capital city.

Then, Peking ducks and sausages hung in the store front windows of the bustling town.

The established groceries at that time were: Wong Che Wonn, Albert Chung and Lee Tung Kee (which is still operating).

Restaurants of the day included: Cathay on Orange Street; the International restaurant on Barry Street; the Capital restaurant which later became Dynasty; Golden Bowl which started at Luke Lane, moved to Barry Street and upstairs York Plaza, before finally opening the fan fully at Cargill Avenue.

There are memories, too, of Wing Shin, which closed in the 60s.

But as we continue to chomp on the crispy stir fries and enjoy the subtle flavour of the Peking duck, it is the story of restaurateurs Yin-Kwan-Tsang and Sin-Chung Tsang that best represents the enduring spirit of the Chinese who have made Jamaica their home.

The couple travelled the road from China to Fah Mee Restaurant (where they both met) to successive downtown locations, uptown to York Plaza and finally the spacious 7 Cargill Avenue location.

It has been a total of 26 years but the thick accents of both tell of minimum assimilation.

Little wonder, therefore, that Golden Bowl is the Chinese restaurant of choice, with patrons literally landing in Jamaica and heading straight there.

Diners enter through two dragons into the air-conditioned world of Chinese fare, where tropical fishes enjoy their surroundings and both husband and wife are busy in the kitchen filling the non-stop orders.

It’s 3:30 pm and business is still brisk in this restaurant which can easily accommodate 100 or so patrons.

A party of five enters, place their order and catch up on news of home. It’s Carolyn Allen’s first visit but not so for her relatives Marie Simpson and Dwight Burton. Burton and Simpson discovered the restaurant three years ago, and love the good food and the fact that Chinese food is easily digested.

The prices also keep them coming back.

It’s not hard to believe as they tuck into sweet and sour chicken, roast pork, stewed pork and roast duck. There’s no conversation once the food (which we were happy to observe is cooked from scratch) arrives at the table and the soon empty plates speak volumes of satisfied stomachs.

Our Chinese New Year comes a week early as a banquet of crispy chicken, butterfly shrimp in batter, stir fried vegetables, sweet and sour chicken, pork and yam and roast duck decorated with shrimp chips is displayed all cooked in front of us.

Yin-Kwan-Tsang describes the cuisine as Canton/Hakka and credits the success of the restaurant to “listening to the customers, providing good customer service, cooking everything fresh and, of course, concentrating on presenting both an attractive and delicious meal”.

This seems to be all that’s required by their customers.

There will be red banners next Tuesday at Golden Bowl in the celebrations to embrace the new year.

The theme of the festivities will be the ancient legend of a village in China thousands of years ago which was plagued by an evil monster.

The legend according to Yin-Kwan-Tsang is that the evil monster attacked the village twice. Prior to the third attempt, the villagers devised a plan: red banners were hung, (the colour red has long been associated with protection from evil), firecrackers, gongs and drums were used to create loud noises to scare the beast away. The plan worked and the celebration lasted several days during which people visited with each other, exchanged gifts, danced and ate tasty comestibles.