To celebrate the New Year, the Chinese customarily pay their debts, clean their houses (to sweep away bad fortune), buy new clothes, give friends and children "lucky" money, set off firecrackers (to frighten away demons), reunite with family, and-here's the part that excites us-feast. The Chinese cook for days to prepare the special dumplings and other dishes associated with the country's oldest and most important festival. And each food served on New Year's has symbolic importance: spring rolls signify the coming of spring; foods with many seeds represent a family's hope for children; citrus fruits bestow luck; and candies fill the future with sweetness. This year, help us ring out the Year of the Tiger and in the Year of the Rabbit with Michael Kang of Five Feet Restaurant, an early pioneer of nineties-style fusion cuisine.

Back in 1985, when Kang opened Five Feet (at the tender age of 22), few chefs dared to blend Chinese, American, and European flavors. But to Kang, who emigrated to America from Taiwan as a boy, their marriage seemed natural. From his earliest days in the kitchen, Kang astonished critics with what Kitty Morgan of The Orange County Register called "the most innovative [food] in the country."

Today, his imagination remains as vivid as ever. "Over time, Kang has developed a playful, original cooking style," Max Jacobson wrote in the Los Angeles Times. "Where else do you get hot lemon potato chips with your vegetable soup, or a combination such as lamb with spiced tofu and balsamic vinegar?" Other characteristically unusual dishes include goat cheese wontons with raspberries, Chinese black mushrooms, and water chestnuts. It may sound like gastronomic madness, but Five Feet's satiated diners would strongly disagree.

Tradition is often the centerpiece when families and friends gather for their Chinese New Year festivities. Not surpris-ingly, many of those traditions involve ringing in the new, and that makes Kang the ideal choice for our celebration.