Top 5: Chinese New Year dining options

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​If you were too busy buying last-minute mylar balloons and giant, outsized stuffed teddy bears last Sunday, you may have missed out on the fact that it was also Chinese New Year. The Year of the Ox became Year of the Tiger. But don't fret. There's still time to milk something good out of the holiday. Here's our Top 5 ongoing Chinese New Year dining options:

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​1. Rainbow Chinese goes all out for Chinese New Year and makes up a special, tailored menu. Here's what they've got going on this year, available through Feb. 28:

Eye of the Tiger
Blended whisky and house made orange-ginger-cinnamon syrup with a splash of cava. $8

New Year Dumplings
Pan fried shrimp, chive and jicama. $7

Ham and Cheese Egg Rolls
Tuscan ham, gruyere cheese, sushi rice, and jalapeno peppers in a crisp wrapper. $6

Hot Pepper Cured Salmon
Norwegian salmon cured with hot peppers and spices, served with plum cilantro chutney over julienned celery. $8

Tangerine Beef
Thin sliced beef, crisp fried with a tangerine, kumquat, ginger, and rock sugar sauce. $8

Temple Vegetables
Stir fry of lily flowers, napa cabbage, peapods, cellophane noodles, carrots,
and lotus root. $7

East Garden Rice
Black jasmine rice stir fried with leek and diced taro root and topped with roasted, sliced almonds. $6

Eight-treasure rice pudding
Sweet rice with raisins, red beans, mung beans, black currants, figs, sesame seeds, and coconut cream. $6

2. A little weak compared to Rainbow, but hey, it's lobster. Dinkytown fave Shuang Cheng will be serving up whole lobsters for $16.95 for "a few weeks."