A year ago, Anne Le and Tammy Huynh celebrated the first Lunar New Year of their contemporary Vietnamese restaurant, Tamarine, with dancing dragons and special foods. The pomp and ceremony of Tet Nguyen Dan is believed to set a positive tone for the rest of the year.

``It worked so well,'' said Le, ``that Tamarine far exceeded our expectations. We had a great year.''

Given that track record, in a year that wasn't great for lots of South Bay restaurants, the owners of downtown Palo Alto's upscale Tamarine are at it again as Vietnamese, Chinese and Korean restaurants throughout the area celebrate Lunar New Year.

Two teams of dragon dancers from Fremont will bless the restaurant again this year, on Saturday, Jan. 24. Festivities that night start at 6:30, with the lighting of lanterns outside to ward off evil. Every table will be supplied with red envelopes, so patrons can make their own wishes. A fortune teller will be on hand. At the end, the catching of the choy sum, a flowering cabbage, will signify blessings and good fortune.

Huynh, Tamarine's executive chef and co-owner, is planning a five-course menu for the evening, featuring suckling pig and the sweet rice cakes called banh chung.

Suckling pig also figures in many Chinese New Year's banquets, and it will be available again this year at venerable Chef Chu's in Los Altos, which has been serving Lunar New Year banquets for 24 years.

Besides the pig, however, there must be a whole fish, head to tail, toward the end of the meal, as well as one vegetarian dish, to purify the soul, which varies widely by province.

Chef Chu's New Year banquets begin Wednesday and continue every Wednesday through Feb. 18. Sauvignon blanc and cabernet sauvignon from Honig Winery are included in the nine-course feast, which is $65 per person. (Plus candied fruit and nuts for nibbling before dinner and a whole orange stuffed with sweet rice and red bean paste for dessert.) There will be a money tree, kumquat and orange blossoms, and lots of red good-luck envelopes.

This year, the element of metal -- represented by the monkey -- is especially significant for owner and cookbook author Lawrence Chu. There are five elements and 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac, so a full cycle occurs only every 60 years. And this is the year Chu turns 60. ``The idea is that after a full cycle, now you can savor your life,'' Chu said.

At 15,000 square feet, Mayflower in Milpitas is one of the South Bay's biggest restaurants. Its smaller mother ship in San Francisco was launched by chefs from Hong Kong, who specialized in fresh seafood. This year, Mayflower is offering three nine-course banquets. Banquets often are nine courses, because the number nine stands for longevity, or eight courses, a number that signifies prosperity. Dessert doesn't count as a course.

Mayflower's 10-person banquets range from $248 to $388, plus 15 percent gratuity. After appetizers, Chinese banquets often start with a dried oyster dish, meaning ``good business.'' Some have Peking duck and shark's fin soup, all have lobster. Dessert is red bean soup with sweet dumplings.

Many plates combine the colors of green and yellow, which symbolize the luck of a house full of jade and gold in Cantonese. On the plate, that translates to sauteed scallops and snap peas, for example.

Koreans also celebrate Lunar New Year, though with much less pomp than the Chinese and Vietnamese. The celebratory food at Gaesung House of Tofu in Santa Clara is jorang-ee pyun su kuk, a soup made of sticky rice and dumplings, but it's on the menu every day.

Sunny Park, who opened Gaesung with her husband, Peter, five years ago, said the main thing for Koreans is not food but visiting relatives. ``We wear special costumes to visit our elders and make a really big bow. We don't just say hello.''

In the South Bay, non-Asian restaurants also get into the act. At Spago Palo Alto, owner Wolfgang Puck joins chef Aram Mardigian for a Lunar New Year feast on Sunday, Feb. 22. Call the restaurant at (650) 833-1000 for menu details in early February.

Special foods for Lunar New Year tend to be elaborate. Following are two simpler recipes, made with ingredients that are easy to find.