In my opinion, Golden Century was the most famous seafood restaurant in Australian history. Its sister restaurant XOPP is now my go-to for Lunar New Year, because here they’re so good at cooking with live seafood – no one does it better. Live seafood is core to Lunar New Year celebrations. The best dish at XOPP has to be the garlic butter snow crab with egg noodles. I think this is the greatest crab dish in Australia. This is my favourite crab to eat as a whole – and with the sweetest garlic butter sauce you’ve ever tasted, it’s simply delicious. Treat yourself to one of the most expensive dishes on the menu and team it with other dishes that cost much less. For Lunar New Year, you should eat well, indulge and set a target for yourself for the year to come. Level M, Shop 31/1 Little Pier St, Haymarket; xopp.com.au.

David Chan runs this restaurant – his father started the business back in 1993. The signature dish is the ginger shallot crab with sticky rice. The crab is cooked in a clay pot with sticky rice, and all the crab juices and sauces have melted and combined, flavouring the rice beautifully. It’s a very special dish inspired by Hong Kong, but given a local twist in Australia. It’s so special, because I don’t know if you can get this type of dish anywhere else in the world. 173A Forest Rd, Hurstville; sunminghurstville.com.au.

This Chinese restaurant in Beverly Hills is a true hidden gem. The pigeon is very juicy and succulent. They use master stock to cook the pigeon, then they deep fry it afterwards, locking the moisture in. It’s a great entree or appetiser for any Chinese meal. This restaurant is in an area that’s famous for its Chinese community and late-night trading – I’ve been going there for years. 483-485 King Georges Road Beverly Hills; facebook.com/XiXiangFengFood.

This is another hidden gem, located in Lakemba, and very few people know about it. It’s a family-run restaurant that has been open for more than 30 years. David Chan (who runs Sun Ming) introduced me, and I think it’s incredible. The XO mud crab vermicelli hot pot dish incorporates seafood flavour into noodles. I always like to eat seafood with noodles because the flavours soak into them so well. The owner of New Pioneer Palace has been cooking crab for so long and they’ve really perfected the method to get maximum flavour. As they’re in a suburban location, you’ll be getting the same crab dishes as you get at other places, but at much cheaper prices. 94 Haldon St, Lakemba; facebook.com/newpioneerpalace.

My favourite dish at Ho Jiak is the ginger shallot lobster with chicken rice and caviar. It isn’t on the main menu, but I’m sure that Junda Khoo (the owner) will cook it for you if you ask nicely. Normally, I prefer live seafood with noodles (as mentioned above), so when I tried it with chicken rice, I was surprised by how good it was. No one would think about putting caviar on a ginger shallot lobster with chicken rice, but this combination works. This is one thing I’ll definitely want this Lunar New Year. Caviar really brings luxury to the table during Lunar New Year, and this fantastic combination is something that I’ve never experienced before. 125 York St, Sydney; hojiak.com.au/townhall.