What's a beautiful banquet without a long, hearty chat?

Nothing like a home-cooked meal. And so it is for the Spring Festival .

Xia Yixin, 28, has been busy helping her father shop for the family's reunion dinner on Spring Festival Eve. Her father will play chief chef.

Many Chinese families choose to go to restaurants to have the big meal on Spring Festival Eve.

"My family ate out in previous years. But we thought the dinner was not worth the money we paid," Xia sighed. She put it down to the festival rush at the restaurants.

Xia's mother added that when the family dined out in 2004, they were asked to finish their dinner within one-and-a-half hours because another family was waiting for the table.

A manager surnamed Li of Qingdao Restaurant, which specializes in local dishes, told China Daily that this was quite common. He added that his restaurant had served at least three batches of guests on the same table on Spring Festival Eve.

"The record was set in 2005 when we served five batches on the same table. The first three groups had reservations, but the last two did not," Li said.

Fish is usually the main course for many family's reunion dinners.

Li said that this year, all the tables for the week-long holiday have been reserved between 5 and 11 pm and that the bookings had been done two weeks ago.

Most well-known restaurants in Shanghai closed reservation hotlines several weeks ago.

Xia's mother said while she understood that restaurants wanted to cash in on the demand, she was not pleased to complete her dinner in a hurry.

"Chatting is very important. The dinner is not merely for eating, but also for sharing all the happy events of the past year," she said.

A banquet is not complete without chicken.

The family will have the reunion dinner at home this year. Xia has bought a lot of takucai, a local vegetable. Her father is an expert at cooking the vegetable with bamboo shoots, a very delicious local dish.

They have also chosen other vegetables whose Chinese names carry auspicious meanings, such as lettuce meaning "make fortune" and bean curd meaning "all the family members are rich" in Chinese.

"Our main course will still be steamed fish, the family's favorite," Xia said.

Editor: Lency