The Chinese love good food and wordplay. Case in point: the name for dumplings (jiǎo zi) also sounds like the words for “exchange” and “midnight hours,” which, when put together, translates to “the exchange between the old and new year.” Thus, by eating dumplings during Chinese New Year, one sends away the old and welcomes in the new. The new year is also a time for family. “If you ask me what’s the most delicious food I’ve ever had, it has to be my mother’s home-style cooking,” says chef and restaurateur Peter Chang. At his soon-to-open restaurant Mama Chang (3251 Old Lee Highway, Fairfax, Va.), he pays homage to the culinary heritage, recipes and home-style cooking of his grandmother, mother, wife and celebrated chef Lisa Chang, and daughter Lydia Chang. Even the design has a feminine feel thanks to modern decor, jade tones and lush green plants. The menu, meanwhile, emphasizes Hunan, Szechuan and home-style Chinese family recipes. Washingtonians wishing to ring in the Year of the Pig Chinese style, however, can try the family’s flagship store Q by Peter Chang (4500 East-West Highway, Ste. 100, Bethesda, Md.). We recommend the Dim Sum Brunch available Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Also keep an eye out for cooking classes, like the recently hosted dumpling-making workshop, Pinched. There’s that double entendre again.