Osmanthus Chinese New Year Rice Cake 桂花年糕

An important part of the Chinese New Year is the making and eating of the Chinese New Year Rice Cake 年糕.  These perfectly round cakes symbolize the yearly reaffirmation of the whole, the union, the endless unbroken circle of family and life.  So you see how important a role these cakes take on?  

This year I decided to add a twist on the usual sweet rice cake by adding flower blossoms to the mix.  This Osmanthus Chinese New Year Rice Cake 桂花年糕 is made with osmanthus infused sugar syrup, resulting in a cake that has all the wonderful chewy rice-i-ness of the traditional rice cake but permeated with the lightly floral, sweet and mouthwatering fragrance of the osmanthus flower.  

As I have mentioned before, osmanthus is one of my 媽媽's favorite flowers, so this one's for you dearest 媽媽!

Red Fermented Bean Curd Buddha’s Delight Luohan Zhai 南乳炆齋

This vegetarian Red Fermented Bean Curd Buddha’s Delight Luohan Zhai 南乳炆齋 is a classic traditional Chinese New Year’s dish, generally to be served up to your hungry family on the first day of the new year.  We have posted previously on the Buddha’s Delight 羅漢齋, a more common version of this dish, also made and served for the first day of the new year.  

This particular version is a Cantonese twist starring the delectable fermented red bean curd 南乳, transforming an already tasty vegetable dish into something truly unique and, to me and my family’s taste buds, clearly the taste winner.

Sweet Cow Ear Cookies 甜牛耳朵餅

As promised, here is my sweet version of that festive Chinese New Year treat, the Cow Ear Cookie. In our last post we discussed the recipe for the traditional Chinese Cow Ear Cookie 牛耳朵餅,  a savory cookie flavored with the exotic flavors of the Chinese red fermented bean curd.  I found the flavors of the red fermented bean curd in a cookie so intriguing that I decided to try to make a sweet version of the same.  

Here is the result, my version of a Sweet Cow Ear Cookie 甜牛耳朵餅, a buttery sweet pinwheel cookie swirled through with the distinct umami flavors of the Chinese red fermented bean curd.  Psst...tell you a secret...I think we like these sweet cookies even better than the traditional savory ones!!

Golden Prawns with Salted Egg Yolk 黃金蝦

There are some foods that just have to be eaten with your fingers.  And then those fingers have got to be licked...slowly and thoroughly...  

This decadent seafood dish is definitely one of those dishes, it's so delicious that one can't stop salivating and licking fingers in anticipation.  Yum, yum, yum, yummy, yummy yum, yummy yummy, yummilicious!  This special little dish is just the thing for a proper Chinese New Year's feast, its golden yellow gorgeousness will bring you and yours golden luck all the year long.  

We present the very unique Golden Prawns with Salted Egg Yolk, or 黃金蝦, a stir fry of prawns coated with a lusciously clinging sauce made from the yolk of the Chinese salted duck egg, which, as my little girl knows, is the very best part!

Chinese Candied Walnuts 琥珀核桃

I've been wanting to make these special treats for a long time, since last year actually.  I had everything prepared to make it last Chinese New Year but never got around to it...sigh.  I love eating these nuts, it's absolutely my favorite way to eat walnuts!  

These Chinese Candied Walnuts, or 琥珀核桃, are just gorgeous: lovely caramel coated walnuts deep fried to a crunchy deep golden brown sheen.  It tastes like nothing else, the lick of sweetness of the almost burnt caramel in pleasing contrast to the slightly bitter nuttiness of the walnut.  So yummilicious!  

This Chinese New Year we made a whole bunch of these delicious traditional symbols of abundance and wealth and presented them, the lovely darling things, to our New Year's guest as part of the selection in our Tray of Togetherness 攢盒.

Bing Tanghulu Candied Hawthorn Stick 冰糖葫蘆

Gosh darn-namit...I'm super excited about these!  For up to a thousand dusty long years, on any street corner in China might be found a street vendor holding a wood pole spiked with these traditional candy fruit skewers for children.  And since they are a lovely lucky red color and a beautifully rounded symbol of happiness and family reunion, they are especially popular during the Chinese New Year celebrations when all children would get one of these as an extra special treat!  

Besides being super cool and fun to eat and super yummilicious to boot, these lovely traditional Chinese hard caramel coated fruit skewers also have the coolest name: Bing Tanghulu Candied Hawthorn Stick or 冰糖葫蘆.

Chinese Water Chestnut Cake 馬蹄糕

We've been busy preparing for Chinese New Year 農曆新年; it's pretty festive here in HK this year.  Picking out our lucky flowers at the crush of humanity that is the Chinese New Year Flower Market, cleaning our darnit too small of a house, getting our little red packets prepared as gifts to children and unmarried big persons.  And the food!  There's New Year's food everywhere one looks, it's just fabulous!  

The traditional trinity of cakes that one must have during the Chinese New Year, at least here in Hong Kong, is as follows:  Sweet Rice Cake Nian Gao 年糕, Radish Cake 蘿蔔糕, and Water Chestnut Cake 馬蹄糕.  The Three Queens that welcome the Lunar New Year!  

We have already posted about the first two cakes and you can just click on the links above to find our recipes.  Today we will complete the trinity with the recipe for Water Chestnut Cake, or 馬蹄糕, a very unique sweet jelly traditional Chinese cake that is made with both fresh water chestnuts and water chestnut flour.

Tang Yuan Dumplings Osmanthus Sweet Soup 桂花酒釀湯圓

Chinese New Year 中國新年 is come again and the city is stirring itself once again to great activity and anticipation for this most important and festive of Chinese festivals.  One thing I especially love about Chinese festivals is that they put into high gear the twin Chinese obsessions of eating and word play.

So first (and most importantly for me) there are tons of yummilicious things to stuff yourself silly with during the New Year celebration.  Secondly, not only are you're eating all this deliciousness you are also bringing yourself many good things by means of all this eating!  And how is that?  Well that's because all the Chinese New Year dishes have symbolic names that are lucky and auspicious.  

So for our first Chinese New Year recipe, we present you with Tang Yuan Dumplings in Osmanthus Scented Sweet Fermented Rice Soup, 桂花酒釀湯圓, a traditional Chinese dessert soup of tiny chewy rice dumplings nestled cozily into a soup flavored with the unique sweetness of fermented rice and scented with the aroma of delicate osmanthus flower.

The symbolic meaning here is the "roundness" or "圓" of the tong yuan 湯圓 which the Chinese interpret as the circle of family or life being complete and full.  

How to Wrap Jau Gok Peanut Puff Dumplings 炸油角包法

We just finished posting on how to make those delightful Chinese New Year's sweet treats, the Jau Gok Peanut Puff Dumpling, or 炸油角.  This little dumpling is really easy to make and easy to wrap as well if you use a dumpling press of some sort.  But...if you want to go all traditional and hard core and wrap by hand, the wrapping is a bit more tricky, so we decided to do a quick post on How to Wrap Jau Gok Peanut Puff Dumplings 炸油角 by hand.

Jau Gok Peanut Puff Dumpling 炸油角 / 炸角仔

This post is inspired by the stories that have come in from our dear readers that spoke of their fond memories of the making and eating of the traditional Chinese New Year Treat, Jau Gok Peanut Puff Dumpling, 油角 or 角仔, also known as Tim Gok or Gok Jai.  This sweet treat is especially made by grandmas and grandpas, mothers and fathers for the Chinese New Year festivities as snacks to munch on and to share with the many Chinese New Year guests expected.  

Another good reason to make and serve these crunchy munchies is that the distinctive shape of the Jau Gok is evocative of the gold ingots that the Chinese used for centuries as money.  So you could make and eat piles of golden ingots, what better way to start off the Year of the Monkey!?  

Braised Dried Oysters with Black Sea Moss and Roast Pork 髮菜蠔豉燜燒肉

First of all let me greet you with this hearty Chinese New Year Greeting: Wishing you Prosperity and Good Fortune!  祝你好事發財!  And now let me invite you to eat that exact same greeting!  Whaaat, you're probably thinking, she's too much in the kitchen and has finally gone nutso!!  Wait...what I really mean is let me invite you to feast on the very traditional and very fabulous Chinese New Year's dish of Braised Dried Oysters with Black Sea Moss and Roast Pork, or 髮菜蠔豉燜燒肉.  

The Chinese characters for dried oysters and sea moss is 蠔豉髮菜  which sounds almost exactly like 好事發財 which means Prosperity and Good Fortune.  Thus, through this auspicious twist of words,  you can actually feast on a savory dish of Prosperity and Good Fortune to start off the New Year of the Sheep!  

And, indeed, what better way to start off the Chinese New Year than to partake of this intriguingly mysterious yet surpassingly yummilicious combination of unique Chinese ingredients that is the Braised Dried Oysters with Black Sea Moss and Roast Pork!

Chinese New Year Flowers 中國新年花

The one thing you have to do every Chinese New Year if you live in Hong Kong is to visit the Chinese New Year Flower Market, or 中國新年花市.  

This huge, chaotic market located yearly at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay began as a flower market to sell New Year's flowers to all the households preparing for the New Year (one must have flowers in the house for New Year!) and has evolved over the years into not only an amazing flower market but also general fair or market, where anything and everything is sold, from toys to gadgets to political literature and t-shirts.  Everything with strong emphasis on preparing and celebrating for the upcoming Chinese New Year, of course.  

We go every year to enjoy the very festive (though very crowded) atmosphere, to buy a balloon (a giraffe balloon!) and a toy or two for my little girl and, most importantly, to pick up our Chinese New Year's Flowers 中國新年花.  The Chinese New Year Flower Market is just so gorgeous and fun, with festive and colorful New Year's flowers as far as the eye can see!

Chinese Candied Kumquats 糖漬金橘

This Chinese New Year recipe is a delicioso combination of a couple of things I really love: candy and fruit, and something really lucky for the Chinese New Year, the kumquat, or 金橘.  金橘 translates as "gold orange" which symbolizes that good fortune (which for the Chinese always means MONEY!) will find you in the upcoming year.

Which, to be honest, is always a good thing, right?  More money means more yummy food, amiright?  What people usually do is to buy big pots of kumquat laden trees (tying on lucky red pocket envelopes all over it) to put in their house and invite in the luck for the new year.  

This year we decided to not just decorate our house with kumquat trees but to make some 'golden' food to ingest into our bodies so as to increase our likelihood of golden luckiness even more!  And thus we present to you our version of the Chinese Candied Kumquat 糖漬金橘, a choice snack for the festivities of the Chinese New Year, bringing you not only yummilicious delight for your sweet tooth but also a fun way to swallow some of that 'golden luckiness' right into your very being!

Chinese New Year Celebration Traditions 香港新春節慶

We had so much fun this year celebrating the Chinese New Year festival in Hong Kong!  So we thought that before we leave it finally all behind and start in earnest on the new year that we would share some of our photos of Hong Kong celebrating the Chinese New Year, or 香港新春節慶, in it's own imitable style.

 Most important and dramatic of all, of course, is the majestic Chinese Dragon Dance, or 舞龍, a traditional performance that is believed to bring good luck that has been around since 200 BC!  We were lucky enough to catch a wonderful Dragon Dance performance in the mall the other day.  You would not believe how loud the drums and clashing cymbals were!  Could not hear a thing afterwards for an hour!

Black Sesame Tang Yuan 黑芝麻湯圓

Tong Yuans are sexy.  If you've ever had a Tong Yuan you'll have to agree with me.  These Chinese sweet rice dumplings are smooth lusciously unctuous round balls of delightfully ricey gooeyness hiding a center of sublime sweetly fragrant filling just waiting to ooze out into your waiting mouth.

Now that I've totally grossed you out (and captured your attention!)  let me state that I stand by all that I have just written.  For it is all true, Tong Yuans, or 湯圓, are one of very few truly sexy chinese foods.  The excitement of the mysterious center filling, the senses awakened by the richness of the filling contrasting the simplicity of the rice dough, the delightfully perfect round fullness,  the absolute pleasure of the act of eating a tender, tasty, sexy Tong Yuan...

Chinese New Year Rice Cake Nian Gao 年糕

Chinese love harmony.  Harmony is the motivator for all things Chinese.  Thus the perfect cake for the Chinese New Year is the perfectly round Nian Gao, or 年糕, a celebration in itself of perfect harmony and balance.  Also known as Chinese Sweet Rice Cake, Nian Gao is a delicious sweet treat that is made and served throughout the Chinese New Year, both to family and to visitors that drop by on their New Year's visits.  I love Nian Gao, it is so beautiful, yummy and easy to make.  It's one of my favorite foods of the Chinese New Year!

The Nian Gao is traditionally made to be offered as a sticky yummy bribe for the Kitchen God Zao Jun, or 灶君, who, each Chinese New Year, reports to the Jade Emperor on whether your family has been naughty or nice the past year.  And of course, Nian Gao is also a lucky food symbol for the upcoming new year.   年 means 'year' and 糕 means 'cake', however, 糕 is also pronounced exactly like the character 高, which means 'tall'.  So thus the Chinese love of word play changes Nian Gao, or "year cake", to mean "tall stature in the upcoming year."  Hum, such an auspicious food, maybe I should eat even more Nian Gao!

Stir Fried Nian Gao Rice Cakes 炒年糕

This is one of my 媽媽's favorite comfort dish, Stir Fried Nian Gao Rice Cakes, or 炒年糕.  She, au contraire, to the rest of our family seemed to always secretly long for this warm and hearty dish of rice cakes, pork and vegetables and now, finally (duh!), I have realized why.

My 媽媽 is originally from around Dinghai 定海 in Zhejiang 浙江 province of China.  And Dinghai is right next to Ningbo 宁波 where this delicious and unique dish originates!  She recounts early childhood memories of her grandparents house where they actually made their own rice cakes in enormous amounts (enough for a whole year's eating!), storing the flat hand molded rice cakes in enormous water filled porcelain urns, each day taking out only enough cakes for that day's cooking.  My 媽媽 says that nothing comes close to the taste of those home made Nian Gao rice cakes from when she was a little girl!

Stir Fried Nian Gao Rice Cakes is also a dish that is specially made for the Chinese New Year.  The name Nian Gao, or 年糕, is symbolically lucky and prosperous as the first character 年 means 'year' and the second character 糕 actually means 'cake' but is a homonym (has the same sound as) to the character 高 which means 'high'.  So Nian Gao, for the Chinese New Year, means 'soaring high in the year ahead'.  Whew, everything is symbolic for the Chinese!  I don't know about you but I get confused sometimes!

Little Chicken Eggs Gai Daan Jai 雞蛋仔

Published: 2014-01-29

Alert, all food lovers! Street food hawkers coming out in force just in time for the Chinese New Year!  Yeah!  Yummy street food for all!  Hurry, hurry!

But wait...we should explain first.  Hong Kong used to be a wonderland for eating street food about a decade or so ago.  But then the Hong Kong government decided to shut down phase out pretty much all the hawkers and late night food stalls.

Nowadays there's nary a street hawker in sight and man, I gotta tell you, it's booooooring!  No more sudden savory scents drifting your way as you rush down  busy Hong Kong streets, no more stopping for a quick bite here and there, no more standing at street corners with sauce dripping skewers held carefully out and away from your clothes, no more turning a dark alley corner to a cheery scene of fragrant steam rising up in the midst of fold out tables under hand strung lightbulbs.  Why, I ask you, why take away something that speaks to the essence of Hong Kong?  But I digress...

Chinese New Year Tray of Togetherness 中國新年攢盒

Published: 2014-01-27
It's that time of the year for the most important Chinese Festival of the whole year:  Chinese New Year, or 中國農曆新年!  A festive time filled with wintery skies, red packets (紅包), relatives (and more relatives!), feasts (and more feasts!), the all important color Red and visiting old friends.  Yay!!  

We are already starting to do our preparations including a favorite ritual of mine, the Chinese New Year Tray of Togetherness!   The Tray of Togetherness, or 攢盒, is a lovely (red!) chinese candy box with compartments that you fill up with all different kind of chinese new year candies, all of which have symbolically lucky meanings.  Then when your Chinese New Year visitors come a'calling, you can offer them some lucky nibbles.

Buddha's Delight | Luohan Zhai 羅漢齋

As with all other aspects of life, for the Chinese even religiosity is tied to their love of food.  This delectable dish is the Buddha's Delight or Luohan  Zhai, 羅漢齋, famous vegetarian fare that traditionally was eaten by Buddhist monks (who, as you know, are forbidden to eat meat).  Nowadays, the Buddha's Delight is a popular festival dish for ordinary folk as well, to particularly be served on the first day of the Chinese New Year.  

For the Chinese, this eating of vegetarian dishes at the very beginning of the new year becomes their act of piety and cleansing.  No church going, no confessions: just the supreme sacrifice of eating vegetarian fare (delicious vegetarian fare, I might add).  For us, however, it was mostly something special and easy yet spectacular to cook up for a simple Chinese New Year celebration at home.