Chinese New Year Cake (Nian Gao)

Chinese New Year is coming soon and the town is already filled with the red “hoo-hah”!  Other than spring cleaning and planning for trips, what most Chinese are concerned of is of course, Chinese New Year FOOD!  During this season, Chinese are particularly concerned of auspicious thingy.  Therefore food displayed, served or consumed are often symbolic – representing good fortune, prosperity, wealth, longevity and good health.  Some are labelled with Chinese character “fa” (prosper) or “fu” (blessing).

The day before the first of Lunar New Year is an important day for family reunion.  Sumptuous dinner with chicken and fish (not to be missed Chinese New Year food), will be served.  Chicken must be in whole with head and claws.  Whole symbolises “complete” where each and every family member will be around.  Fish in Chinese is pronounced “yu” which also means “surpluses”.  There must be fish every year to signify there will be surpluses every year.  For the same reason, the dishes shall not be consumed to the last bite!  Interesting, huh?

Where noodles are served, the noodles should not be cut – long noodles to signify longevity.  Chinese New Year cake (nian gao) is another Chinese New Year to be present for this occasion.  Chinese New Year cake is “sticky” and thereby signify family bond.  Other filling Chinese New Year foods also served are carrot cake and yam cake.

Mandarin Oranges

It is a Chinese tradition to visit relatives and friends during Chinese New Year.  So they will prepare food to be served to visitors as well!  The common ones are mandarin oranges (kum), melon seeds (kuaci), Chinese cookies (ngaku), pineapple tarts, egg folds (kueh kapit), dried meats (rou gan) and many more.  A traditional Chinese New Year snack is Chinese candy served in Chinese candy box called “ba bao” (directly translated as Eight Treasures).  Traditionally, there should be 8 compartments in a round box often red and black in colour due to its material being lacquerware.  Nowadays, there are many designs available and often made of plastic or melamine.  The traditional Chinese New Year food served in this candy box are sugared stuffs such as sugared coconut, sugared lotus root, sugared lotus seeds and also some other snacks like melon seeds.

Chinese New Year Candy Box

Another interesting Chinese New Year food is raw fish salad (yu sheng).  It is a salad made of raw strips of fish with julienned carrot, radish, sweet turnip and colourful crisps.  Salad dressing is a special sauce with sesame and sometimes grounded nuts.  Everyone will gather in a round table to toss the salad together while yelling “Lou ah!  Lou ah! Yuet lou yuet sang” and making their own wishes for wealth and prosperity!  It is something fun to do!

Although the celebration lasts until the 30^th day of Lunar New Year, the mood often fades on the 15^th day of Lunar New Year.  On this day we call Chap Goh Mei, the Chinese especially Hokkien community will serve glutinous rice balls (tang yuan).  By this time, everyone would have resumed to work and the holiday is over…

Sweet Glutinous Rice Ball

While you remember the holidays, don’t forget to wish everyone Gong Xi Fa Cai ok?  And stay tuned for Chinese New Year food recipes

This post is tagged chinese, chinese new year, chinese new year food, chinese new year food recipes, cny food, cny food recipes, food for chinese new year, traditional chinese new year food