Chinese New Year Cake

During the Chinese New Year 15 day festive season it is a tradition to serve a cake called Nian gao (literally “year cake” or as a homonym, “higher year”) made with Chinese brown sugar and glutinous rice flour.

Legend has it that nian gao was offered to the Kitchen God either as a bribe or so that his lips would be busy chewing on the sticky cake that he wouldn’t report unfavourably on your family to the Jade Emperor in heaven.  An unfavourable report meant bad luck for the household for an entire year and you didn’t want that!

We tried the cake last night - having purchased one from the supermarket. The cake can be either steamed till it softens or sliced and coated in a batter and deep fried.

I steamed the cake and then served it with the traditional grated coconut as suggested by the checkout lady in the supermarket as she scanned my purchases.

The cake had a mellow caramel flavor and the texture was like eating a jelly with to much gelatine in it .

Nian gao (Chinese New Year Cake )

Kuala Lumpur for CYN

Roger and I had a quick trip to Kuala Lumpur to catch up with good friends having a stop over from Europe on their way back to Australia as well as some dear friends visiting family in KL.
We had being told that KL would be quiet over the CYN break compared to Singapore from various people living in Singapore.
Shopping centres were very busy and although some shops were closed there were enough open to bring out crowds of people.
As this was a very quick trip and the main purpose was to catch up with friends we did not do a lot of sightseeing and some attractions were closed for the CYN.
CYN decorations were in abundance and we watched a Chinese Drum performance.

Dragon in a shopping centre

CYN decorations

Petronas Twin Towers 

Petronas Twin Towers 

Another Dragon

Chinese Drum performance

Bak kwa for CYN

Bak kwa (Pork jerky ) is a prized Chinese New Year delicacy and is often given as gifts .
The taste is quite sweet as sugar and fish sauce is used in the cooking process.
One of the most popular retailers has people waiting in a queue for up to an hour and a half to purchase up to 10 kg of bak kwa. The price per kilo is $ 48

Bak kwa

Crowds in line for bak kwa in Chinatown

Citrus for Chinese New Year

Large pots of Citrus trees are available to buy as the plants have a similar meaning to gold in Chinese. The plants are fully laden and suggest gold nuggets.

These plants have been made to bloom perfectly and the fruits are neatly held in place by wires or strings.The leaves jutting out on top is to symbolise 'growing and rising' prosperity.

The Plants are often decorated with red ribbons and small gold ornaments rather like a Christmas tree.

Doubt they will look as good next year !

Growth left at top of the tree

Decorated with red bows

Ornaments for the trees

Also people give gifts of mandarins to family and friends as if they are giving a box of gold nuggets to family and friends .The supermarkets have plenty of stock and the fruit is presented in gift boxes.

Gift Boxes of  Mandarins

Chinese New Year Celebrations

Singapore is madly gearing up for the Chinese New Year which is on Monday 23rd of January.
This year is the Year of the Dragon .The Dragon signifies  success and happiness.
This year Chinese New Year is early so it is a mad rush to spring clean the house and get stocked up as Christmas was a few weeks ago.
The shops are full of gifts and food as well as items to decorate the homes.

   Orchard Rd decorations

Chinatown decorations

Chinatown decorations