Over the past couple of weeks, many of us celebrated Chinese New Year, the most important festival on the Chinese calendar. Food certainly plays a huge part in the celebrations. After the many rounds of steamboat, Yu Sheng, Bak Kwa (sweet barbecued sliced meat) and snacks, I am noticing a trend among my friends on Facebook lamenting the fact that they have to hit the gym soon!
It is customary to send festive snacks to relatives, friends and business partners. This is why we suddenly found our kitchen piled high with candies and pastries. Here are some:
These gold coins are actually milk chocolate candy wrapped in gold foil. While the chocolate may not taste as good as Ferrero Rocher or Royce, it is certainly more delightful to look at! Some merchants would even package these “gold coins” in cute boxes resembling treasure chests. What fun!
Recipe: Delicious Asian Food
Pineapple tarts are considered a staple when it comes to Chinese New Year cookies. The homemade ones are the best, because they come with a generous amount of pineapple jam on top of a rich, buttery cookie.
A Muslim friend (very sweet of her) gave us these goodies – coffee-flavoured cookies topped with a dollop of chocolate! Coffee and chocolate make such a luscious combination!
Recipe: A table for two
Another staple at Chinese New Year is the traditional peanut cookie. Peanuts are popular during this time because they symbolise longevity to the Chinese. The bite-sized pastry is soft, crumbly and savoury. We have to go easy on these however yummy they are as they are sore throat-inducing at the same time.
Recipe: Nyonya Food & Recipes
My most favourite snack may well be the simplest of them all – the Kuih Bangkit. This is made with tapioca flour, coconut milk and scented with pandan leaves. The best ones have a light and melt-in-the-mouth texture.
Of course, a nice, steaming hot steamboat meal is to be enjoyed at the family reunion dinner, too. Snowy partakes with a whole fish all to himself!
What food do you enjoy most at Chinese New Year? Is it the Bak Kwa, the snacks or the steamboat? Leave your comments!
Mar 1, 2010
1
Kuih Kapit FTW! :D
Mar 1, 2010
3472
Ohh I’m not the only one who loves ‘love letters’ :)
Do you prefer it folded or rolled?
Mar 2, 2010
137
LOLing at the steamboat cat comment!
One thing I can’t do without during CNY is bah kwa. I think it is everybody’s favorite.
For ‘love letters’, I like them rolled up the traditional way.
There’s also this snack that is crispy and comes with many holes on it (don’t rem the name).
Mar 2, 2010
3472
Is that the ‘bee hive’ snack?
Mar 5, 2010
137
Yes yes that’s the one! LOL Chinese always come up with funny names for food :)
Mar 5, 2010
3472
I like the cute names, especially those auspicious-sounding names they have for certain dishes at Chinese New Year.
Mar 6, 2010
4
Snowy had grown so much bigger now! :) Misses his blog posts! Hehe. :)
Mar 6, 2010
3472
Hehe he’s a big kitty now although he still behaves like a kitten.
Sep 14, 2011
1
[Test från WP.org] Chinese New Year Snacks & Cookies: http://t.co/UPOOtpe #wcwednesday