Year of the Rabbit

This month is flying by, it still feels like January, but it's already mid-February! The last couple of weekends have been busy with lunar new year festivities. I thought I would share some delicious treats my mom and I (mainly my mom) had made over the past weekends. My mom pretty much hates buying these cakes from restaurants or stores. She complains that they skimp out on ingredients and often tastes like cardboard *gag*.

Neen goa (年糕) also known as Chinese New Years' cake is made with glutinous rice sweetened with brown sugar. We love to slice them into strips and pan-fry this baby until it is sticky on the inside and lightly crispy on the outside.

guangdong style neen goa

Now this dish is very hard to describe, zong (粽) is basically sticky rice with mung bean and pork belly filling densely wrapped in banana leaves, then boiled. My mom made the vietnamese version, also known as bánh tét/chung. My favourite of all is the turnip cake (lo bak goa 蘿蔔糕), not really made with turnip, more like radish. Anyway, it's combined with dried shrimp, scallops, sausage, and shittake mushrooms. This sounds strange, but this "cake" is savoury and delicious pan-fried on its own or with (srircha) hot sauce! Don't knock it till you try it ;)  Although these "cakes" are available all year round, they're mostly eaten during new year celebrations.

pan-fried zong & turnip cake

Of course my mother never fails to deliver a traditional Lieu-style CNY dinner.

clockwise: chicken with green onion-ginger sauce, stir-fried veggies w/albalone, suckling pig with jelly fish, viet style crabs, gailan choy, shittake mushroom dish

steamed oysters in black bean sauce. so. good.

Oh yeah this is how some chinese parents dress their kiddies during the new year :)