Buddha’s Delight – Jâai - 斋

First of all, better late than never, I wish you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year - Góng Hèi-Faat-Choi - 恭喜发财, and most of all to be in Good Health.

One week ago we celebrated the year of the dragon: we visited relatives, exchanged greetings (wishing everyone fortune and prosperity, and most importantly excellent health), gave lai see (red packets filled with money) to the young ones, and ate turnip pudding, new-year cake, candied fruits (lotus seeds, lotus roots, carrots, melon), watermelon seeds (gwâ-jí 瓜子), etc.

Daffodil in bloom

Candy box

Turnip Pudding - lòh-baahk-gôu 蘿蔔糕

Among the many traditional foods Cantonese people enjoy during the Lunar New Year festivities the turnip pudding lòh-baahk-gôu 蘿蔔 is the most popular.

Other favourites are: water chestnut cake máh-tàih-gôu. 馬蹄糕, the taro cake, 芋頭糕, wuh-táu-gôu and the new year cake níhn-gôu 年糕 (the red-colour gôu!).

King’s Cake / Twelfth Night Cake / Galette des Rois

The Epiphany, which falls on January 6 or the 12^th day after Christmas, is a Christian feast. On that day, to celebrate the visitation of the Magi (also called The Three Wise Men or Three Kings) to the Baby Jesus people eat the traditional King’s Cake. The lucky person who gets the slice of pie containing the trinket which has been hidden in is crowned King or Queen.  In Lyons, where I am from, the traditional King’s Cake is a puff pastry with frangipani filling.

Lucky charm – A Queen figurine

Braised Belly Pork w/ Arrowhead

Arrowhead or arrowroot was one of the few local produce presented in Martha Dahlen’s book that I had yet to cook, as mentioned in my post of Dec.11,2011.

Arrowroot is now in season and I bought one catty (~600gr) for HK$10 at the wet market just before Christmas. I kept the fresh tubers wrapped in newspapers in the lower compartment of my fridge until yesterday.

Fresh arrowheads (chìh-gû -慈姑)

 

2012: A Blog is like a Dish – It Needs some Flavour

Today, Saturday December 31, 2011, last day before the start of 2012! It’s time to assess what I have done this year and think of what I would like to do in the coming year.

What have I done?  A number of new things, all related to my new interest in food, started to be part of my life in 2011:
1/ writing this blog & communicating via Twitter,
2/ doing more cooking myself & trying new recipes, and
3/ resuming my long-time love of making bread.

 

Thanks & Best Wishes To My Readers

Merry Christmas!

&

Happy and Healthy 2012!

This is a very short post where I simply like to wish all my readers

a happy festive season

& 

all the best for this coming new year 

圣诞快乐！万事如意！新年快乐！

Also a BIG thanks to you all for supporting and reading my blog

 

Stir-Fry Rice-Cakes

2012 is around the corner. Soon after the end-of-year celebrations are over we will welcome in the Year of the Dragon, on the 23^rd of January exactly.

During Chinese New Year festivities people like to eat a pudding called in Cantonese “níhn-gôu” or year-cake which is quite chewy and sticky.  

The Cantonese pronunciation “níhn-gôu” (年糕) sounds exactly the same as “year-high” (年高).  Hence Chinese people like to enjoy rice cakes during the Chinese New Year festivities as pronouncing the name of this dessert will bring them good fortune (symbol of raising oneself/being promoted).

This type of year-cake is made of glutinous rice and brown sugar giving it a yellow-brownish colour. It is cut into thin slices, which are afterward dipped into an egg batter and then shallowed fried.