^Special pastries in a semi-circular shape with decorative edges are the must-try Chinese New Year treat when paying visits to people's homes.
This is the second day of the Chinese New Year (CNY). In Hong Kong, as in any Chinese communities around the world, the first three days of the CNY are regarded as a celebrative period. Here in Hong Kong, these three days are public holidays. Contrary to what you are probably thinking now, a lot of shops are doing business as usual. The CNY is a great time to visit Hong Kong for all the annual celebrations going on in town, from parade, fireworks to some folk culture activities like making wishes upon the wishing tree.
^Oily CNY treats are best to be taken with Chinese tea.
The CNY is also the best time to disrupt stomach because, except for the vegetarian bowls to be eaten on the first day of the CNY, all the CNY foods are oily. The most representative are the CNY cakes.
There are several kinds of such cakes. The above photo shows the ones made with turnip (the top two) and taro (the rest), respectively.
These are my favourite, made with glutinous rice and water chestnut.
This last dish is of the kind made with glutinous rice and cane sugar. Usually they are fried with scrambled eggs.
Why do the Chinese take these oily CNY cakes? The Chinese language is a good tool to play with words because a large percentage of the characters are homophonic. The CNY cakes are pronounced in Cantonese as Nin Go, or Nian Gao in Mandarin. Nin Go is also the pronunciation of the Chinese words meaning Year(ly) Advances, which carries an auspicious meaning.
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