Cantonese Food in Chinese New Year

The Chinese New Year is coming this weekend. It is time to have a brief look at the Cantonese food culture.

1、Nian Gao (Rice cake)

Nian Gao Nian Gao, rising every year, symbolizes the income, position and children are higher and higher every year. It is traditional food for the Chinese New Year. In Guangdong and Hong Kong, Nian Gao is an orange-red sticky cake, sweet, made of glutinous rice, sugar and lard, usually sliced and fried, and more greasy.

2、Radish cake

Radish cake is a kind of dim sum commonly found in Cantonese teahouses, and is also one of the essential New Year's pastries for Cantonese people, meaning "rising high". In addition to Guangdong, radish cake is also very common in Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia, where the local Chinese call it "vegetable head kuey teow" in Minnan and Chaoshan languages.

3、Oil triangle

The oil triangle is a kind of home-made snack in Guangzhou and other places in Guangdong, and is must-have food in the New Year. A lot of families still retain the tradition of deep-frying oil triangles, Guangzhou people deep-fry oil triangle for the New Year, meaning "start using the wok (in the new year)".

The taste of the triangle varies from place to place, the raw materials used also vary, some are sweet, and then there are vegetables. However, the cooking methods are basically the same – it is just the use of different stuffings, sweet sugar, salty vegetables in the shape of a triangle when compared to dumplings, and the triangles are much fuller.

The main difference is, unlike dumpling wrapping, the edge is not folded but locked, folded and glued, and then lightly pinched with nails all the way along the edge to form a twine shape, and then moderately fried and it is ready to serve.

In the New Year, it represents a full purse, or wallet. With a bulging purse, and the more fillings, the bigger the purse (and more money) will be in the coming year.

In the past, ten twenty days before the New Year, every household would fry the oil triangle. Frying piles of oil horns in the hope that the next year's days will be like that oil wok – oily which symbolizes being rich.

4、Sugar ring

Sugar ring is a famous specialty snack in Guangxi and Guangdong, circulating in Guangzhou, Huizhou, Dongguan, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and the New Territories, and also in the mountainous area of Hezhou in northern Guizhou. They follow similar practices yet different materials (Guangxi with glutinous rice flour, Huizhou with flour).

Among the festive foods, sugar rings are probably the most beautiful and eye-catching. With a chic shape, a circle outside and a pentagram inside, implying endless life. Sugar rings have been around for a long time and have a long history.

5、Pan-fried pile

As the saying goes, "A pan-fried pile is full of gold and silver." Guangdong pan-fried pile is a large family, in addition to "round pile", there are flat Jiujiang pan-fried pile, hollow Longjiang pan-fried pile, etc. The pan-fried pile is a mixture of five flavors, salty and sweet, which means prosperity of people, flowers, peace of family, and good fortune, and signifies people's good wishes. It is a must-have food for Chinese New Year.

Guangdong people have been making fried piles for a long time. The late Ming and early Qing dynasty literary scholar Qu Dajun in the "Guangdong New Language" has recorded: "The custom of Guangzhou is to open the glutinous valley with a raging fire called popping valley, tormenting the pile of heart trembling. Frying piles, made into large and small circles with glutinous seed flour, put into oil and frying, are used to sacrifice ancestors and those who give gifts to relatives and friends."

In the late Qing Dynasty, there was a song called "Yangcheng Bamboo Lyrics", which also had the phrase "bead box with gold and red lasso, and the maidservant was sent a pancake", which shows that there was already the custom of pan-fried pile as the New Year's Eve gift. According to expert testimony, pan-fried piles evolved from the "pan-fried food chase" before the Tang Dynasty. A poem by Wang Fanzhi of the Tang Dynasty said, "I love him as much as pineapple honey."

In Guangzhou, try not to buy pancakes randomly from street stores. They are complicated to make. Make sure you go the old shops, such as Guangzhou Restaurant, Tao Taoju, and Donghai Restaurant.

Sending pan-fried piles are blessings to friends.

6、Candy

Candy here does not refer to the general sugar candies, but sugar winter melon, sugar lotus seeds, sugar horseshoe (water chestnut), sugar lotus root and other cold fruits. New Year's box must contain candy, hoping sweet life in the coming year. Sugar lotus seeds means the birth of a noble son, sugar horseshoe is a sign of success in the coming year, while sugar lotus root is a sign of the year, and sugar winter melon indicates reunion.

7、Red melon seeds

New Year's box must contains, in addition to candy, red melon seeds, which will usually be placed in the middle of the box. When friends and relatives will visit, it is common to drink teas with red melon seeds. The red melon seeds signify a red-hot New Year with good fortune.

8, Dried food

Dried seafood mostly refers to sun-dried, processed food which can be preserved for a longer time. They are also relatively expensive. Dried food for the New Year includes a lot of things - hairy vegetables, mushrooms, oysters, shark fins, dried abalone and so on and most of them are dried seafood. As these things are considered to be decent food used during the New Year, many bosses will choose to give them to their employees, and it is also very suitable for gift giving.