Chinese New Year Goodies

One of my favourate things about Chinese New Year is the high energy breakfast that we wake up to.

At the top pf the picture (the square and rectangle pieces) are what we call the "Nian Gau" - literally the "Sticky Cake". It's main ingredients are sugar and glutinous rice flour so it is probably the original high carbo energy bar. :-) We usually eat it steamed or deep fried with a light coating of flour (as above - my favourite). The Nian Gau is popular not just because of it's taste and texture. "Nian" (Sticky) in Chinese sounds like the word for "Year", and "Gau" sounds similar to the word for "High" or "Rise". So eating Nian Gau also carries with it the connotation to rise ("Gau") in one's position (social/work) yearly ("Nian").

The bowl at the centre is a sweet soup made with all sorts of goodies like brown sugar, dates, dried longans, lotus nuts, white fungus, etc... Perhaps the original high carbo drink then. :-)

At the bottom of the picture (in the plate), is what we call the Fa Gau (or "Huat Kway" in Hokkien - my dialect group). This is made primarily with brown sugar and flour (coconut milk is optional), and I love it smothered with peanut butter for a high energy recovery breakfast.

Chinese New Year is also a time when we see a lot of traditional chinese decorations like these dragons that R1 and R2 made in Art Class. Perhaps the dragon dance was invented out of all that energy food that's consumed around this season. :-)