Hi everyone! Welcome to the second day of Chinese New Year! This morning, my mom decided to prepare some nian gao, a sweet sticky glutinous rice delicacy, for breakfast. In case you’re wondering, we bought prepared nian gao from Crystal Jade Imperial Palace, and stuck it in the fridge for two days.
Thanks to my mommy, our house is nicely decorated with all sorts of red things:
Valentine’s Day is the same day as the first day of Chinese New Year, hence the balloon filled with little red hearts!
My cousin received a bouquet of roses from one of her admirers, so my mom quickly ordered her to disintegrate the paper wrappings, and relocate it into its new home – vase on the coffee table! It’s all about recycling, you see, we care about the environment and beauty over in Singapore!
A mini tangerine tree we carted back from the pasar, surrounded by three pots of morning glory. My mother, as usual, served as the chief-in-command and ordered my cousin and I to borrow a cart from the uncle who sold pork. We enquired if he had any carts to spare, he replied in the negative, but quickly directed us to the auntie who sold fruits. Finally, we managed to loan a cart successfully, and we pushed the tangerine tree and pots of morning glory back to our flat. The little red dangly things are symbolic of luck, prosperity, happiness, and wealth! To be perfectly honest, I don’t know all those things, but they look nice anyway!
***
NEW YEAR GOODIES!
Every Chinese New Year, kids and adults look forward to one thing – new year goodies! Some people might challenge me and say, well, I thought everyone wants to receive a ang bow? In another words, a red pack from married/elderly folks containing the flashy greens (or in Sg’s case, reds and blues).
WRONG.
For one, singles near the threshold of 30 are pretty embarrassed to be receiving ang bows. This is because old people are very naggy, and upon delivering the ang bow into your hands, they’ll quickly ask, “So you got boyfriend or not? When you getting married? How many kids will you have? Better get married faster hor, if not ah, you cannot even buy government housing!”
See, it’s not easy to be single during CNY!
Thankfully, we have new year goodies to sweeten the mood!
Can you guess what they are?
Buttery almond cookie
Pineapple tarts, my favourite!
Durian puffs – love it or hate it! Personally, I love durian. However, it has many many calories. So unless, you want to look as appealing as durian, please refrain from indulging in them too often.
Also, here’s a close up of the placemat! My mommy bought them specially for this year’s zodiac character!
year of the golden tiger *hi kitty kitty!
***
FINALLY!
A step-by-step documentation of NIAN GAO preparation!
The thing about nian gao is that it has to be eat freshly pan fried, after being swirled around in a bowl of egg batter. If done correctly, it should be slightly charred and crispy on the outside, while being moist and chewy on the inside!
Step one:
Lather the knife with vegetable oil, such that the blade slices into the yet to be fried nian gao smoothly. This step was invented by mommy, who found that slicing the nian gao with a dry blade means that the nian gao gets stuck on the blade!
rapidement
Step 2:
Liberate nian gao from the confines of its plastic container, and cut it into comparatively thick slices. The rationale behind this is such that it does not start to disintegrate when it comes into contact with the oil.
Step 3:
Prepare nian gao’s best friend – egg batter. Place them side by side. It’s auspicious that way.(just kidding)
Step 4:
Heat pan/wok/whatever metal apparatus you have, and gracefully dump vegetable oil into the receptacle. Place slices of nian gao into the egg batter, and quickly transfer them onto the heated oil. Sizzling will be heard – it’s a good sign!!!
no fighting, separate militant nian gao with chopsticks
getting deep-fried in peace and harmony
Step 5:
When nian gao turns golden brown, a color that is highly open to interpretation, gracefully remove them from your metal apparatus, and place them gently onto a plate. Napkins are highly recommended, as they will suckle some oil from your nian gao.
Step 6:
Repeat steps 1 to 5 with other types of nian gao!
taro with red bean
water chestnut, with “cooling” powers, according to my mother
Step 7:
Prepare a pot of jasmine tea, and distribute tea to little china teacups gracefully! One should always drink loads of tea when eating oily stuff.
Step 8:
Distribute in little saucers to everyone!
In case you’re wondering, my cup is the one decorated with strawberries. It was allocated to me by my mother. Don’t you know that all Chinese households are centrally commanded economies?
chopsticks in hand, ready, get set, go!
HAPPY GOLDEN TIGER YEAR EVERYONE!
No comments:
Post a Comment