It is wildly known as Nian-Gao, Fah-Gao, or Tikoy. One must have a bite of this on New Year's day, as it is the symbolism of raising oneself higher in each coming year. This was believed to be an offering to the Kitchen God, with the aim that his mouth will be stuck with the sticky cake, so that he can't badmouth the human's family to the god of all gods.
This special cake can only be found 2 weeks before Chinese New Year. The elderly believe that eating this Nian Gao can bring you prosperous, helps in career, wealth and health. This cake can be eat rawly, steamed, fried and so on. We normally buy it at any Asian Market.
We love it fried coz it's the easiest way to prepare it. So we slice it up into this dimension and dip it into a lightly beaten egg. For those on cholesterol count, you can also use just the egg whites. Or you may just steam it and eat it as is.
Then fry it on non-stick pans with about 2 Tbsps of cooking oil. Make use of vegetable oil since olive oils can't handle high temperatures. Fry it for about 2-3 minutes on each side then let excess oil drain on napkins before even serving it.
Here's the finish product, which I brought in my daughter's preschool celebration. We were asked to bring something that we serve for the Chinese New Year. This is the easiest and the most traditional ones, so we'd like them to try it out along with the red envelopes that we handed out.
Happy New Year!!
Marie
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