Showing posts with label Chinese New Year Goodies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chinese New Year Goodies. Show all posts

Monday, February 4, 2008

Festive Food

In my earlier post on Nian Gao , the photos are more traditional nian gao. here you can see the Nian gao cakes have also been made in the form of fish, the traditional carp or koi and some are colourful.The reason being the Chinese phrase 年年有魚/餘; (nian nian you yu, or "every year there is fish/leftover") which could mean "be blessed every year" or "have profit every year", since "yu" is also the pronunciation for "profit".

This claypot of good delicious and expensive ingredients is known as Braised Treasures Combination. It cost about $388 for 12 people. The combination of some expensive and traditional food are Sliced abalone, prawns, scallops, stewed pork with taro, gluten, mashed fish ball, chicken, dried oyster, mushrooms, sea cucumber, black moss fatt choy, chinese cabbage and turnip.

Yusheng is a favourite with many Chinese during Chinese New Year and especially on the 7th day of the Chinese New Year. The 7th day of chinese new year is known as renri (the common man's birthday). This is the day when people get together to toss the colourful salad and make wishes for continued wealth and prosperity. This is more common in Malaysia and Singapore.

The above are display sets at Suntec City by Pearl River Palace Cantonese Restaurant and I got the permission to take photo of their display sets. Many would buy these for Reunion Dinner on Chinese New Year Eve. Reunion Dinner is the most important dinner of the year where every family member needed to be present at the dining table to have a meal together.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Fruits for Chinese New Year

These fruits are favourite during Chinese New Year.

Mini Pumpkins are known as lucky melons and they are a favourite because of its gold colour. Having golden pumpkins in the house means having gold in the house.

Tangerines are favourite too because they symbolised wealth. The chinese character "Da Ji Da Li" symbolised good luck.

Pomelo symbolised good fortune and prosperity.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Chinese New Year 2008 Goodies

Stall selling Dried Persimmon.

Dried candies-a favourite during Chinese New Year. It will be placed in a candy box/tray with 8 different compartments. Eight is an auspicious number for Chinese, it meant sudden fortune.

Different candies have different meanings. Candied melons symbolised growth and good health, lotus seeds symbolised lots of offspring.

Melon seeds-it is a symbol of joy and sincerity.

Pistachios from USA.

Assorted sweets also a must during Chinese New Year. It symbolised a sweet year.


Sunday, January 27, 2008

Chinese New Year 2008-Goodies

There are many such stalls in Chinatown selling cookies for the festive period. This stall is selling 5 boxes of cookies for $11 but on Chinese New Year Eve, the price will be slashed to just 50 cents a bottle.




Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Nian Gao

It is the time of the year that this bakery shop comes alive. This bakery shop is known as Da Zhong Guo. The only time you can see long queues at this bakery shop is before Chinese New Year (popular for their Nian Gao) and before Moon Cake Festival (popular for their moon cakes).

For those who believed in the Kitchen God, it is a must to offer Nian Gao to the Kitchen God one week before the Chinese New Year. As the Nian Gao is make of glutinous rice and tasted very sweet, so that the Kitchen God after consuming the cake will report sweet things to heaven. That is the time when the Kitchen God will report to the Jade Emperor in Heaven about the characters of every household. (It is something like he is making a list of who is good or who is bad). To know more about the story of the kitchen god:click here