Photography by Matyen

Introduction

It is not complete for Chinese to celebrate New Year without having good foods and delicious specialties. When people prepare to celebrate the Lunar New Year, kitchens are busy releasing fragrant odors with special treat on offer for the festive season. In Chinese New Year, you can taste delicious Pineapple Tarts as well as savoury Nian Gao cakes not forgetting the rest. I have come up with 10 sinful and delicious Chinese New Year goodies to spice up your feast and bring in lots of luck.

1. Nian Gao (Sticky Rice Cake) 

Nian gao 拿糕 is the most traditional cake for Chinese New Year and represents progression in one’s life. The making of this cake involves the use of glutinous rice flour making the cake to have a chewy texture. The original nian gao is in brown colour but present day steamed nian gao may contain red bean paste or grated coconut as filling. Consuming nian gao during New Year represent sweetness of the upcoming year/ The Chinese New Year foods have special meanings.

2. Pineapple Tarts

Delicious pineapple jam filling and buttery pastry makes these pineapple tarts extremely popular especially for Chinese New Year celebrations 中華餅. Pineapples denote wealth and richness in the décor and in the identification of the fruit clusters that form around the fruit recall the concept of wealth. Crumbly pineapple tart pastries are fragile, sweet and golden, prepared in more traditional forms for Chinese New Year celebrations and sharing.  

3. Bak Kwa (BBQ Meat)

Barbecued sliced pork or bak kwa 肉干 is a tasty snack that has a subtle sweet and salty glazing taste. It also tastes good during the New Year house visiting or the celebration of holiday at home with friends and families. Premium bak kwa includes cuts such as pork belly and is a perfect gift during Chinese New Year.

4. Chinese New Year Cake 

The cake is rather known auspicious cake named nian gao 牛轧糕 in Mandarin used by populations of Chinese origin. Always having cute New Year ornaments, and having coconut meat or brown sugar, it is soft and bouncy and evokes smiles during the New Year season. The round shape also denotes reunion or get together throughout the following year.  

5. Mandarin oranges 

With their vibrant festive color and natural round shape, mandarin oranges symbolize something very positive in Chinese culture. They symbolize prosperity and wealth since their name means gold oranges in Thai. Seedless honey mandarin 蜜桔 is particularly more sweet and is deemed suitable for New Year fruits and gifts to family and friends.

6. Peanut cookies 

These buttery cookies with crispy crumbly texture and a perfect undertone of peanut, in the form of ingot or Chinese character are perfect for New Year. Peanuts symbolize prosperity and joy whereas cookies are all time best festival foods. Crunchy peanut New Year cookies are delicious snacks that people of all ages will enjoy any time.   

7. Almond cookies

Chinese almond cookies 杏仁餅 are one of the most emblematic pastries of Chinese cuisine. They are usually moulded in the shape of Chinese silver dollars symbolising prosperity and are usually made from sweet creamy butter with a smattering of almond slices. That nutty crispiness and the sandy feel of these tends to make them extra satisfying for the New Year teatime munchies. 

8. Pineapple cakes

Speciality Chinese pineapple cake 鳳梨酥 with topping of butter pastry and pineapple paste is liked by the people during the New Year season. This has been designed to look like a pineapple to represent a lucky, sweet life. This tasty cake is made from quality butter and pineapple making it crumbly and moist sick for children and adults to consume.  

9. Fortune cookies 

It would be remiss for anyone to not fold the top of a fortune cookie to reveal the future and future prosperity before Chinese New Year’s ends. These very thin cookies with piece of paper on them with some lucky word are quite amusing and makes the event more vibrant. Today’s fortune cookies come in all sort of flavors including chocolate and strawberry.

10. Sweet rice balls

Ginger syrup boiling sticky rice balls湯圓 are a popular dessert food particularly when it is new year. The nearer outer rim of moon cakes is round, representing family reunion, and the sweet stuffings inside, such as the black sesame or the peanut, represent people’s expectation of a sweet and rich year. Delicious glutinous rice dumplings that are wrapped with bamboo and served in sugary soup are perfect for the soul during celebrations.

Conclusion 

As people looked forward to the New Year and cherishing each and every wonderful moment of the season, families come together to prepare show-ready festive treats which are both enjoyable and spiritually loaded for the festive beginning. Let’s start with the nian gao cakes, and end with pineapple tarts, here are ten Chinese New Year goodies that are sure to please your palate. The sweet the food the richer and more prosperous year is thought to be the coming one.