Chinese New Year

From:【明報】

New Year's cake symbolises "getting higher year after year (年年高升)". The custom of having New Year's cake in Lunar New Year evidences hopes for progress and advancement in the new year. New Year's cake used to be consumed only in Lunar New Year, but it is now a dish commonly found in Chinese restaurants all year round. New Year's cake dishes vary in ingredient. Cantonese New Year's cake is sweet, sticky and brown in colour. It is usually pan-fried, sometimes with beaten egg. Shanghai New Year's cake looks totally different. It comes in rod-shaped pieces, which have to be sliced. Small slices of Shanghai New Year's cake are usually stir-fried. It is chewy and white in colour.

Turnip cake (蘿蔔糕) is a dim sum that, to a certain extent, resembles New Year's cake. Its ingredients include dried shrimps (蝦米), Chinese sausages (臘腸) and shredded turnip. It is steamed and usually pan-fried before consumption. Other Lunar New Year delicacies include taro cake (芋頭糕) and water chestnut cake (馬蹄糕).

In the last issue of "Now and Then" we talked about the chunyun (春運) period, which is a period round Lunar New Year when people who are away from home in college or earning money travel back home to be reunited with their families. People try to get home before Lunar New Year's Eve because it is a tradition to have family reunion dinners (團年飯) in the evening of that day.

Dishes served at a family reunion dinner are supposed to bring good luck. For example, dried oyster with black moss (髮菜蠔豉) sounds like fa cai hao shi (發財好市), which means making a lot of money and doing a lot of business. Another New Year dish is dumplings, in which people used to put a few coins, which symbolise wealth. Now people rarely put coins into dumplings, but the tradition of having dumplings at family reunion dinners is strictly adhered to.