Hong Kong Chinese New Year Foods

Chinese New Year is a time for me to binge. You may notice that I have a fasting blog and if you read this post, you're sure that I can recover speedily after binge eating.

During the new year holidays, we visit relatives and the gatherings are all about eating. Here I'm going to share with you some of my favourite new year foods.  And if your planning a visit soon make sure you find the best cheap travel offers out there.

New Year Puddings

Turnip Pudding is one of my must eats. If you've ever read about my health rules in my fasting blog, you'll realise that I enjoy eating fresh and natural. If you don't have the experience of eating turnip pudding freshly from the steamer, I'll suggest your learning to cook it. Here's Anna's turnip pudding recipe. Every year, me and my sister work together to make our own turnip pudding and eat fresh. Woo, yummy! Once you've tried eating fresh, you would never want to eat the re-heated ones, neither pan fried, steam or micro-wave.

My Home-made Turnip Pudding 2012 蘿蔔糕

Water Chestnut Pudding 馬蹄糕
This is a very popular Cantonese dessert year round. But we eat a lot of it during the new year. Little bit sticky but very delicious. We seldom make this at home, but eat at restaurants.

Sticky Nan Gao (New Year Pudding)
My sister-in-law made it at home and served us during our home visit. It is very sticky and chewy, but nice. We had two flavours: vanilla and coconut. It is so sticky that during pan frying, we had to add some egg solution so that the pieces won't stick together.

Home-made Nan Gao 年糕,年糕, 年年高!

In Cantonese, Gao (pudding) sounds like Grow, therefore Gaos are very popular foods during Chinese New Year.

Fa Cai (lucky money) Hao Shi (good business) Da Li (lots of profit) Dumplings 發財好市大利燒賣 - Fa Cai - is the black hairy vegetable; Hao Shi - is the dry oyster; Da Li - is the pig's tongue. This dumpling trio is a must eat when we have our family dim sum lunch gathering on the first day of Chinese New Year. All these foods are given good names and with valuable meaning in Chinese.

發財好市大利燒賣

After our home visit to my brother's house, he took us to a restaurant in Shatin for dinner. There was some unexpected pleasure as he ordered a few old Hong Kong dishes that reminded me of my childhood.

Stir Fried Kale with Preserved Meats 芥蘭炒臘味

This dish looks simple but few restaurants serve it nowadays. And we can only taste in cold winter days. It was really well done with 'heat of wok'. Do you see the smoke (top left corner of the photo)?

Stir Fried Kale with Preserved Meats芥蘭炒臘味

Pork's Knuckle in Hot Pot 梅子豬手煲

There are plums and pineapples in this dish. So it is a little bit sweet and sour however won't conflict the overall knuckle's flavour. Few chefs use this recipe nowadays. Again, very well done, though the waiting time is a bit long (roughly 40 minutes), but we all love it!

Pork's Kunckle in Hot Pot 梅子豬手煲

Stir Fried Goose Intestine with Pepper and Pickles 味菜炒鵝腸

Does this look like flat noodle? Nope. It may be difficult for you to imagine, it is goose intestine. Again, few restaurants serve this dish nowadays. Only some Chiu Chau restaurants do. It is quite time consuming in preparing the goose intestines. But the chef did a great job. It was not fatty at all and very crunchy. If you were to mention some rare foods that Chinese eat, would you include goose intestine?

Stir Fried Goose Intestine 味菜炒鵝腸

Hong Kong Food Blog - Chinese New Year Foods

Stir fried spinach with egg

Ingredients:

• Spinach 250g
• Egg 2
• Salt 3g
• Cooking alcohol 3g (If you don't have it, any kind of alcohol can be used instead, or you can skip it)
• Cooking oil 20g

Directions:

1. Wash the spinach and cut it into long leaves, you can also scald the spinach before the stir fry.
2. Break the eggs in a bowl and stir evenly
3. Pour the cooking oil into a wok and heat it, when it becomes hot add the egg and stir fry, when it get ripe take out
4. Add the spinach to the wok, stir fry it with the oil left from egg
5. When the spinach gets soft add the egg and salt and keep stir frying, when the spinach is ripe the dish is ready.

Have your food with joy!

Smooth carrot and radish balls

Ingredients:

• Radish 200g
• Carrot 200g
• Green onion (onion) 20g
• Cooking oil 40g
• Sesame oil 5g (if you have)
• Salt 5g
• Chili 5g
• Ginger 10g
• Garlic 10g
• Soy sauce 10g
• Vinegar 5g
• Farina 10g
• Flour 20g
• Egg 1
• Coriander 5g (just for decoration)

Directions:

1. Shred the carrot and radish into tiny pieces and put them into a basin
2. Shred the green onion (onion), ginger, garlic, and chili into tiny pieces
3. Add half of the green onion (onion), egg, half of the salt, sesame oil, half soy sauce, half of the farina and flour  into the carrot basin and stir everything, till water is invisible, and it's possible to make dough
4. Make the stirred materials into some balls 
5. Add 30g cooking oil into a wok and heat it, when it gets hot turn the stove lower, add the balls one by one to fry, take out the balls when they become golden color
6. Put the other half of the farina into a bowl, add some water to make some solution, volume of the water can be 3 or 4 times of the farina
7. Pour rest of the cooking oil into the wok and heat it, when it becomes hot add the other half of the green onion (onion), ginger, and garlic then stir fry
8. When there's good smell coming out add the chili, other half of the salt, other half of the soy sauce, vinegar and some water, till it covers everything
9. When the water boils add the farina solution and keep stir frying
10. When the sauce becomes sticky add the balls and stir fry, when everything gets mixed evenly the dish is ready, and you can add some coriander as it shows in the pic, for decoration, the white part in the pic is small green onion, maybe not available in the market out of China.

Have your food with joy!

Pea egg pancake

Ingredients:

• Pea 50g
• Flour 30g
• Carrot 20g
• Cabbage 20g
• Egg 1
• Cooking oil 20g
• Salt 3g
• White pepper 5g

Directions:

1. Shred the cabbage and carrot into julienne size
2. Add the peas into boiled water, take out when they become ripe
3. Add the cabbage and carrot into boiled water, take out after 1 minute
4. Break the egg into a basin, add the flour and mix them
5. Add the peas, cabbage, carrot, salt and white pepper into the basin and stir till everything gets mixed evenly
6. Add some oil into a frying pan and heat it, when it becomes hot turn the stove lower, add some panada and fry, when both sizes of the pan cake become golden color it's ready to eat.

Have your food with joy!

Snake Soup

In cold winter days, there are some foods exceptional popular among Hong Kong Cantonese. Sticky rice is one, snake soup is another. And these two seems to be perfect partners, as people usually eat them together. The other day my sister treated me with home made sticky rice with preserved meats (lap cheung). I've therefore decided to treat everyone with snake soup.

Snake soup shops in Hong Kong are usually small and full of people, so I have decided to go take away. For environmental reason, I brought my own container and the shop owner gave me bonus - all the four bowls were almost overflowing.
After our majhong games, we had to reheat the snake soup. The shop owner gave us some lemon grass and chips to add to the soup. The chips is a usual snake soup companion. As for the lemon grass, some shops serve chrysanthemum petals instead. You'll notice some other ingredients in the soup such as sliced pork, black fungi - wow yummy and keep us warm!

If you were to name some horrible foods that Chinese eat, would you include snake?

Snake Soup take away - HK$34 per bowl

Hong Kong Food Blog

Sayur Asam (Asam Rebus)

A must-have item on the menu for every Javanese Singaporean. This soup has some kind of appetizing effect because of the use of tamarind or (dried) sour starfuit as one of the ingredients.

Ingredients for Sayur Asam:

Vegetable for the soup

• 100 g long bean
• 1 chayote
• 50 g corn
• 100 g young jackfuit
• 50 g Gnetum gnemon leaves and fruits (Belinjau)
• 50 g raw peanuts
• 105 g galangal
• 2 salam leaves
• 20 g fresh tamarind or Asam Jawa tamarind paste, or 5 (dried) Belimbing sayur

Spice paste, using food processor grind the following ingredients:

• 1 fresh red chili pepper
• 2 shallot
• 2 g belacan
• 1/2 tbl. salt

Method:

1. Clean the vegetables, cut into bite size
2. Boil 1.2 liter of water in a pot
3. Put the spice paste and the ingredients, with vegetables needs longer cooking time first (corn, peanuts, young jackfruit, etc.)
4. Add salt and sugar to taste

Recipe Source: Cookbook:Sayur Asem
Image Credit: tephaniewong