AND THE CHINESE NEW YEAR CELEBRATION CONTINUES….

Yes it does!  The Chinese New Year is suppose to be celebrated for 2 weeks straight. TBW would like to follow and be true to tradition,  continue to do so by way of eating! Isn’t that a good excuse to eat, eat, and eat ? =)

Dimusum Galore

Lobster Tail with XO Sauce

Peking Duck

We prefer our duck pure…all meat (and fat) =)

Dark Duck Meat

Dessert platter

Dessert: Clockwise honeydew melon,dragon fruit, square hopia, round hopia, peanut pudding with tapioca balls, buchi

I always look forward to this dessert…creamy peanut pudding with chewy tapioca balls. Really yummy!

And of course….tikoy!

Tikoy with Cheese

Then to cap the meal….fortune cookies!

For good fortune!

Burp!

TIKOY, NIAN GAO, CHINESE NEW YEAR CAKE, TIKAY

They are one and the same…food prepared from glutinous rice which is pounded or ground into a paste then molded into shape or cooked again.  While it can be eaten all year round, it is most popular during Chinese New Year as it is considered good luck to eat NIAN GAO which sounds like  higher year.  It is the belief that when one eats this, it is like raising oneself higher for the coming year.

The preparation for TIKOY, NIAN GAO, CHINESE NEW YEAR CAKE, or TIKAY –whichever way you want to call it –varies depending on custom and cuisine.

Savory Nian Gao from Shanghai

Pan fried, sweet NIan Gao from Guangdong

In the Philippines, we usually have it similar to Guangdong— sweet, pan fried and coated in egg. In fact, there are several tikoy flavors now available–ube, pandan and with white or brown sugar.  Splenda tikoy soon?  I like mine pan fried in a coated pan with no egg and eaten with cheese.  Different strokes for different folks!

In our side of town recently, I witnessed a novel way of eating tikoy.  Still coated lightly with egg and pan fried but served with 3 sauces…mango, strawberry and rasberry.

Rasberry, Mango and Strawberry Sauces for the Tikoy

Different flavors of Tikoy

Tikoy pan fried, microwaved, brown, white, purple, rolled with sesame seed, served with sauce, cooked with vegies, eaten with cheese…..whatever way you choose, just enjoy eating it and  raising yourself!

BTW, tikay is not the female version of tikoy.  It is tikoy in Burmese =)

KUNG HEI FAT CHOI CELEBRATED IN A NEW WAY

We were introduced to a new Chinese New Year ritual today called :  SIN HWA DEE FA CAI YU SHENG.  Apparently, this ritual was brought from China to Singapore and has been a must to do to welcome the New Year in Singapore.

It was said that Palms is one of the few, if not the only venue in Manila that celebrates the New Year this way.

During the Lunar New Year, the Chinese consume Yu Sheng because of its auspicious connotation of prosperity.

Chef Hans explains ritual to willing participants

A round table laden with a huge platter of all kinds of ingredients and condiments surrounded by plates and chopsticks is prepared.

We first season and mix the various ingredients in the large platter.

The ingredients are tossed as high as possible using the chopsticks, shouting “LOR HEI!” “LOR HEI!”  In Cantonese, LOR HEI means attaining prosperity.  It is a belief that the higher one tosses the ingredients, the greater the success would be in the coming year.

LOR HEI! LOR HEI!

This is how the ingredients look after the high toss….

Then we share……

and eat…….

KUNG HEI FAT CHOI!  LOR HEI! LOR HEI!