Niangao(New Year Cake Made of Glutinous Rice Flour)
2 min readNiangao,Year Cake or Chinese New Year Cake is a food prepared from glutinous rice and consumedin Chinese cuisine.It is available in Asian supermarkets and from health food stores.While it can be eaten all year round,traditionally it is most popular during Chinese New Year.It is considered good luck to eat niangao during this time,because”nian gao”is a homophone of”higher year.”The Chinese word (zhan),meaning “sticky”,is identical in sound to (nian),meaning”year”,and the word (gao),meaning”cake”is identical in sound to(gao),meaning “high”.As such.eating Niangao has the symbolic meaning of raising oneself higher in each coming year.
Despite numerous varieties,they all share the same glutinous rice ingredient that is pounded or ground into a paste and,depending on the variety,may simply be molded into shape or cooked again to settle the ingredient.Nian gao has many varieties including the types found in Shanghai cuisine,Fujian cuisine and Cantonese cuisine originating from Guangdong. Niangao is also widely consumed in the Philippines during the Chinese New Year due to the Chinese living in the country.Niangao is known as tikoy in the Philippines and tikay in Burma.
Japan and Korea both have similar glutinous rice foods,known as mochi and tteok, respectively,though tteok can be made with non-glutinous rice as well.This kind of tteok,which is like the Shanghai variety of niangao,is traditionally eaten during Korean New Year(same as Chinese New Year)in a dish called tteokguk.
