Foods To Celebrate Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year! Today is Cap Go Meh (the 15th day of chinese new year) which is the last day to celebrate chinese new year. So, I think I'm not too late to say Happy Chinese New Year to you guys. Cap Go Meh is actually the closing of chinese new year celebration. So, there are Liong and Barongsai festival around the city. But, I will not talk about Cap Go Meh in this post as I didn't celebrate Cap Go Meh in hometown. 

I was super excited celebrating Chinese New Year this year because I WAS CELEBRATING IN HOMETOWN (sorry for the caps lock cause I was too excited HAHAHA). I was so happy to meet my uncles, aunties and cousins again that I meet only in chinese new year. For the last 3 years, I celebrated my chinese new year not in my hometown. I have really missed the ambiance and the people's enthusiasm. That's why I was super excited to celebrate my chinese new year in hometown.

Anyway, I grew up in a family that has very traditional chinese culture. And, my hometown has a majority population of Chinese-Indonesian ((that's why the name of hometown foods have the sense of chinese)) so chinese new year in my hometown is a little bit wow. Streets are decorated with red lantern, houses are decorated with chinese decorations, and everybody are wearing red. I saw many people ware posting about their chinese new year on social media, so I decided to share my chinese new year on my blog. 

Nian Gao (年糕)

People in my hometown called it as Basket Cake (Kue Keranjang) or Tiam Kue. It is a cake that is made from glutinous flour and sugar, also, it has elastic and sticky texture. This cake is a mandotary cake to celebrate chinese new year. My mom said that this cake was a symbol of the sweetness because Tiam in Teo Chew means sweet, so this cake would bring the sweet moments everyday in this year. I don't really believe about the facts or history about this cake and I'm not a fan of this cake, I just want to enjoy this cake, but I don't really like it. People usually keep this cake in refrigerator for few weeks to months after chinese new year, but the texture will be so hard, so they re-steam it or fried it with flour and egg. 

Sweet Barley Soup

I started my chinese new year by drinking sweet barley soup. This soup has been served in the morning on the first day of chinese new year. I don't really like this soup actually as it taste like drinking the rice water in the sweet way HAHAHA. This soup is also the symbol of sweetness for new year.  

Layer Cake

Layer cake is actually not so chinese-new-year-cake as it also found when I come to friends' house during Eid Al Fitri and Chistmas Day. I heard that layer cake is one of the hardest cake to be made, so that's why the price is expensive. This cake was made by full fats butter and 30++ eggs, it contains with so many calories and fats. I really love this cake but I would not eat big size at once cause of the fats and calories that contained.

Mandarin Orange

Mandarin Orange is my favorite fruit besides durian and mango. The best part of chinese new year is I could find mandarin orange everywhere. My dad always buy two big boxes of the mandarin orange every year. Mandarin orange should be the healthiest food during chinese new year. HAHAHA.

Cookies and Snacks

A lot of cookies and snacks were served to celebrate chinese new year. In the photos above, there are (left-right) pineapple cookies, cornflakes cookies, cat's tongue cookies ((lidah kucing)), silk worm snacks, beef floss snack and snow white cookies. It's actually another cookies and snacks except in the picture, but I was too busy during chinese new year and couldn't capture all the cookies and snacks in my house. 

The chinese new year of this year was super great. I met a lot of family and friends who I have missed for a long time. We gathered and shared the story of our life while enjoying the chinese new year food. For me this chinese new year was the best moment as I have longed for 3 years. And, I hope I could share another story of chinese new year from my hometown next year. 

恭喜发财! 新年快乐! 万事如意! May this year bring prosperity, good luck and good fortune to you, guys! 

Yey!

Yelny