J-emine's reflexionando

A luxuriously free of visiting Day 2 of LNY (afternoon) called for a mini- dessert escapade with a pot of black tea leaves from Yunnan. This year I decided to order Nian Gao (yearly cake) and radish cake from East Ocean Restaurant for the family, and the reviews from family has been great.

I’ll be honest I never knew the legend behind Nian Gao until this year – and funny enough, when I asked Dad what constitutes a good Nian Gao and his response was – ‘as long as it doesn’t stick to your mouth…”, now isn’t his response a contradiction to the legend (refer to: A bribe to the Kitchen God)! Haha.

No different from our yearly tradition, we sliced up the Nian Gao in thin strips, dipped in beaten eggs and fried it over the skillet, till it became caramelise. What stood out was the brown sugar used in the EO version, which left a toffee-like (gooey mess) sweetness and along with the crispy coating – it felt like a warm embrace that was hard to let go (think of the gooey mess). The radish cake on the other hand was very savoury, I reckon due the extra dollop of lup cheong (Chinese Sausage) that was used in the LNY special version, and with Mum’s special sambal chilli – it was hard to keep to the self- imposed quota of no more than 3 pieces of any LNY snacks.

The joy of experiencing delicacies on a LNY afternoon as we sat around the dining table cherishing the simplicity of our togetherness.