Sure, Valentine’s Day is nearly upon us but you won’t see any red hearts or pink cookies in my kitchen….oh noooooo….this year Vday coincides with Chinese New Year on the Lunar Calendar and that my friends, take precedence above all else. Every year during Chinese New Year (which will be acronym-ed into “CNY” from hereon), my family makes some amazing food items for sale. It stems way way back when we owned a bakery (yes the type that made light fluffy cakes with fresh strawberries and whipped cream) and Chinese customers would beg us to make some CNY favorites such as the brown sugar rice pudding, coconut rice pudding, water chestnut pudding and the savory daikon/turnip pudding and taro pudding. Most of you may have tried the daikon pudding at dim sum where the ladies would fry up little squares right in their cart. Unfortunately the ones at dim sum are usually without any real ingredients inside and you’re probably just eating a lot of flour. So I think this is why true foodies really love our stuff – it’s full of real ingredients you can taste and see! Even after our doors closed for over 15 years now, we still have customers calling.
One of the most popular and well received items is the double koi fish coconut milk pudding. It’s so beautiful that it would be a shame to not shoot some photos of it. My stylist was so awesome to pick up this amazing water-like platter to complement the fish. I still can’t get over how striking it is……some customers even comment that it seems “cruel” to cut into it. Haha. The amazing thing is that no two fish have the same pattern and you never know which one you’ll end up with. I still can’t get over how talented my mom is for making all these things.
The daikon pudding aka “law-baak-gao” is a favorite for many. After it’s pan fried, the outside has a crunchy layer while the inside is soft and savory with turnip. You’ll also expect to find some dried shrimp, chinese sausage, chinese bacon, shiitake mushrooms etc inside. I love to eat mine with a mixture of chili sauce, oyster sauce and hoisin sauce. Will showcase more CNY goodies again soon – gotta get back to cooking now.
Gung Hay Fat Choi!
Food Prepared by: My mom!
Food Styling: Peilin Chen Breller
by Winnie
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