Anson's fav Nian Gao
年糕
One of the preparation for Lunar New Year is the preparation of Sticky Cake, or Nian Gao. The name of the cake 'nian gao' literally means 'year cake'. Since the word 'gao' has the same pronunciation with another word meaning 'tall' or 'high', people like the name because it means you get higher every year. Children grow taller/higher, exam result better/higher, income higher, number of wives higher, gets higher... oops!
Usually around the second half of the 12th lunar month, people will start preparing Nian Gao. The main ingredient in Nian Gao is glutinous rice flour, which gives it the stickiness. The process involves steaming. During steaming, children are cautioned not to disturb the process like opening the lid to have a look. There's supposed to be a Nian Gao God overlooking the steaming process. If you open the lid, you will disturb Him and He will fly away. Then the steaming process will fail.
Once upon a time, there was some beggar named Zhang who was having an affair with a SYT in his own house. When his Mu Yeh Cha (fierce ugly wife) came back, he quickly went and hide in the chimney. But the chimney was alive and burning! When his wife discovered, it was too late. He turned to ashes already. His ashes flew through the chimney upwards to the sky. Stupid Jade Emperor believed him that he actually committed suicide after he realized his guilt and proceeded to employ him as the Stove/Oven God. Wahahaha!
There is a purpose behind making Nian Gao. This Stove God is a very talkative, very busybody and very kehpoh person. He is also very greedy as far as food is concerned and eats like a pig. On the 24th day of the 12th lunar month, the Stove God will depart from each family to report to the Jade Emperor (his big big boss) regarding the family. About what they eat, what have they done etc. People are afraid of him very much. Afraid that he would talk nonsense and kehpoh in front of Jade Emperor during his report.
You see, once upon a time, there was an old couple. They have only one son. Their son worked in a coal mine. One day, the old man went to visit his son. On his way, he met another weird person. After talking on their way for some time, he came to know that the weird man was actually sent by the stupid and cruel Jade Emperor to collect 100 person from the coal mine to serve as sex slaves to the Jade Emperor.
So the old man panicked. He begged the weird man to let go of his son, which the weird man agreed. So at the coal mine, old man behaved as if he was severely sick by doing all sorts of sick things. Pretended to have stomachache lar, headache lar, schizophrenic lar, menstrual pain lar... oops!
So the son didn't get a chance to decend into the mine for work that day. Shortly after, the mine collapsed, trapping exactly 100 people inside.
For years, nothing happened. One day, the old man really bueh tahan and told his wife what actually happened and how his trick had worked to save their son's life. His wife suddenly realized that the old man whom she has been married to all these years was actually damn blardy genius so they... :P
This was heard by the busybody Stove God. On the 24th day of the 12th month of that year, their Stove God reported this back to the Jade Emperor. Jade Emperor damn tulan. He immediately ordered people to take away the son of that old couple to become his slave.
The people learnt their lesson well. So before the Stove God departs to report to Jade Emperor, they shove a whole chunk of super sticky gluey Nian Gao down the blardy bastard's throat to choke him to half death so that he would talk less in front of the Jade Emperor. Otherwise he would be damn kehpoh and talk nonsense. The tulan Jade Emperor would then give bad luck to the family concerned.
So this, my friends, is the true meaning behind our Nian Gao : a murder weapon against kehpohchis.
Nian Gao in Malaysia commonly come as a short cylinder wrapped in some kind of bamboo leaves. I'll get a photo later. During the prayer to send off the Stove God, one usually cut out some pattern from some red paper and put it on top of the Nian Gao.
Photo stolen from shiokadelicious.com. :P
Nian Gao can be served in different ways. The commonest is steamed. Steamed Nian Gao is very soft like err... semi watery diarrhoea glue. You can use either a pair of chopsticks or fork to dig into it and transfer it to your mouth. Some prefer to dip the chopsticks/fork with the Nian Gao into some shaved coconut before putting it in mouth.
Another way to serve Nian Gao is to deep fry it. Cut un-steamed Nian Gao (which is quite solid) into square pieces and deep fry. You can deep fry along with some other thing like sweet potato or yam dipped in beaten egg and flour etc.
I've heard some Japanese old men got choked to death consuming Nian Gao. Luckily one of them was saved after his daughter managed to shove a vacuum cleaner tube down his windpipe and switched it to 'high'. So, be careful! ^_^
One of the preparation for Lunar New Year is the preparation of Sticky Cake, or Nian Gao. The name of the cake 'nian gao' literally means 'year cake'. Since the word 'gao' has the same pronunciation with another word meaning 'tall' or 'high', people like the name because it means you get higher every year. Children grow taller/higher, exam result better/higher, income higher, number of wives higher, gets higher... oops!
Usually around the second half of the 12th lunar month, people will start preparing Nian Gao. The main ingredient in Nian Gao is glutinous rice flour, which gives it the stickiness. The process involves steaming. During steaming, children are cautioned not to disturb the process like opening the lid to have a look. There's supposed to be a Nian Gao God overlooking the steaming process. If you open the lid, you will disturb Him and He will fly away. Then the steaming process will fail.
Once upon a time, there was some beggar named Zhang who was having an affair with a SYT in his own house. When his Mu Yeh Cha (fierce ugly wife) came back, he quickly went and hide in the chimney. But the chimney was alive and burning! When his wife discovered, it was too late. He turned to ashes already. His ashes flew through the chimney upwards to the sky. Stupid Jade Emperor believed him that he actually committed suicide after he realized his guilt and proceeded to employ him as the Stove/Oven God. Wahahaha!
There is a purpose behind making Nian Gao. This Stove God is a very talkative, very busybody and very kehpoh person. He is also very greedy as far as food is concerned and eats like a pig. On the 24th day of the 12th lunar month, the Stove God will depart from each family to report to the Jade Emperor (his big big boss) regarding the family. About what they eat, what have they done etc. People are afraid of him very much. Afraid that he would talk nonsense and kehpoh in front of Jade Emperor during his report.
You see, once upon a time, there was an old couple. They have only one son. Their son worked in a coal mine. One day, the old man went to visit his son. On his way, he met another weird person. After talking on their way for some time, he came to know that the weird man was actually sent by the stupid and cruel Jade Emperor to collect 100 person from the coal mine to serve as sex slaves to the Jade Emperor.
So the old man panicked. He begged the weird man to let go of his son, which the weird man agreed. So at the coal mine, old man behaved as if he was severely sick by doing all sorts of sick things. Pretended to have stomachache lar, headache lar, schizophrenic lar, menstrual pain lar... oops!
So the son didn't get a chance to decend into the mine for work that day. Shortly after, the mine collapsed, trapping exactly 100 people inside.
For years, nothing happened. One day, the old man really bueh tahan and told his wife what actually happened and how his trick had worked to save their son's life. His wife suddenly realized that the old man whom she has been married to all these years was actually damn blardy genius so they...
This was heard by the busybody Stove God. On the 24th day of the 12th month of that year, their Stove God reported this back to the Jade Emperor. Jade Emperor damn tulan. He immediately ordered people to take away the son of that old couple to become his slave.
The people learnt their lesson well. So before the Stove God departs to report to Jade Emperor, they shove a whole chunk of super sticky gluey Nian Gao down the blardy bastard's throat to choke him to half death so that he would talk less in front of the Jade Emperor. Otherwise he would be damn kehpoh and talk nonsense. The tulan Jade Emperor would then give bad luck to the family concerned.
So this, my friends, is the true meaning behind our Nian Gao : a murder weapon against kehpohchis.
Nian Gao in Malaysia commonly come as a short cylinder wrapped in some kind of bamboo leaves. I'll get a photo later. During the prayer to send off the Stove God, one usually cut out some pattern from some red paper and put it on top of the Nian Gao.
Photo stolen from shiokadelicious.com. :P
Nian Gao can be served in different ways. The commonest is steamed. Steamed Nian Gao is very soft like err... semi watery diarrhoea glue. You can use either a pair of chopsticks or fork to dig into it and transfer it to your mouth. Some prefer to dip the chopsticks/fork with the Nian Gao into some shaved coconut before putting it in mouth.
Another way to serve Nian Gao is to deep fry it. Cut un-steamed Nian Gao (which is quite solid) into square pieces and deep fry. You can deep fry along with some other thing like sweet potato or yam dipped in beaten egg and flour etc.
I've heard some Japanese old men got choked to death consuming Nian Gao. Luckily one of them was saved after his daughter managed to shove a vacuum cleaner tube down his windpipe and switched it to 'high'. So, be careful! ^_^
posted by junie at 10:32 AM
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