Posted by Bel.C
When I go to the Chinese restaurant for Dim Sum, I always order the daikon radish cake (蘿蔔糕) or taro / yam cake (芋頭糕). However every time after I taste it, it always disappoints me, there aren’t enough ingredients and flavor in it, plus the texture is either too mushy or too hard. They just never taste the same like home made rice cake. Back home my grandma’s cousin sister (姨婆) always made a big serving of taro cake for us, fully loaded with ingredients and flavor. She truly made the best taro cake. I missed it so much that I decided to try this complicated dish.
Taro or Yam Cake (芋頭糕) is not that kind of sweet cake that you find in dessert, in fact it is a savory cake made with the main ingredients of taro or yam and rice flour. It is also one of the Chinese New Year recipes that you can prepare. Traditionally it is cooked and steamed for long period of time in a big round deep mold. When it is done, they are cut into cute diamond shapes. Now they can be found in dim sum cuisines, usually cut into slices, you can either eat it as original or pan fried for extra crunchiness and fragrant.
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Posted by Patrick.C
Eating Chinese New Year’s cake or year cake (年糕) is believed to have a symbolism of rising higher or taller in each coming year, such as getting a raise in job, promotion in income, or simply just growing taller for kids. I was told so during my childhood. In Chinese, Nian (粘) means sticky which is identical in sound as year (年) while gao (糕) means cake which is identical in sound as high (高). Thus it is dubbed as year cake.
Back in Malaysia, the sweet year cake is usually what we have during the Chinese New Year. Steaming and deep-frying are two common eating methods. I remember when I was in Malaysia, my mom preferred to steam the sweet year cake until it dissolved to become sticky and then it was served with the fresh grinded coconut meats. It was delicious! For the deep fried sweet year cake, it is normally sold by the Chinese doughnut hawkers together with other fried breads like Chinese fried bread stick (油條) and sugar cake (糖糕).
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Posted by Eric.N
One of my favorite appetizers is the Deep Fried Taro Ball with Shrimp. I still remember when I was a kid, my mum always prepared this dish for my family. The taro ball is like a size of a golf ball, with a shrimp tucks inside it and leaving the tail outside forming like a curve drumstick. The taro ball is then deep fried till golden brown, it is crunchy on the outside with the crisp of the bread crumbs, but still tasted soft and sweet on the inside.
Well, it had been quite some time since the last time I had eaten this. I really can’t wait till my next hometown visit to have my mum making this again. So I called my mum to get the recipe and tried to to prepare this appetizer for the first time.
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