Fried New Year Rice Cake 煎年糕 (jiān nián gāo) is a Cantonese rice cake dish. Rice cakes are over 2500 years old and are usually associated with Chinese New Year celebrations. All foods eaten during Chinese New Year will usually have an auspicious name. The word 糕 which means steamed cake or pudding sounds like the word 高 which means up, high or tall. So, if you want a promotion or if you want your kids to grow tall, this dish is a must!
Over the course of 2500 years, every region, village, tribe, city has their own version of rice cakes. And so you can imagine how many types are out there! They come in all shapes, sizes and colours. Some are wrapped in leaves, have auspicious words, sweet, savoury, in a sweet/savoury soups, deep fried or various fillings.
If you didn’t see my post for my “Easy New Year Rice Cake”, here’s the story of the rice cake again:
Around 2,500 years ago, during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, the emperor of Wu captured the emperor of Yue. Decades after, there was a new successor of Wu. He could not resist the temptations of a beautiful mistress gifted by the Yue Kingdom. She was one of the renowned Chinese ancient beauties, Xi Shi. Over the course of 17 years, she helped bring down the Wu Kingdom and restored glory to the Yue.
Prior to the fall of the Wu Kingdom, a high ranking official named Wu Zixu warned the Wu emperor of potential invasion from Yue. The emperor ordered Wu Zixu to build a brick wall surrounding the Wu Kingdom. However, Wu Zixu continued to advise the emperor of the revenge seeking Yue Kingdom. Possibly with the persuasion of Xi Shi, the Wu emperor became suspicious of Wu Zixu’s intentions and ordered his execution. Awaiting his execution, Wu Zixu told his family that he had no doubt that the Yue will besiege Wu. He told them that when the people are starving, dig three feet under the brick wall and you will find food.
After Wu Zixu died, everything he predicted came true. To avoid capture by Yue forces, the Wu emperor committed suicide. When there was no more food, they remembered Wu Zixu’s last words. They dug up dried bricks of dehydrated glutinous rice cake. Apparently, Wu Zixu had already prepared for the enemy cutting off their food supply and had buried bricks of rice cake during the building of the brick wall. The civilians survived but the Kingdom fell. Since this event took place around Chinese New Year, people started to call rice cake, “nian gao”, which translates to “(new) year steamed cake”. From then on, many people sliced rice cake into the shape of a brick to commemorate this noble official of Wu.
In the West, we are more familiar with the Cantonese style rice cake because Cantonese people were one of the first to immigrate to the Western countries. My Fried New Year Rice Cake 煎年糕 shows you how convert the steamed rice pudding into fried pudding.
This dish is usually eaten as a dessert on Chinese New Year Eve and then throughout the day on New Year day. If you’re feeling adventurous, give my creation, “New Year Rice Cake Bites” a try! Is it a cake? Or is it a candy? Either way, they are extra yummy and easy to make!
Fried New Year Rice Cake 煎年糕
Ingredients
- ¼ approx Chinese New Year Rice Cake
This is using an 8” rice cake - 1 Large egg
- 1 tbsp Oil
Instructions
- Slice Chinese New Year Rice Cake into 1 cm thick slices approximately 3 cm x 4 cm, or any size you like
- Beat 1 large egg in a bowl
- Dip the sliced rice cakes into the egg making sure the whole surface is coated with egg
- In a frying pan, use medium heat and add 1 tbsp oil
- Fry the slices of rice cake for 1-2 minutes on each side or until golden
- Serve
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