New Year Rice Cake Bites 年糕糖不甩 (nián gāo táng bū shuǎi) is my modern take on an old classic. Do you love those chewy glutinous rice balls 糯米糍 (nuò mǐ cí)? But it’s too difficult to make? Well, not if you follow my recipe! It's a combination of New Year Rice Cake, glutinous rice balls and sticky rice balls with peanuts 糖不甩(táng bū shuǎi). You are sure to fall in love with these little bites of pure joy!
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. He 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.
My New Year Rice Cake Bites 年糕糖不甩 recipe is a simple fun and easy way to enjoy the traditional rice cake. You can decide if it’s a candy or a cake, let me know :). For a more traditional method of enjoying the traditional rice cake, try my recipe for
New Year Rice Cake Bites 年糕糖不甩
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 1 Easy New Year Rice Cake
If previously refrigerated, steam for 10 minutes to make it soft and chewy again
Ingredients for coconut coating (coats approx. 30):
- 50 g Finely shredded coconut
Ingredients for peanut candy (貢糖 gòng táng) coating (coats approx. 30):
- 80 g Peanut candy crushed
Ingredients for classic peanut/coconut/sesame seed coating (coats approx. 30):
- 30 g Roasted peanuts crushed
- 20 g Finely shredded coconut
- 10 g Toasted white sesame seeds
- 1 tbsp Sugar
Instructions
- Put 50 g of shredded coconut into a small container or mixing bowl. Set aside
- Put 80 g of crushed peanut candy into a small container or mixing bowl. Set aside
- Combine 30 g of crushed roasted peanuts, 20 g finely shredded coconut, 10 g toasted white sesame seeds and 1 tbsp sugar into a small container or mixing bowl. Set aside
- Make sure the Easy New Year Rice Cake is completely cooled before proceeding with the next steps
- Prepare a piece of parchment paper (or plastic wrap) and put it over a flat surface
- Remove the rice cake from the pie plate and place it onto the parchment paper. Use a knife or spatula to help with removal
- Make 2 cm x 2 cm cube pieces of rice cake by cutting strips first and then into pieces.
Cut on top of mixing bowl so the pieces fall into the coatings. Make sure the pieces don’t touch other as they are quite sticky 
- Spoon the coatings onto the rice cake pieces so that they are completely covered
- Put onto a serving tray and repeat
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