Find out about January’s product of the month

Before we head into February, and we introduce another product of the month, we wanted to make sure you take the time to fully indulge in January’s offering.

This month, we made the product of the month the New Year rice cake. This fits in nicely with the arrival of the Chinese New Year, giving us all another reason to celebrate this wonderful occasion and the tasty dishes associated with it.

A far cry from the instant noodles found in large supermarket chains, this dish was originally used as an offering in ritual ceremonies before it gradually became a Spring Festival food.

For those who aren’t aware, you can find a variety of different styles of rice cake (年糕) in China, differing from region to region.

Our choice of New Year rice cake, is the recipe that is prevalent in Guangdong.

Why the New Year rice cake is important

In conjunction with the Chinese New Year, the Cantonese rice cake is regularly served up as part of tradition by every Cantonese family. You’d be mistaken if you were to think that this was based on the cake’s mouth-watering taste alone. There is more to it than that. The New Year rice cake plays a more vital role, by symbolising having a better year.

How it's made

Many people in rural areas do still observe the ancient method to make New Year rice cakes. This involves putting some steamed rice into a big stone container, before beating it with a long-handled wooden hammer until the rice becomes a glutinous paste. Once this is achieved the paste is taken out, cut into small pieces and rolled out into 3-centimeter-wide strips.

The Cantonese version of the rice cake is made using four simple ingredients; glutinous rice flour, rice flour, brown sugar and water.

All that needs to be done is to slice the rice cake into mouthful size, followed by searing it until it becomes crispy in a pan. To make it even yummier, you can add beaten eggs to the rice cake before you serve. If you are going to visit Chinese friends or family during Chinese New Year period (28 January to 11 February), a rice cake will be the ideal gift.

We have a selection of two different flavours available here at Oriental Mart. You can view our full range of Chinese Moon Cakes here.

Our Promise

At Oriental Mart, we go to great lengths to research and provide our customers with a wide range of authentic ingredients, foods and hidden gems that are found in local aisles of supermarkets in the Far East. We take pride in making them available to everyone. We are specialists in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Malaysian, Philippine, Taiwanese, Indonesian, Vietnamese and Singaporean cuisine, and our family-run business constantly aims to make these products easily accessible to anyone in the UK and Europe. We want to make Oriental cooking fun, interesting and easy! Not a challenge!

Image: ProjectManhattan under Creative Commons.