FOOD, WISHES FOR CHINESE NEW YEAR
For the regular New Year, we are told to have round fruits on our table. Do we also need to have that for the Chinese New Year? Not fruits, says Michael Sy of La Fortuna Bakery, but baked goodies which symbolize all good wishes for the New Year.
According to Michael, his grandparents had made these baked goods in their bakeshop ever since they started the shop in 1930.
For good luck, there’s moachi or macie. For growth and prosperity wishes, there’s haut kee, a camote or sweet potato cake. For a lively New Year, there’s red ampao or red rice crispies that crackle a bit when you eat it. For wishes for a long life, there’s chubiko, a rice cake with mongo or peanut filling. A new addition, which is not traditionally Chinese, but is an idea imported from the U.S., is the fortune cookie for good fortune.
For these baked goods to bring their wishes for the family up to the Chinese god/s, they must be placed on a red cloth-covered table facing a window, preferably facing east. After arranging the baked goods on the table, one makes the wishes for one’s family and for other loved ones like close relatives and friends. The food then stays overnight on the table. The following day, they may be eaten.
Tikoy is also a popular giveaway for the Chinese New Year. It is made of glutinous rice and can be made with other flavors like mongo and ube. It is for wishes for closer family ties, hence the stickiness that is hoped to make the family stick together, and its sweetness is said to signify sweetness or harmony in the family all year round.
How does one eat it? Basically, it is readily edible by itself, says Michael. But if it has hardened, it can be sliced into pieces (remove its wrapper first, of course), then dipped into egg batter. It can now be fried in an oil-laced frying pan and ready to eat in a minute.
Huat kee and chubiko are also ready to eat but if they harden, they’ll get back to their soft texture if steamed, and they’re best eaten when warm.
Tikoy’s shelf life is a week, and so is the shelf life of macie, which is, says Michael, actually tikoy in another form. Both items are fast selling this time of the year. Last Chinese New Year, La Fortuna sold 80,000 tikoys and 800,000 macie. That’s how popular these items are for this Chinese holiday, a holiday enjoyed as well by Filipinos, in the same way they do enjoy eating tikoy and macie.
Happy eating these baked goodies this Chinese New Year: Kung Hei Fat Choi!