rice cake

Celebrating Chinese New Year with nian gao, the auspicious rice cake

By: Nancy La, SFU Student As January comes to a close and February unfolds, my family and I get ready to celebrate the beginning of the Lunar New Year. While others are buying chocolates for their loved ones in preparation for Valentine’s Day, I am busy helping my mother clean the house (the under-the-couch and into-the-kitchen-cabinets kind of cleaning) for our New Year’s dinner. Even more importantly, I assist in preparing the rice cake dishes. Rice cake, or nian gao, is one of the most important traditions of Chinese New Year celebrations, second only to the symbolic red envelopes of…

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