Nian Gao / Neen Gow / Chinese New Year Cake

This was supposed to have been posted last month, but things got wacky here. I made this using Grace Young’s recipe at Epicurious. While the results were good, and two of my kids loved the egg-dipped and pan-fried slices, it didn’t really come close to my memories of Chinatown nian gao. I’m also sad to say that this made me miss my friend’s mom’s tikoy more. She’s from Tayabas and their tikoy is very different from the Chinese version; I believe it contains coconut milk, and is steamed in leaves of anahaw. The outside of the cake retains a soft texture, and the inside is definitely creamier than this. Sigh. I’ll have to play with this recipe to even approximate hers.

Here’s another nian gao recipe to try, from Florence.