Nian Gao (aka Mochi Cake) (2024)

FAQs

Is nian gao the same as mochi? ›

Every Lunar New Year without fail, Kat Lieu's mother would make her steamed nian gao, which is a sweet rice — or mochi — cake.

Nian gao, or 'year cake', is a sticky rice cake which represents prosperity; the words 'nian gao' sounds like 'getting higher year on year', and this symbolises raising oneself taller in each coming year.

Nian gao can last for 1-2 months in the fridge when stored in an airtight container. When you're ready to eat simply cut off a few slices, pan fry, and enjoy! Once panfried I'd recommend eating it as soon as possible, as it tastes best when the outside is crispy and the centre is still soft and chewy.

In the Southern region of Fujian, nian gao, natural amber, is mainly used for the New Year ritual and gifts. It is made of glutinous rice and taro, which are then usually sliced and cooked before eating. It can also be wrapped in egg or cornstarch (corn flour) or sweet potato to fry.

Korean rice cake or tteok, is made from steamed flour. The flour can come from any type of grain, including glutinous rice. Unlike mochi, which can't be made with regular rice, tteok can be created with non-glutinous rice. However, tteok also has both traditional and modern preparation methods.

Mochi has a close Chinese counterpart: ciba 糍粑。 Both are made by pounding steamed sticky rice into a paste before shaping into a variety of forms. 糍粑is usually plain, sometimes pan fried and served with brown sugar syrup.

Nutritional Fact: This Chinese sticky cake is made with glutinous rice flour, sugar and oil. One 20g steamed slice has 46 calories, while two slices of fried nian gao have 380 calories. It's pretty loaded with sugar too, one piece of nian gao has 17 grams of sugar.

It can be served as is or pan-fried. To pan-fry (optional): Heat a thin film of vegetable oil in a nonstick frying pan over medium heat until shimmering. Add a single layer of nian gao slices but do not let them touch.

Rice cakes (nian gao) – southern China

The word nian gao sounds like “higher year,” representing a better year to come. “People eat rice cake because in Chinese, the cake carries the meaning of height, so if you eat cake, it means that in the new year, you will have good luck,” Xiu said.

You can serve the cake as is, or reheat it in the microwave (the amount of time will depend on the size and power of your microwave – start with 10 seconds and then microwave an extra 5 seconds if needed) or re-steam it for 4 – 5 minutes.

Do Chinese rice cakes go bad? ›

Rice cakes have a surprisingly long shelf-life, and they can keep their texture and flavor for up to a year if you store them properly. Either keep them in their packaging or write the date that you bought them on their container so you don't forget.

Nian Gao (nìhn gōu in Cantonese) roughly translates to "New Year Cake", and it's a sticky rice cake with thousands of years of history and thousands more variations all across Asia.

So, the pronunciation of niangao sounds like 'year high' (年高), which symbolizes a higher income, a higher position, the growth of children, and generally the promise of a better year in Chinese minds. Therefore, it is considered good luck to eat it niangao during the Chinese New Year period.

The flat disc-shaped rice cakes (called nian gao in Chinese) are most commonly used in stir-fries in Chinese cuisine. The tubular ones (which are called garaetteok in Korean) are much more common in Korean cooking and are most commonly cooked with gochujang paste and fish cakes as comfort food known as tteokbokki.

Ten days before the Lunar New Year and you can't escape the frenzy. Go to the grocery and there are stacks and stacks of nian gao in different flavors, shapes and sizes.

Sweet rice balls: Ningbo is one of the best places to sample these round, mochi-like dessert balls, called tangyuan. The soft, pillowy exterior is made with sticky rice while the filling is made of black sesame, sugar and lard.

Again, very similar to mochi, dango can be made from a variety of flour and don't need to be pounded. Dango can be filled, grilled or dipped into a sweet sauce, but they are often skewered.

It is instructive that Taiwanese Hokkien moâ chî actually comes from the Japanese mochi, with two non-standard characters invented to represent the word's pronunciation (since the kanji would be misleading in Chinese): 麻薯 with a rice radical 米 added to the left of each character.

The snow skin mooncake is similar to mochi ice cream or yukimi daif*cku, as both have glutinous rice crusts and have to be kept frozen. Snow skin mooncakes are typically white and are served cold, which is why they are named "snow skin". However, mooncakes may have other colors because of added flavors in their crusts.