Category Archives: food musings

tikoy for good luck

desserts, Chinese food, food musings

One of the most famous food staple this time of year is Nian gao, or what we fondly calls tikoy. This glutinous rice cake is believed to bring luck, especially when eaten during the Chinese New Year. I remember when I was a little girl, my father would normally come home with a couple of boxes of these whenever Chinese New Year was approaching. My mother would fry them with egg and they make for perfect late afternoon snack. Now tikoy comes in different delicious flavors apart from the plain ones that we used to know.

desserts, Chinese food, food musings I was not lucky to receive a tikoy for this year, though, but I am planning to get me a box on my next trip to the grocers so that I can cook and serve some at home. All these tikoy photos on my Facebook timeline is making me miss its gooey taste all the more and I must satisfy that craving soon. Chinese or not, we all love tikoy, right?

The photos are taken during our trip to Binondo during the Chinese New Year Celebration last year. We saw these boxes upon boxes of tikoys being sold by one of the local shops there, I just had to take a quick snap. Good thing the little man was also very game to pose beside the red boxes.

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

chestnuts in our new year feast

comfort food, food musings, nuts

Chestnuts remind me so much of my Papa. When I was a little girl no Christmas or New Year’s eve feasts were complete without them. I grew up loving this treat that is why they remind me so much of my childhood and my father, too. It is also the reason why I made it a point to get some of these for our New Year’s eve feast. We may not have cooked up a storm, but if we have a bunch of hotdogs {for the little man} and a bowl of still-hot chestnut then I am such a happy camper.

Special occasions like the Christmas holidays always brings me to that time in my childhood when I do not have a care in the world, except to figure out how to eat all the delicious dishes my Mama made especially for the occasion! We’d have arroz valenciana, which was also one of my Papa’s fave, fruits salad, macaroni salad {which is my fave}, and a hot dish, which could be sotanghon soup or arroz caldo, depending on what the brood of 5 requested.

Our Christmas holidays were also characterized by the lovely Christmas tunes that my Papa used to play on his radio. We may not have an audio-technica ath-m50 at guitar center or similar music gear, but the air around the household was thick with the holiday spirit thanks to the Christmas carol blaring from my father’s radio.

I really have fond memories of Christmas as a child that is why I would love for my little man to have the same. Now it may take a while before I could finally convince him to give one of these chestnuts a try, but I am sure we will get there one day.

What’s your favorite holiday treat?