Kung Hei Fat Choy!

photo source here

The year of the Ox in Chinese New Year starts on January 26. Although we don't celebrate this festive Chinese holiday (maybe we should as I have a little Chinese in me, my dad is a quarter Chinese and my mom probably also has some Chinese ancestry), we have become much more aware of it when we lived in Hong Kong. We remember the tiny bonsai kumquat trees bursting with full-size orange fruits and hanging on the tiny trees were small red money envelopes. In the Philippines we associate the Chinese New Year with tikoy. Searching online for articles on tikoy I found this and this video from Penang, Malaysia. The Malaysians call their brown tikoy Tee Kuih, also pronounced tikoy. Many Asians celebrate Chinese New Year incuding the Vietnamese. At the Eden Vietnamese shopping center (featured last night in Anthony Bourdain's show) a lot of shops sell sweets and cakes for Chinese New Year where I bought a container, labeled New Year Candies, of candied winter melons that are exactly the same as our candied kondol which I haven't eaten in over 20 years. The candy is so very good and reminds me of my childhood. I also bought a piece of a very yummy cake stamped with Chinese Happy New Year characters, filled with sweetened yellow mungbean paste flavored with durian, and in the middle is a salted duck egg yolk, sort of a combination of hopia and mooncake. I forgot to take a photo of it...I will try to bake some today and if successful will post the photo and recipe, wish me luck.:D

Vietnamese candied winter melon and Filipino pandan tikoy