We were at the Chinese bakery the other day, and along with the egg tarts and lotus seed moon cakes and the 4 GLORIOUS ENORMOUS breakfast-treat-filled bao we got a weird little golden-brown blob of New Year’s Cake. Everyone seemed to be buying some so i wanted to try it too.
I sliced a little off and it tasted kind of like paste. I didn’t get it, and complained to the tallasiandude. He suggested that I heat it up, possibly in a frying pan. That seemed reasonable enough so I put some peanut oil in the pan and fried my little slices. And holy mackerel, does that make a difference. They get all crispy and caramelized, and they go gooey and soft. Yum.
I guess I should have known, really, because I know about grilled mochi in Japanese cooking, and mochi is effectively the same thing as this weird glutinous cake. Now I know, and I can look forward to many years of yummy crispy rice-goo goodness in late January. Hurray!