Chinese New Year goodies

A selection, clockwise from the top:

Kueh Lapis - a layered cake. Each thin layer of butter/eggs/sugar is baked separately in a tray, and when it is done, another layer is added and so on, making it an extremely laborious and time-consuming process . The top of each layer browns when it is baked, hence forming yellow/brown alternate layers. A Malay influence is to insert a few prunes into the layers, but I prefer the traditional plain cake. I used to eat kueh lapis by peeling off each layer of cake in turn, and would always incur my mum's ticking off, "That's not ladylike." (I was never allowed to chew gum for the same reason.)

Hay Bee Hiam - dried chilli shrimp is wrapped in little cocktail spring rolls and deep fried. We buy the tidbit in jars, but my helper at home always fries a jar of stand alone dried chilli shrimp for me to "smuggle" back. It's a wonderful condiment to sprinkle over any dish or to use as sandwick filling - in London, I like to mix it into plain white rice to add that bit of S.E. Asian pinache!

Cashew nut cookies - my dad's favourite. We buy this in jars too. I don't know why, but local biscuits always taste just that bit more buttery and are more crumbly.

Kueh Bankit - for melt-in-your-mouth biscuits, these white little gems are the thing. The secret lies in using freshly grated coconut from mature coconuts. They must also be baked to perfection - not too soft - and then left to cool. When I was little, I liked to wait for the kueh bankit to melt in my mouth before swallowing. I still haven't grasped the rationale of chewing kueh bankit actually.

Love letters - these coconut egg rolls are poured out as pancakes onto a hot patterned griddle, rolled into rolls while they're hot, then allowed to cool and harden into a crisp rolled biscuit. My mother often exploited me when I was little by making me roll the hot hot batter with my baby fingers, which were apparently more nimble for the job. Nowadays, an ubiquitous "aunt" gives my family a giant Milo tin of home-made love letters every year, and although I don't know who she is, I am eternally grateful for her gift. I once munched through half a tin watching CSI (Las Vegas). The lesson was that these sugar-and-coconut-artery-clogging babies are not the thing to be eating when one is not concentrating.

Japanese mochi - ok. These aren't traditional Chinese New Year goodies, but I was craving mochi before I left London and begged my mum to buy me some. My favourite are the sesame flavoured ones (green). I love these gooey balls, but my mum absolutely hates them.

Pineapple tarts - there are two types of pineapple tarts depicted here. The ones on the left are the "open top" ones. The "closed" ones on the right are made by my Aunty Agnes, and are shaped into little pineapples with a clove at the end for a stem. Her pineapple tarts are little heavens of short-crust filled with sweet succulent shredded cooked pineapples, and they are my favourite CNY goodie. Personally, I think all that peeling, cutting and shredding of pineapples is too much work, but I am only too happy to eat the final product.

This Saturday, my mum has promised another round of all the new year goodies that I missed, just for me! Will post more pics then.