Chinese New Year Cake – Neen Go
Pan Fried Chinese New Year Cake
Growing up, the Neen Go (Chinese New Year Cake) is pretty much one of the many star items on the dining room table. I was never attracted to the look and the taste of the cake. For such a simple and dull looking cake, as a child, I simply could not fathom why it was such an important item to have before the starting of the lunar new year. There are so many other delicious cakes, like the prosperity cupcakes, but none of them are as important as this neen go.
Neen go, which literally translated in Cantonese, “Year High” or in another words, highly prosperous year, is one of the many items offered the day before New Year’s to the Kitchen God. Yes the Kitchen God and this is the widespread belief. The new year cannot kick off to a fresh new and prosperous start without this cake. And so, a week before the new year, I decided that I would like to make this cake. I did come across with a few snafus, recipe problems not the user’s fault, and then I found the light at the end of the tunnel with the help of my dear co-worker Mei-Ling who offered me a foolproof recipe. The attempt to take on the responsibility of making this VIP cake has befuddled my sweet mother. She could not take me seriously and decided that it is better to use her inexperience hands over mine to make the cake.
Now here is the now infamous recipe from Mei Ling:
