Chung Cake

Happy Year of the Dragon to everyone! Here in Helsinki they have a nice afternoon to celebrate bringing in the New Year in Lasipalatsi square, featuring acrobatics, musicians, artists, singers, and fireworks for entertainment. They also provide a market place where local artisans and Chinese restaurants can sell their good and delicious food. I bought a beautiful set of chopsticks while I was there and tried some sesame rice rolls filled with sweet red bean paste- yum!

They also provide a live television showing of the entertainment going on in Beijing, with the parade and other spectacular events. Despite the cold weather outside, the event that took place for the third consecutive year here had a good turnout.

As it turns out, this New Years date is commonly celebrated by all cultures with ties to the Haan Dynasty, such as Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam, and so forth....

So for that very reason, my friend N, who has been living abroad in Finland for quite some years, decided to make her very first Chung cake. And I must say, what a success! Chung cake has a nice story behind it, dating back almost 4000 years. At this time, Prince Lang Lieu was hopeful that he would be selected the next emperor, so in an effort to seal the deal, offered both square and round cakes. The square represented the earth, which was thought at the time to be a square, and the round represented the sky. He was selected as the next emperor, and the tradition continues to this day as a way to worship ones ancestors!

Chung cake is a tedious thing to make, and though I did not make it myself, I could tell that N put a lot of time and care into getting it right. There is pork meat in the authentic recipe, so it is not vegetarian unless alterations are made. The basic ingredients are rice, pork and green beans. The latter are enveloped into the rice, and the rice is then secured within bamboo leaves. The bamboo leaves shape the cake into a square, and then the cake is steamed for a very long time. The result is this beauty!

Chuc ngon mieng! Chuc mung nam moi!