These Chinese festive food mashups are blowing our minds
If you've spent any time in Southeast Asia over Chinese New Year, you'd be well familiar with festive treats like pineapple tarts and barbecue pork.
These good ol’ favourites may never go out of style, but those pecking around for more creative eats may satisfy their tastebuds with these new mashups that have hit the market.
Barbecue pork + pineapple tarts
Wait, these are black. But don't let that put you off: each buttery nugget encases a filling made of pineapple jam and barbecue pork (bak kwa) bits.
The pastry is black because charcoal powder is mixed into it.
We found the salty barbequed meat to be the perfect counter-balance to the sweet jam. Each tart is huge, so take your time to savour it; you may not have space for a second.
Get them from Old Seng Choong.
Nian gao + yam pastry
Nian gao, or sticky rice cakes, is popularly served up this time of year, and symbolises a better year ahead.
However, they're often laborious to make, and not very exciting, flavour-wise. This mashup, which sees nian gao layered on top of creamy yam and flaky pastry, makes it so much more exciting to eat because the play on textures keeps the party going in your mouth.
Get them from The Fullerton Online Store.
Barbecue pork + chocolate chip cookies
Singapore’s own dessert celeb chef Janice Wong joins the Chinese New Year cookies fray with her own mashup -- bak kwa chocolate chip crispy cookies.
Made with 70 percent dark chocolate from Santo Domingo, each bite is a mix of bitter with porky goodness.
It reminded us of gai zai peng (chicken biscuits), which may not be a bad thing if you don’t like cloyingly sweet stuff.
Order them from Janice Wong online.
Nian gao + ondeh-ondeh or durian
For dine-in only, Chinese restaurant group Min Jiang have created a dessert platter featuring three types of nian gao.
In its durian version, it rolls up rich D24 durian paste in nian gao like a swiss roll. And in the ondeh-ondeh version, it uses the sweet Peranakan dessert and coats it with coconut shavings.
The durian nian gao packs a real punch -- do not attempt to kiss anyone after. If you hate mushy, gooey food though, this may not be something you want to try.
The ondeh-ondeh nian gao will delight most with a burst of sweet gula melaka when you bite into it.
They're available from Min Jiang.
Bak kwa + tau sah piah
More barbecue pork bak kwa? Bring it on.
At the traditional Teochew bakery (bought over by the BreadTalk Group in 2011), bak kwa nuggets hide within melt-in-your mouth mung bean paste for a pow-wow treat that will convert even those who don’t like the traditional tau sah piah.
Get it at Thye Moh Chan.
Victoria Ho is Mashable's Asia Editor, based in Singapore. She previously reported on news and tech at The Business Times, TechCrunch and ZDNet. When she isn't writing, she's making music with her band
