19 must-have traditional Chinese New Year treats from your childhood!

? I remember when I was a kid, the living room was always decorated with a variety of candy, chocolate, nuts, usually parents do not allow more to eat, only on New Year's Eve can be a little "wanton" a pocket with candy that sweet taste so far can not be forgotten.

? Candy

? Popularity: nationwide

? Candy is a traditional Chinese New Year seasonal confectionery, long and mahjong-shaped, block type neat, wrapped in waxed paper, candy Xiao evenly distributed in the maltose bones, eat candy melt in the mouth, sweet and mushy mouth, remember that kind of mouth full of fragrance feeling.

? Sugar Melon

? Popular geography: northern region

? There is a folk song in Beijing - "Sugar Melon Sacrifice to the Stove", the first food into the festival is "sacrificial stove" with sugar melons, Guandong sugar and so on. Sugar melons are round and chubby, made of maltose, sweet with a slightly sour flavor, and are a great snack, but unfortunately they are not seen much anymore.

? Gold Coin Chocolate

? Popular geography: nationwide

? Many candy brands package their chocolates in the form of gold coins for New Year's Eve, and people like to buy these chocolates to put in their living rooms to greet visitors. While we were always attracted by the "golden" look when we were young, nowadays we just use them to make children laugh.

? Sugar lotus seeds

? Popular region: Guangdong and Guangxi

? Guangdong people love to eat sugar lotus seed on New Year's Eve, white lotus seed outside wrapped in a layer of sugar frosting, lotus seed inner core is a little bitter, but wrapped in sugar, sweet, both delicious and will not catch fire.

? Red melon seeds

? Popular region: nationwide

? In the past, people used to get high on melon seeds on weekdays was called poor knock, and getting high on the night of New Year's Eve was called knocking poor, which means getting rid of poverty, so the custom of getting high on New Year's Eve was passed down. Red melon seeds used to be an essential snack at New Year's Eve, the family gathered together to chat and drink tea and then knock a handful of red melon seeds, full of flavor! But now red melon seeds in the impact of many nuts, the status of the past has been far worse.

? Nowadays, the New Year's candy box at home, it is difficult to find the trace of these foods, once a household must have the characteristics of snacks, has slowly been pistachios, almonds, hazelnuts and other nuts occupation. The previous New Year's Eve to eat a sugar melon can be sweet day feeling, also gone.

? In the past years, friends and family get together to talk about the world will be less than all kinds of crispy snacks. Nowadays, parents are worried about eating too much grease on the body is not good, the children are afraid to eat too much fried food greasy fat, so there has been little to see these traditional "golden" food, and now let us recall the taste of it.

? Crispy fried open mouth smile

? Popular region: Old Beijing

? Golden in color, crispy in texture, oily and sweet little food. Will and good dough picked into small doses, sprayed with the right amount of water, and then dipped in white sesame seed kernel fried until it floats to the surface of the oil, the surface of the split mouth on the pot, as if to eat an open-mouthed smile in the new year will be able to smile and open mouth.

? Deep Fried Egg Scatter

? Popularity: Guangdong

? Fried eggs are also indispensable to the New Year's crispy snacks, the main ingredients are eggs and flour, fried eggs are sweet and savory two kinds, just out of the pot that kind of crispy texture is very tasty.

? ? Cat ears

? Popularity: Most of the country

? As the name suggests, they are deep-fried snacks that look like kitten ears, coated with sugar, some soft, some crispy. After all, the standard of living was not high at that time, and many people could only eat it on New Year's Day when they were young.

? Sesame Crisp, Peanut Crisp

? Popular area: most of the country

? The production method is similar to playing fried rice, with sesame and peanut kernels as raw materials, the sugar will be fried into a paste and then stirred with fried sesame and peanut kernels, poured into a tin box to lay flat and compact, cut into small squares with a knife. Sesame and peanut crumbles are also indispensable for Chinese New Year.

? Avocado

? Popular region: Southern region

? To make the yaojiao, you need to grind the glutinous rice into powder, boil the sugar into a sugar solution and rub it evenly with the glutinous rice powder, the longer you rub it, the fluffier it will be. Rolled into a powder and then kneaded into a ping-pong ball size of the powder, the surface of the sticky white sesame seeds and then put into the frying pan frying, the powder fried into a deep red color can be taken off the pan. The fruits are then steamed and served as a drink, which was an indispensable part of every meal during the New Year when I was a child.

? Water chestnut

? Popular region: the northern region

? The water chestnuts are a great way to bring in the New Year, and they are a great way to bring in your loved ones for the New Year. In Beijing, buying water chestnuts on New Year's Eve means that the New Year's goods are ready. At dusk on New Year's Eve, you can hear the sound of dumplings being chopped up on the table from every house. At this time, the sound of "Selling water chestnuts! Water chestnuts for sale". People buy water chestnuts and smile at each other, nodding their heads and saying yes, so it's an early New Year's greeting.

?

Oranges

? Popular geography: most of the country

? In the New Year, mandarin oranges must be the tribute on the table, and even gifts are taken with a few mandarin oranges for a good intention. As Chinese people are sensitive to the number of words, generally will be 8 grains (take pronunciation), 9 grains (to take the long sound) or an even number to make up. The custom of giving oranges to each other during the Lunar New Year is closely related to the culture of the Chinese people. In Chaozhou, the people called tangerine tangerine, it is the harmonic and "Daji", therefore, to the relatives of the New Year's greetings to bring tangerine, the host will take their own tangerine and congratulate the guests brought to the exchange, in order to mutual goodwill, and each get good luck. New Year's Day, the folk with tangerines to gift each other for good luck, hope that in the new year of great luck, a small tangerine has become the people's talisman.

? Sugar cane

? Popular region: the northern region

? New Year's Eve is the time to eat sugarcane, and it symbolizes a high level of prosperity. It symbolizes people's hope to have a sweet year and good expectation for the coming year.

? Material lack of time, the choice of fruits and vegetables is relatively single, a few kinds of auspicious fruits and vegetables have always been the New Year's home regulars. Now the winter can also eat anti-seasonal fruits, coupled with the young people do not care so much to put out things must have certain auspicious symbols, naturally, the status of these New Year's exclusive fruits and vegetables gradually less important. Like dragon fruit, longan, snake fruit these or anti-season or imported fruits are more sought after.

? The southern rice cake, the northern sticky bean buns, is a childhood New Year's Eve to eat the characteristics of the high point, but because of the cooking process is more troublesome, coupled with the use of deep-fried New Year's Eve now less people will deliberately buy to eat, but the glutinous rice Q-bouncing taste as if still in the mouth aftertaste.

? Handmade rice cakes

? Popularity: Northern region

? Rice cakes are a must-have New Year's food because of their harmony with the word "nian gao" and their varied flavors. Rice cake has a north-south flavor difference, the taste of the northern rice cake is mainly sweet, or steamed or fried, can also simply dip sugar to eat. In addition to steaming, fried rice cakes in the South, there are still pieces of fried and boiled soup method, the flavor of sweet and salty.

? The traditional rice cakes are hand-beaten by adults in their childhood, but with the development of productivity, they have been replaced by frozen rice cakes in supermarkets and Korean rice cakes. You can buy rice cakes anytime you want, so handmade rice cakes are slowly fading out and have become a thing of the past in some areas.

? Sticky bean bun

? Popularity: Northern region

? Sticky Bean Buns" are also called "New Year Bean Buns" and as the name suggests, they are the meat and potatoes that are wrapped for the New Year. Most of them are made of yellow rice flour and filled with cowpeas, red beans or green beans. The yellow rice flour is ground from millets, and there are different varieties of millets, black millets, red millets, and their viscosity is very different in color, and the best shape is wide at the bottom and narrow at the top, smooth and rounded, and small and delicate. To be neatly arranged on the cover curtain, the taste is sweet and soft.

? Tangyuan

? Popularity: Southern region

? Soup dumplings, because it "floating" in the bowl, like a round of bright moon hanging in the sky, symbolizing the reunion of auspicious meaning, mainly the South people love to eat Chinese New Year food. It is made of glutinous rice flour with bean paste, nuts or meat filling. In the old days in Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas are also popular in the dumplings wrapped in a small money, who ate, who will have "good luck". Many regions are popular to eat dumplings, but Ningbo dumplings and Chengdu dumplings are the most famous.

? In the past, New Year's Eve was a time for the whole family to eat, and all kinds of New Year's dishes were prepared by hand, full of the joy of harvest and the taste of New Year's Eve. And now as people's living standards continue to improve, almost all year round in the supermarket can buy the previous in the New Year only eat things. And people are more and more the pursuit of health, the New Year's Eve dinner has reduced the greasy big fish and meat, and then "New Year's Eve" is also much lighter.

? Lap-mei

? Popularity: Southern region

? In the past, Lap-mei was particularly popular in the fall and winter seasons, and its unique flavor was formed after years of improvement and innovation. The color is bright, the taste is sweet and fresh, the aroma is unique, and the food feels crispy and delicious in the mouth.

? There are also preserved fish and duck, after the Lahai, basically every family has preserved fish and duck hanging outside the window. A month before the Spring Festival, people start to prepare for the New Year's goods, buy a few Wuchang fish and duck, wash and cut them along the back of the fish, and put the fried peppercorns evenly spread on the fish. So marinated, and then hang up the fish to dry, wait until New Year's Eve, it became a good wine dishes, "direct steam a steam can be eaten".

? Only now people's health awareness has become stronger, taking into account the preserved food, people eat less and less replaced by healthy and light fruits and vegetables.

? Handmade dumplings

? Popularity: Northern region