TIKOY

Filed Under Cebu Food-trip Adventures, Cebu's Pride

It’s tikoy time!

KUNG HEI FAT CHOI

Brown tikoy

Chinese New Year is fast approaching and tikoys are starting to flood along the shelves of our local supermarkets.

Tikoy is that sticky Filipino-Chinese delicacy made from glutinous rice flour, corn flour, and sugar. To prepare, just cover it with beaten egg and fry. Another way to enjoy tikoy is to slice it into long and thin pieces, wrap with lumpia, and fry.

Tikoy is the best-selling giveaway during the Chinese New Year in the Philippines. I remember we used to have only one kind of tikoy. That was the white one. These days, we can find brown tikoy, ube tikoy, pandan tikoy, strawberry tikoy, corn tikoy, sesame tikoy, peanut tikoy, and even tikoy lite.

Tikoy reminds me of mooncakes. I got my first mooncake in Hong Kong year 2001. Mooncakes are popular giveaways in Mooncake Festival or Lantern Festival; also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival in China and other Chinese communities in the world.

Tikoy don’t look exactly like mooncakes because mooncakes are comparable to “hopia”, but they are just as valued during the two most important events in a Lunar calendar; the Chinese or Lunar New Year and the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Mooncakes come in a fancy tin box, but tikoys are humbly packed in plastic and covered in a cheap carton box. Tikoys are sticky and made from flour and rice. Mooncakes come with a thick lotus seed paste, sweet bean paste or sometimes yolks from salted duck eggs filling. Tikoys are oily, but yummy. On the other hand, mooncakes are kinda salty, sweet, and smelling funny.

special white tikoy

The tikoy is a famous give-away during the Chinese New Year in the Philippines . It is usually eaten steamed, fried, fried with eggs or even as it is, cold and sticky. It is made from glutinous rice flour and sugar, the type of sugar usually determines the color, hence the white and brown varieties.

Unlike in the Philippines, the tikoy is not as much celebrated here in Singapore (compared to yusheng, gold ingots and Mandarin oranges). Known elsewhere as Nian Gao, which translates to “New Year Cake.” In Chinese, Gao is a homonym for high. Nian Gao is also called Nian Nian Gao, which is a homonym for “higher each year”, symbolizing progress and promotion at work and in daily life and improvement in life year by year.

there are so many kinds of tikoy.. evolved from the simplest tikoy which is the plain white no flavoured tikoy. since then after tikoy now has its own different colours and flavour..