Guangdong

Every year, when I return to my hometown in Fengkai, a tiny county in the western part of Guangdong province, to spend Lunar New Year with my parents, my mother will make me radish cake.

"If you eat radish cake in the beginning of the year, you will have good luck all year round," my mother tells me.

Luobo (radish) gao (cake) is homophonic to gaosheng as in bubu gaosheng or "every step brings a promotion".

My mother has always made radish cake for her children every spring festival as far as I can remember.

The savory dim sum with the auspicious name is typically served in restaurants in Guangdong province and in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions during the Lunar New Year which falls in the first week of February this year.

To the Cantonese, you have not celebrated the Lunar New Year unless you have already eaten radish cake.

Almost every family in the countryside will make the cake, and the sale of the snowy white, fat crisp root will peak during this season.

Radish cake is one of my favorite foods and it becomes even more delicious when it is dipped in chilli sauce.

Nutritionally, radishes contain reasonable amounts of vitamin C, folic acid and potassium, which like most other vegetables, make them heart-healthy.

It is a simple recipe, but it is time consuming, since the grated radish has to be steamed with rice flour slurry for about two hours until it is set.

Chinese sausages and salted strips of meat are first steamed, then diced and sliced before they are stir-fried with sliced mushroom, peanuts and roughly minced dried shrimps. When the steaming cake is almost done, this delicious topping is scattered on the cake, and steamed just a little while more to finish up.

Radish cakes can also be sliced and fried again for a crispy edge that caramelizes the radish to a delicious sweetness.

China Daily