The Chinese New Year Snack Guide

Most of these snacks appear once a year during Chinese New Year (CNY) so who cares if three pineapple tarts is equal to eating one bowl of rice? If you go CNY visiting, all these snacks will be laid out like a buffet. You will find these snacks being sold everywhere. Don’t be shy to ask to sample the tarts before you decide to buy. *Yay!* (We visited Chinatown and picked out our favourite snacks as well – watch!)
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1. Pineapple tarts

Pineapple tarts are like the queen of CNY snacks. The pineapple filling is either on top of, or wrapped in the buttery melt-in-you-mouth pastry. As Pringles says it, once you pop, you can't stop. The Chinese love pineapples because in the Hokkien dialect, the words 'pineapple' and 'wealth' are homonyms.
*A box of pineapple tarts makes a great souvenir. During non-CNY periods, you can get them at any of the Bengawan Solo stores.
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2. Bak kwa

​Bak kwa stands for meat slices. Originally, bak kwa was just available in pork, but now you can get chicken bak kwa too. The barbecued meat is fragrant and sweet and the slightly burnt portions portions give it an extra oomph. Buy bak kwa early before CNY, if not join the queue for an hour or more to get these!

​3. Love letters

These are plain wafer thin rolls that we love because it’s a light snack. The batter is heated on a mould with Chinese symbols and characters and then quickly rolled before they cool. 

4. Prawn rolls

Deep fried crispy rolls wrapped around spicy dried prawn floss.

We share the snacks we love at Chinatown!

​5. Kueh bangkit

Kueh bangkit is a sweet, melt-in-your-mouth floury cookie!

​6. Nian gao
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Nian gao is a stick and chewy glutinous rice cake. It is mostly prepared at home so you might get to eat this if you are invited to a friend's place for CNY. It is normally prepared with a slice of yam or sweet potato, dipped together in a batter and then fried.

7. Kok chai (peanut puffs)

These seem to be getting a little out of sight these days, but we love it! This snack is shaped like a miniature curry puff, and the crunchy pastry is filled with sugar and crushed peanut.

7. Kueh lapis

Kueh lapis is a favourite any time of the year but they surface in almost every home during CNY. It is a layered cake painstakingly and patiently baked to achieve the beautiful brown layers.

Photo source: http://bengawansolo.com.sg

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