ALL ABOUT NIEN GAO

Having just celebrated the Gregorian new year, I am now making preparations to celebrate the Chinese lunar new year which falls on the 31st of December 2014. Chinese of the Taoist faith would be buying Nien Gao (nin gou in Cantonese). Nien Gao is also referred to as year cake or Chinese New Year's cake. It is made from glutinous rice. The Chinese consider it good luck to eat nian gao during the lunar new year, because "nian gao" is a homonym for "higher year." The Chinese word 粘 (nián), meaning "sticky", is identical in sound to 年, meaning "year", and the word 糕 (gāo), meaning "cake" is identical in sound to 高, meaning "high or tall". As such, eating nian gao has the symbolism of raising oneself higher each year (年年高升 niánnián gāoshēng). This is one of the mandatory offerings to the Kitchen God before he makes his annual trip to Heaven to make his report about the household to the Jade Emperor. It is hoped that after feasting on nian gao the mouth of the Kitchen God will be stuck with the sticky cake, so that he wouldn't be able to make a bad report to the Jade Emperor.

Basically there are two types of nien gao, those that are handmade (see the cakes wrapped in banana leaves in the first picture) and those that are made by machines (those that are wrapped in plastic in the second picture).  Most certainly, the handmade ones are much more expensive.

LINK