Eat the Gaos (rice cakes) for a happy new year

Chinese New Year (also called Spring festival) 2015 is coming.The Chinese people at the four corners of the world will celebrate this most important festival during the year.  I suggest you going to Chinatown to experience and enjoy the festival ambiance. It does not matter that you don't know Chinese characters. You only need to buy those articles or foods packed with red covers or labeled with red colors, which are specially made for the festival. That means, after the holiday, you will probably not find them on the store shelves. If you like them, you have to wait for the next year. There is no exception in Hongkong-style pastry shops. The special pastries for the spring festival are labeled in red tags with golden fonts. There are a large variety of steamed cakes, such as water-chestnut cakes, sticky rice cakes, radish (Lobuo) cakes. These are must-buy New year's foods for the people in Hongkong and Canton since cake in Chinese (Gao) is pronounced the same as high. Thus these cakes become the lucky foods. People believe eating these cakes can bring them good lucks, such as having a promotion or a better life for the coming year. People share them with their family members, or friends to express their best wishes. Usually these cakes are  steam-cooked before the festival and then they are frozen to keep for a longer time. You know the coming month after the Chinese New year is a long period of celebration. People are busy visiting their relatives, their friends, or doing sight-seeing or window-shopping, these frozen cakes which are already prepare before the new year by the laborious housewives will save people a lot of time. The cakes can be served hot or cold. To reheat them, they can be resteamed or pan-fried after being cut into slices. They can be savory or sweet with various ingredients and decorations. So when you go into the pastry shop, look for them in the fridge. Each of them is packed in a large round box. If you think it is too big for a first-time buyer who is not sure whether he will like it or not, you can try them offered as dimsums in the Hongkong-style tea restaurant.