Chinese niangao vs Korean tteokbokki – which rice cake dish came first, and what’s the origin story of the tasty Lunar New Year staple?

Feb 12 , 2021

Korean and Chinese rice cakes – same same but different? Let the debate begin. Photos: Elaine Yau, Jonathan Wong

Cultural food fights aren’t new – as we recently learned from the great kimchi wars YouTubers Li Ziqi and Hamzy got caught up in

Nevertheless, Korean and Chinese rice cakes date back thousands of years, and both have their own claims to fame

The great kimchi debate – about whether the pickled cabbage dish is originally Korean or Chinese – last month drew millions of Chinese and Koreans to social media to defend the origin of the food staple, even prompting a minor online war involving Korea’s YouTube personality Hamzy and Chinese internet celebrity Li Ziqi.

Another food caught in the crosshairs of the online cultural food fight is the universally-beloved rice cake.

All the ingredients for Chinese-style rice cakes with zha choi and sliced pork. Photo: Jonathan Wong

A versatile dish made with glutinous rice flour and compressed or combined with another binding substance, rice cakes exist in various shapes and are particularly prevalent in Asian cuisines. Like pasta, they possess almost no flavour by themselves, but when cooked with sauces they retain their chewy texture and absorb their complementary favours.

Chinese rice cakes, or niangao, are made from pounded rice and have a sticky, chewy texture. Niangao’s origin story may date back to as many as 2,500 years ago to Suzhou during a chaotic period of war, which lasted from 722 to 481BC. The Wu Kingdom’s prime minister was first credited with shaping glutinous rice flour into bricklike shapes and saving his people from starvation when his kingdom was besieged.

Niangao lore also tells of a Beijing custom that involves eating rice cakes on the first day of Lunar New Year back in the Liao dynasty. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, niangao became a common staple, with different varieties developed in the north and south.

Niangao (rice cakes) can be eaten all year round but are traditionally eaten during Lunar New Year too. Photo: Jonathan Wong

One notable recipe found in southern China, particularly in Shanghai, involves stir-frying flat rice cakes with sliced pork, leafy greens and a sweet-savoury sauce consisting of soy sauce and sugar. While rice cakes can be eaten all year round, they are traditionally regarded as special dishes shared during Lunar New Year reunion meals, representing good luck and fortune as niangao is a homonym for “higher year”.

Meanwhile, literally translated as “stir-fried rice cake”, tteokbokki is a popular Korean street food that is made with small-sized garaetteok. Unlike the Chinese version that is sliced and flat, garaetteok is a long and cylindrically-shaped tteok, or rice cake, and has a significantly chewier bite than its Chinese counterpart.

Korean street-style spicy fried rice cake with dumplings from Roll & Mari in Tsim Sha Tsui. Photo: SCMP Archive

Chinese niangao vs Korean tteokbokki – which rice cake dish came first, and what’s the origin story of the tasty Lunar New Year staple?

Cultural food fights aren’t new – as we recently learned from the great kimchi wars YouTubers Li Ziqi and Hamzy got caught up in Nevertheless, Korean and Chinese rice cakes date back thousands of years, and both have their own claims to fame

Cultural food fights aren’t new – as we recently learned from the great kimchi wars YouTubers Li Ziqi and Hamzy got caught up in

Nevertheless, Korean and Chinese rice cakes date back thousands of years, and both have their own claims to fame