Tikoy is to Chinese New Year as fiesta ham is to Filipinos for Christmas. It’s difficult to imagine a Chinese New Year celebration without the sticky rice cakes being sold in shops and supermarkets everywhere. Even among Filipinos, it is customary to give colleagues and business partners a box or two of tikoy during this time of the year, even though we don’t exactly celebrate the Chinese New Year.
Upon purchase, you’ll see that the tikoy comes in a small, sticky, cake-like shape (some tikoys even come in unusual shapes, like the koi tikoy from the Mandarin Hotel). The way to prepare tikoy is to slice it into thin pieces (like luncheon meat), dip the tikoy pieces into a bowl of beaten eggs, and fry it in a small, non-stick pan with very little oil. Freshly-fried tikoy is best enjoyed with green tea but be warned - this is a very sticky, very chewy pastry!
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