CHAPTER 19 - MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD FOOD III

I confess I have a sweet tooth - especially for cakes and kuih. Everytime I pass an outlet selling cakes and especially kuih, I would find it hard to resist buying some. When we were children, most of the kuih we ate were all home made. I can still vividly recall the activities that surround me during festive occasions - the preparing of ingredients, the cooking and the steaming and baking of cakes and kuih.

To get rice flour for making glutinous dumpling (tang yuen), or making nien kuo, or even steamed rice cakes, we use a stone grinder to mill the rice till they turn to gooey consistency. Then the gooey rice would be put in a muslin cloth and left overnight to drip dry. The next day we would then use the dry product to make the kuih..etc...Of course, we children would be roped in to do the grinding. But those were happy times for we would gather round the family stove and chat away the hours. It was ardous work but we took turns to grind the rice, so the job was finished in no time.

I remember mum with her big tray of dough and filling and she would patiently make the kuih. Sometimes the neighbours would come to help and they would be given a share of the kuih. I would hang around to help to pat the dough into the moulds. Of course sometimes the filling would break out of the dough when I pat too hard - earning an earful of scolding !

Even today I get all excited when I see 'angkoo kuih'. These are kuih with mung bean filling in the shape of tortoise. Another version of angkoo kuih is one made from herbs and stuffed with sweetish saltish filling - called 'hiah kuih' (named after the 'hiah' herb). Another type of kuih that we used to make is called 'pung kuih'. Here the skin is made from rice flour instead of glutinous rice flour and the savory filling consist of glutinous rice cooked with meat and peanut.

Another childhood kuih was steamed egg cake. We made this cake in large portions - usually 30 eggs, a few katies of sugar and flour. No electric cake mixer - everyting was done by hand. We took hours to beat the eggs and sugar till they reached a creamy white consistency before adding the flour. Instead of using baking powder, grandma would pour a bottle of ice cream soda towards the end of beating the mixture. Then the mixture was poured into a large steamer basket and steamed for more than an hour (but it seemed hours to me). The finished product, when cooled is then sliced to different portions and sent as a part of gifts to friends and neighbours.

'Huat Kuih' or yeast rice cake was another common kuih we used to make. It was grandma's speciality. She made sure the cake cracked at the top to produce a 'smile' when done. It wasn't to my taste as I find the texture a bit sticky but grandma seemed to love munching on this cake. She would have her coffee and cake for her afternoon tea.

Kuih bahulu was another 'must have' during festive season, especially the Chinese New Year. My eldest sister, being the expert was tasked to this job. The batter for this kuih was carefully spooned into special moulds and baked in make-shift open oven. Oh, the aroma from the freshly baked kuih bahulu was just heavenly...!! And because my eldest sister was in charge, she was generous in letting us sample the products! There was the fish shape, the star shape, shapes with floral imprints. I always chose the fish shape - mainly because it seemed bigger than the other shapes.

Who could forget the crunch of 'kuih kapit' or love letters? We made tins of these delicous crunchy eats. After seeming endless beating to get the right gooey consistency, we would then gather round a specially-made charcoal stove to make the kuih kapit. My second sister was the expert here. She would prepare the stove, get ready the kuih kapit instruments and organised us for the task. One would spoon the batter on to the mould and place the instrument on the stove. Another would be tasked to turn the instruments over and check that they were done. Another would prise up the soft cooked batter and roll them or form them to triangular envelope shapes. It was a slow and tedious process and we worked till the wee hours of the morning.

Another good eat was the 'kuih ros' - so called because the mould produce rose-shaped crunchy bites. 'Kuih ros' was easier to make as the crunchy biscuits were fried, not baked. The special mould was dipped in rice batter and then dipped in hot boiling oil. Halfway through the frying, we had to prise the batter from the mould and they would be floating in the hot oil before they are scooped up and drained. We were experts in this as our batter produced very firm and crunchy biscuits. We were so good at making these biscuits that we made them for sale in our school bazaar.

We also bake cookies - the most common was the 'kuih bangkit'. It was made from tapioca flour, santan and sugar and eggs. The biscuits just melt in your mouth.

Steamed tapioca cake was a perenial favourite as the tapioca could be sourced from our own farm. We would grate the tapioca and mix with sugar and water and steam the tapioca mixture. If grandmother was feeling generous, we could add santan instead of just water to make a more fragrant cake. From tapioca mum sometimes made 'tapai' or fermented tapioca. Yeast was spread on top of cooled steamed tapioca and the tapioca would be kept in airtight pot and left to ferment for 3 to 5 days. The product was a sweetish, creamy,fermented dessert. Even today, each time I return home, dad would buy this sweet dessert for me.

We made rice puff biscuits(twice) and even peanut brittles (once only). But these goodies take a lot of work and the neighbours would pitch in to help to make these delicacies.

Due to work, parents nowadays prefer to buy cakes and cookies for their children. However I believe nothing beats the home-made version. Even though the fininished products may not be as good as store-bought ones, but the experience of having children participate in the making of these cakes and biscuits will be beneficial to their total life experience. The memories of messing around in the kitchen with mummy will be indelible in their memories.