Chinese New Year Goodies

My mom’s side of the family came from a line of people with culinary skills.

My mom told me that my grandfather learnt from his neighbour in his village ways of making certain pastries right after World War 2. My mom was born in the mist of the war in the village. She told me that she was held by Japanese soldiers during the occupation but because they were living in the remote area, not much harm were done.

Anyway, my grandfather went on to create a business for himself and his family and it supported my mom and aunts thru their education. Since my grandfather passed away, my uncle and aunt had been helping my grandmother with the business.

They used to make 3 kinds of pastries. One is flour mixed with water and laced with lots of peanuts on top. Its fried twice later for that crunchy goodness. The next pastry is made from butter, flour and sugar. Its more of like a cookie, but you do have to get the ingredients right. The best part is that the oven is a classic cast iron oven with charcoal on top of it. No gas oven here.

Last but not least, its a kind of crunchy peanut sweet thingy made from caramel and peanuts. It does take a lot of efforts to create this and I think they dropped this since my grandfather passed away.

All these were distributed to some of the major coffeeshops in Kuching. Its sold over the counter, perfect for an afternoon snack with coffee or tea. So if you happen to see them there, its most probably made by my family there.

One story that I was told about my grandfather’s business skill was that once, there was a competitor who wanted to get into the market. He would approach the coffeeshops that we are selling to and offer to sell at a lower price. When my grandfather found out, he went to those coffeeshops and took away all the products that we have. He told the shop owner that its either our pastries or no pastries. In the end, the coffeeshops actually declined the competitor and we are back in business.

My first aunt is well verse with cooking with her pots and pans. She can make stuff without using a lot of oil and yet taste good. I remember when I was young, she wanted to teach me ways of making pizzas and ice cream, but I think I never took up those lessons.

My third aunt has more or less created a name among her friends with her own pastries. Besides helping my grandfather, she makes stuff like shortcakes, cheese sticks and others for sale. Usually during the festive period. When my parents went back to visit them a week ago, my mom told me that my aunt was really busy from 4am till 11pm.

Here are two of the homemade stuff that she gave me.

This is shortbread, made from butter, flour and sugar. She had been making this for the longest time and its one of the best seller. When you bite into it, you can taste the goodness of the butter and the sweetness is not overwhelming. Taste good with a pot of tea or coffee.

Her original cheese sticks. Blocks of Kraft Cheddar Cheese are cut into small pieces and mixed in with the dough. Then some pepper is added for that spicy tinge. Each stick is individually placed onto a pan and then oven baked for the crunchy goodness.

Its so good that once you eat it, you won’t stop. I didn’t really want to stop. There is nothing in the market compared to this, really.

This isn’t created by my family, but every year, my brother would order a big tin of these things for each of the family. It cost around $50 for a big tin. Its actually a malay dish, made with flour, peanuts, ikan bilis and spices like cumin. Then its deep fried and its damn crunchy. Goes really well with beer. Although this year I think the standard dropped.

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.