Food I grew up with

Food I grew up with

Everyone who sent me birthday greetings, THANK YOU.  I have nothing planned, but quite a few people told me I must do something special. 

Suddenly I remembered a snack, which I used to go absolutely crazy over.  Mom never allowed me to have junk food, i.e. those that were sold in supermarkerts or at corner shops because of two reasons: (1) they are not good for health, (2) we couldn't afford to pick up that dietary habit.  Therefore that was the end of it, no arguments from either side.  Today, I rarely have any junk food at home, friends who have visited or stayed with me will know... I have nothing at home to munch on, safe "proper" food. 

As a child, I have one "snack" which my mom allowed, muah chee.  I can't even begin to describe it; the closest food item that most people could readily identify would be Turkish Delights.  They used to cost RM0.30 for a small helping, that's about 6-pence (exchange rate of equivalent period).  They used to be sold by food vendors who carried their delicious food in big wicker baskets.  They usually have two baskets, each tied to an end of a long bamboo pole, which they carried on their shoulders.  It was not muah chee alone that was sold this way.  Name any Penang hawker food, and you could get it that way, except char koay teow which had to be stir-fried on the spot, cooked to  the exact order of customers, thus requiring a "fixed" venue.  In those days, you don't have to go to a Hawker Centre or a kopitiam to eat them.  These vendors went from door to door, calling out the food items they were selling.  Neither was this trade the sole monopoly of the Straits Chinese. 

Muah chee, see recipe at the end of this entry.

There was the tok tok mee seller, who announced his arrival by hitting on sticks to create a rhythm, tik tik tok, each seller had their own variation; very much like one could identify church bells in England by their sound and rhythm (all the "peals" of church bells I've heard in Malaysia were made by electric bells similar to those rung in newly constructed schools to announce the start and end of a school day).  There were the Hokkien mee sellers who will always sell Loh Mee as well.  Then there were the Laksa (the Penang tangy, non-lemak variety) sellers.  (I stand to be corrected, Penang Laksa, cooked by a Penangite smells and tastes so much better, even today.  I tried to have Penang Laksa in other parts of Malaysia, cooked by non-Penangites.  I could tell they were not Penangites by the way they spoke.  Suffice to say, they have put me off Penang Laksa outside of Penang).  Not to be outdone were the Koay Teow Theng seller who sold Bee Thai Bak as well.  Each item usually cost RM0.80, about 16 pence.  Later, some went around with a motorcycle, that naturally came with a price increase!

Unlike muah chee, which is a snack, most hawker foods are balanced meals, all have vegetables, meat/fish and starch in the same dish.  Other snacks include bangkwang (sengkuang in Malay), sliced into 1/4 inch thickness, with a liberal amount of rojak paste and some chilli, and roastd peanuts and roasted sesame seed on the surface.  The seller would poke one or two toothpicks (clean ones!) at the centre on the underside of the piece of bangkwang.  It's yours for RM0.10 (tuppence).  Of course, no Penangite worth his/her salt can deny having known of rojak, not the rojak in other parts of Malaysia, served with gravy(!).  Penang rojak, until today, consists of fresh fruits and vegetables, sometimes garnished with some taupok (a soy-product) and sotong (cut-up pieces of octopus).  The fresh ingredients are bangkwang, jambu air (locals simply call it jambu), unripe mango, pineapple, cucumber, and sometimes nangka.  Then the entire platter is dressed with a liberal amount of rojak sauce (made with otak udang and chilli and some sugar), and sprinkled with an equally liberal amount of roasted, grounded peanuts.  All for what used to be RM0.50 (50 pence).  I'm taking a wild guess, it should be about RM3.00 now. 

The sellers of all the foods described above were all Chinese.  Then there were the Indian Muslims, we called Keling or Mamak (I'm not going to blog about the difference here, and they WERE NOT derogatory terms then) who sold karipap, goreng pisang and martabak, served with pickled onions, a specialty only Penangites could identify with.  These sellers would put all their wares, always piping hot, on a huge flat, round, wicker tray, called talam, on their heads.  They usually cushioned the trays with a thick wad of white towel on their heads.  They walked around from door to door, shouting in a loud sing-song manner, "Kueh, kueh, kueh".  Each piece was about 2 - 3 kupang, depending on size and market competition.  3 kupang is Penang Malay for 30 sen (RM0.30). 

There were also the kuih sellers who sold kuih talam, kuih lapis and other kuihs in that manner. 

Then, there were Indians selling putu mayong, sometimes the same person would also sell apong balik (putu mayam and apam balik in other parts of Malaysia). 

All the above would usually call between lunch and dinner. 

There was only one type of food vendor who would call after dinner.  That was the bread man.  Breadmen were usually Indians.  (I shall blog about the almost exclusive monopoly of the Indian milkmen at another time).  They would sell Bengali roti, a type of bread that is SO NICE and cheap, yet today, one couldn't get it in any bakery in Malaysia even if one offers to pay through the nose.  We usually bought two loaves, both still warm.  One would be cut into four straight away, the vendor will slap on each piece a generous spread of margrine and kaya (coconut jam) and we'll eat it straight away.  The other loaf is for breakfast on the next day, usually eaten with a generous spread of margarine (never butter), sometimes sprinkled with fine sugar, other times with kaya, or other times just margarine, or for adults, just plain roti dipped into hot, steaming kopi-o-kau.  Children in my family weren't allowed to have coffee before our 12th birthdays because mom did not want our developing brains to be affected by caffeine.  Each loaf was R0.40 (8 pence).  It would cost double that amount if we asked the vendor for margarine and kaya. 

For all this mobile vendoring, cases of food poisoning in those days were VERY RARE.  Nowadays, occasionally one reads of (sometimes fatal) food poisoning from hawker foods sold at hawker centres. 

Gosh, that was such a long time ago.  The last time I had muah chee was when I was around 15.  It wasn't so much of me falling out of love with it, nobody seemed to be selling them anymore.  Then, when I was about 25, I was walking past one hawker centre in Gurney Drive, this hawker stall holder was selling them for a whopping RM2.00.  I couldn't bring myself to buy it.  The last loaf of Bengali roti I bought was about 10 years ago.  I believe the bread man has since retired and nobody would like to continue the trade. 

A hawker centre at Gurney Drive, Penang. Photo copyright of Tour East Malaysia.

So, in keeping with my friends' suggestion that I do something special for my birthday, this weekend I shall make my own muah chee.  Biow posted a beautiful picture and recipe, which I have reproduced here.  Do visit the blog, or for the recipe, click on this archive link. 

150g glutinous rice flour (Biow recommends the Elephant Brand, if you are not in Asia, don't get stampeded trying to get it). 
240ml water
1 tablespoon onion oil (buy or fry some onion to get the oil)
grounded, roasted peanut with sugar (my personal opinion, buy whole nuts, roast them, and coursely pound or food-process them). She recommends 2:1 for the ratio of grounded peanut to sugar.  Do adjust, and feel free to put less sugar to suit your taste.

1.  Grease a tray with onion oil, set aside.
2.  Mix glutinous rice powder together with water to form a smooth mixture.
3.  Pour mixture into the oiled tray.
4.  Steam for about half hour.  Use a chopstick (or a skewer, or just any stick you use to poke a "being-baked-cake") to test for firmness, which is when it's done.
5.  Cut out the muah chee when it's warm and roll the pieces onto the prepared grounded peanut-sugar mix.  (The size of each piece is roughly about the same size a 50p coin, if you are in the UK.  An alternative object of comparison would be slightly bigger than the biggest Malaysian coin).   
6.  I like them warm, I think it brings the best out of the muah chee.

Enjoy!