My daughter loves it more than many of the fried stuff sold at the shops here in Sibu but personally, I’m not really crazy about it…and if you’re wondering what I’m talking about, it’s char pek koi, literally translated as fried white cake.
This is the char pek koi (fried white cake) at this coffee shop in Rejang Park here in Sibu…
Pek koi is actually rice cake and you can buy them packed in plastic bags at the local supermarkets and grocery stores but you will have to soak the pieces in water overnight to soften them before cooking. My missus tried once but by the next day, they were still not soft and she stubbornly went ahead and fried them. Needless to say, the result was disastrous and she never tried cooking them again. They say that there is a particular brand now whereby you will not need to soak them so much to get them soft but unfortunately, I cannot remember which type or brand they were talking about.
After all, like I said, I don’t really like this dish as I find those thick pieces of pek koi…
…a bit too hard for my liking. Well, it’s not exactly hard but sort of springy or chewy…and given a choice, I would much rather have kway teow (flat rice noodles). In fact, I had their char kway teow once and it was pretty good but I think the ones that I had here were better.
As for the char pek koi…
…I would prefer those that I had here.
Whatever it is, they’re pretty good really and should be worth having if one happens to be in the vicinity instead of going all the way to the other places to have these same things…and if you’ve never heard of or seen pek koi before, perhaps you would like to give it a try? Who knows, like my daughter, you may like it…the way she loves it!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 