Miserable…

These are called chai koi, literally translated to mean vegetable cake…

…and are sold at a makeshift stall (along with all the bread, buns, cakes and so  on) on the pavement in front of one of the very few shops along Jalan Ruby here round the corner from my house.

They certainly look miserable, don’t they? But as they say, looks can be deceiving and they’re quite nice really. The skin is soft and chewy, not hard or elastic or rubbery, and it looks kind of thick and non-translucent. From the look of it, these are homemade by some amateur who isn’t exactly an expert at it – even the sizes are not the same.

Despite the fact that he or she is not very generous with the filling…

…they are actually quite tasty and I liked them enough to go and buy a second time.

Of course, they can’t compare with the HUGE ones that my cousins once brought me from Kuching – big, with a whole lot of ingredients in the filling. If I can recall correctly, there was meat and hay bee (dried prawns)…and even salted vegetables in them. I don’t know how much those cost but these…

are only 3 for RM1.00.

Actually, in my humble opinion, sometimes when you overdo things and go overboard, it may not work out too well (like the tomyam kampua noodles) and at times, it is best to keep things simple and nice. I do wish they would make them a little bigger though and have a little bit more filling inside…and maybe sell them for 50 sen each.