Well, no, not really.
In an old recipe book that I bought for my missus a long long time ago, they call it “Chinese sponge cake“…
I think we call it kay nerng kor here or egg cake, the same name that we use to call these…
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…but even if basically the ingredients are the same, the one that we called lung ngor in Foochow, is baked in an oven and the other is steamed.
The Malays have their kuih bahulu…
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…but I do not know if they are baked in an electric oven now as well or they still use the traditional brass molds and bake the cake over burning hot charcoal. I remember in the old days they came in various designs and I particularly remember the one in the shape of a fish.
Then there is this variation of the steamed egg cake or kay nerng kor – what we call bak koi or meat cake…
My aunt in Kuching, or my maternal uncle’s wife, to be exact, makes the nicest bak koi…
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…but she is in Kuching and I am here in Sibu so I will only get to enjoy hers when I go over…or sometimes, she will send to me when there is somebody coming over here.
What makes this different from the usual plain steamed kay nerng kor would be the minced meat in the middle and the fried shallots on top…
…but of course, the ones that my aunt makes would be far nicer, very very far as she would be so much more generous with those two added ingredients.
Well, I guess beggars can’t be choosers so I will just have to be happy with the one I can get here (2.316156, 111.840448) at the fruit & vegetable shop along Jalan Ruby, sharing a shop lot with a hair salon at the other end of the block where Kim Won Chinese Medical Store is, where I buy those nice Sarikei Nestum-coated with peanut butter filling mochi. A quarter of the whole thing like this…
…is selling for RM5.50 each and though it may not be THE best, I would say it is pretty nice.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
I’m keen to try any variation of kuih bahalu. I could eat 10 pieces of kuih bahalu in one sitting, no problem 😉
Good grief!!! I think I would stop at 3 or 4 to the most. 😀
I am totally unfamiliar with any of this. Thank you so much for sharing. 🙂
Come to think of it, are there sponge cakes or chiffon cakes there? Seems like most cakes over at your side are the heavy ones…and I find them very sweet.
I have never seen bak koi before. Your aunt’s version is loaded.
Indulgent, eh? But that’s what makes it nicer. Hehehehehe!!!!
Bak koi???…something new & interesting to me. I have never come across or seen bak koi at the kuih stall over here. Usually they are selling the normal kay nerng kor. I guess the taste of bak koi should be savoury & sweet.
No? Oh? Maybe only in Sibu? It is not very sweet, kurangkan gula…and then you can get to enjoy the salty taste of the meat with the added fragrance of the fried shallots. It sure adds a lot more enjoyment to the regular somewhat-very-plain kay nerng kor.
I’ve never had the bak koi, though I wish I could try it. The others I remember well.
Seems it’s not so commonly found elsewhere. Even here, it is not that easily available.
I have tried the meat cake before… but I cannot recall where, no, not in Sibu, it was in Ipoh but I cannot remember who bought or made it… hahahaa…. talking about golden age…
You need gingko biloba! I think my memory is still very good. Hehehehehe!!!
When i saw the recipe book, i thought you gonna made it… hehe…
Don’t you know by now that I never follow recipes? I am very old school, like my mum and aunts – all agak-agak one.