Wasn’t like that…

I don’t know why we seldom cooked ang tao (red bean) – most of the time, we would have let tao (green bean or mung bean) to ciak liang because they are believed to have cooling properties.

After I got married, it became even rarer as my missus has some kind of allergy, dunno if it is psychological or what but everytime she eats anything with or tao sar (black/red bean paste), she feels giddy so she would never touch those red beans. As a matter of fact, she is not really a fan of the green ones or anything with mung bean paste either.

Talk about being incompatible, I, on the other hand, love anything with mung bean paste like those tau sar peah and how I enjoy eating those big and plump ang koo kueh with lots of mung bean paste filling inside and everytime I drop by here, I would order their ang tao peng (iced red bean)…

…my favourite in town – they’re very generous with the santan (coconut milk) and the gula Melaka (palm sugar) and I love how their beans are always perfectly done, so soft and mushy and yet, still whole and not all lumped together like some kind of paste.

Now, sometime in the midst of the MCO partial lockdown, I went and bought a packet of red beans but if I remember correctly, it wasn’t like that at all before. There were very red in colour, very beautiful…

…while the red beans that I used to know were of a dull red colour and bigger.

I guess there are different varieties. They use the bigger ones…

…at that popular cendol and ang tao peng place in Kuching. and I am fine with those. If I am not mistaken, the ones in Penang are even bigger…

…and I am o.k. with those too as long as they are not the salty variety – some places use those huge kidney -shaped red beans that I do not quite enjoy.

Anyway, back to the red beans that I bought, I had a bit left so I soaked them in water and put them in the slow cooker with some pandan leaves, knotted…

…and added brown sugar to the soup according to taste.

After hours of slow cooking, they were ready but somehow or other, they were not as soft and mushy…

…as I would like them to be. Even the taste was a bit different, not like the ang tao way back in the good old days. While I was eating it, I was telling myself that I might as well be eating let tao and I would enjoy it  a lot more.

Ah well! At least I’ve managed to finish the whole pack! One thing’s for sure, I shall not be buying anymore ever again – after all, I am the only one in the house eating it so if ever I feel like it, I can simply go to the shops for a bowl, the whole works, and be done with it.

The SIBU THOMSON CORNER (2.296517, 111.840710) is located at Pusat Tanahwang, right across the road from Sacred Heart Secondary School, Oya Road.