For sentimental reasons…

My girl said she would be o.k. with our meat-free Sarawak laksa…

…for lunch the other day, Friday so at the break of dawn, I went to the neighbourhood shop in the next lane to buy some of the ingredients that I needed. While I was there, I decided to pick up a few items for our breakfast.

I bought these kuih lenggang…

…three in a packet. That is the name we have always known it by, going all the way back to our childhood days. I don’t know if it is called thus in our family only or that is the name among the Sarawak Malays. In West Malaysia, they call it kuih ketayap, dadar gulong in Indonesia.

My late mum used to make her own all throughout my growing up years and unlike the ones sold outside, she never cooked the grated coconut filling with gula Melaka (palm sugar) and for sentimental reasons, we prefer it this way – plain/white with a sprinkling of sugar…

They used to make really good ones at another place here but I heard they are no longer doing it there. This one isn’t quite there – the skin is a bit too thick and rubbery and they are not very generous with the filling. Ah well! Beggars can’t be choosers – at least, we  can still get one that is decently o.k. here at this point in time.

The same would apply to the yew chang koi…

…that I also bought that morning.

In our younger days, everytime when we went to see a movie at the Lido Cinema…

…now a hotel after they rebuilt it when it was destroyed in a fire, we would go to that tricycle stall by the side and enjoy this at only 10 sen a bowl. They steamed them in those small enamel bowls and when we asked for one, they would cut squares in it using a bamboo spatula like we were going to play tic-tac-toe, pour the lovely sauce all over it…

…and hand it over to us to enjoy.

To me, this is something like our Foochow version of chee cheong fun and just like chee cheong fun, the texture must be right. Unfortunately, this one that I bought was at best around 80% only, not quite there but just as in the case of the kuih lenggang, we should be thankful we can still manage to buy some to enjoy. They had very nice ones at the pasar malam here and I did stumble upon the brother or somebody doing it at a coffee shop in town. I don’t know if they still have them at those places but during these troubled times when I am not all that keen on venturing out and going here and there, I would happily settle for what is not too bad though not the best.

My missus asked my girl to try it that morning but no, she did not think it was anything she would want to eat again – she would very much prefer some very nice chee cheong fun instead, she said…and she was not really into those kuih lenggang either. Sighhh!!!

SWEE HUNG (2.316161, 111.840441) is located along Jalan Ruby, in the block of shops on the right – next to a hair salon at the extreme end…and on the other end, to the left is the Kim Won Chinese Medical Store and Mini-supermarket.