Surprisingly so…

That day, when my ex-student/lawyer friend, Louis, went out of his way to drive to my house to send me the sio bee and the changs (meat dumplings) that he had bought from a coffee shop here, he told me that among the latter, there was one that was different – they told him it was kacang (nuts).

I was wondering what that actually was. At the non-Chinese stalls, when they tell you there is kacang in the buns or dumplings, chances are that would be or tao sar (red/black bean paste) or ang tao (red beans) and very rarely, it would be sweetened crushed peanuts. Nonetheless, I decided to save it, along with the rest, till the actual day. With the horrendous pandemic dragging on and on like it is never going to end and the so-called full lockdown extended till the end of the month, I had no intention of going out to buy and this way, at least, we would have some to enjoy to preserve our heritage, our tradition, our culture.

In the meantime, my friend, Rose, in Kuching blogged about the ones that she had including some Hakka chang here and also once again, here. Oh? So they’re traditionally Hakka, eh? As far as I know, the old couple running the coffee shop and making the changs and the sio bee are Hainanese/Hailam.

That morning, I took them all out of the freezer to steam and heat them up and when they were ready, I took the kacang one…

…to see what it was like.

Inside, there were lots of kacang…

…and when I tried them, I found them to be soft like the stewed/braised ones that they sell in cans or serve at the Chinese restaurants. Nice, very nice!

When I looked inside, much to my surprise, I saw that it had meat…

…as well, not just kacang.

Yes, there was quite a lot of meat…

…and a bit of shitake mushroom too and I must say that I really liked the taste as a whole.

Gee! Should the situation improve and I am able to go out again, I certainly would make my way to that coffee shop to grab some more to enjoy!

SIN KIAW CAFE (2.291287, 111.826611) is located along Ramin Way, the first shop on your right as you turn in from Jalan Kampung Nyabor, right behind the petrol station located at the bend.