It’s not too late…

My girl loved the chai kuih…

…that I bought from here a few times but lately, when I stopped by the shop, they were not available.

I used to walk over from the pharmacy when I went there on Saturday mornings, before 8.00 a.m., to stock up on my prescriptions. The last few times I went and checked the place out, it was a Sunday, I think and I was told that the nyonya kuihs would not be available on Sundays and Mondays so I went on a Tuesday and there was none as well. That was Hari Raya and I thought it was because of the public holiday.

Finally, it dawned on me that at around 7.00 a.m., I was way too early. That was why after I had gone to get my car washed that morning…

…at around 8.00 a.m., I drove to the shop and yes, to my delight, the kuihs were available.

Thankfully, it was not too late as there were only two packets of the chai kuih and one or two of the rest left…

There was the kuih lenggang or what they call ketayap over in the peninsula…

…but I was not keen on buying those.

As I was taking those that I wanted, a lady came and it seemed like she wanted what I wanted as well so I quickly grabbed all that tickled my fancy and left the rest for her to sapu (sweep). Gee! It was still so early in the morning and they were all sold out!!!

The serimuka/kuih salat…

…was all right by our local standard, a lot nicer than all the rest sold all over town, but paled in comparison with the nice ones in Kuching.

I think I liked the kao teng koi (9-layer cake)…

…a bit more.

In comparison, I would give full marks to the chiew chu koi (tapioca cake)…

It was very nicely done – the texture was perfect and it was lemak (rich with santan/ coconut milk) enough.

The kim kua koi (pumpkin cake)…

…with its lovely hint of the hay bee (dried prawns) in it got our thumbs up as well. I certainly would want to buy these two again the next time I see any on sale here.

I am not so sure but it seemed to me that these kuihs available on Tuesdays and Saturdays only came from a different source, not the same as the one I always featured in my previous posts on them. They are mono-lingual at that shop so our conversations are always limited to some very basic stuff, no thorough discussion possible.

On a previous visit, I bought the Portuguese egg tarts from the shop and I did see my girl eating and enjoying them. That was why I walked over to the glass display cabinet to see what they had and yes, because I came a little bit later that morning, there were a whole lot of things already ready.

I asked for one blueberry egg tart…

…for my girl to try. It turned out that she liked it a lot – there was a lot of blueberry inside, she said. I did not get to try it myself but yes, since she enjoyed it, I certainly would buy more for her the next time I go to that shop.

HONG KONG PUFF is located along Ramin Way (2.291180, 111.826634), beside Sin Kiaw Coffee Shop, right behind the Petronas station at Kpg Nyabor Road (formerly Esso) across the road from the HSBC Building, Sibu branch.