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.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
This 2 types of kuih, chai kuih and kao teng kuih are my favourites too. I am happy I have very nice ones near my place. Over here, chai kuih 90 sen/pc. and kao teng kuih 80sen/pc. I prefer steamed tapioca to tapioca cake.
My mum made tapioca cake quite often when I was small and we would eat tapioca steamed with gula apong (mixed with a bit of lard) but I would not say I was crazy about either one of them. Now that I’ve grown a whole lot older, I enjoy them both!
Will surely buy if I see any fresh tapioca at the neighbourhood shops – thankfully, theirs are generally quite nice. White though – I prefer the yellow ones.
I dunno the prices of those that I bought that morning – I did not bother to ask,
so happy to see them available, just grabbed and ran! LOL!!!
I am not sure about this, is chai kuih Hakka? Cos we don’t seem to have chai kuih in my little kampung.
But they do have this kuih in Kulai, where there’s a huge Hakka population.
Over in Kulai, you can have chai kuih with Chinese chives and eggs stuffing or mang guang (sengkuang).
We do have mang guang kuih in my kampung, it’s a Teochew kuih, like ang gu kuih, ang tao kuih, etc.
Wrapping style differs from chai kuih but taste wise rather similar. As the name suggests, mang guang kuih only comes with mang guang. No Chinese chives (jiu chai).
I haven’t the slightest idea! Pretty sure chai kuih is not Foochow though.
In my growing up years, we had these what I categorise as “nyonya kuih” being made and sole by sarong kebaya-clad Hokkien ladies here.
Hakka, Teochew – they were mostly in Kuching side and yes, they had all these kuihs there.
I dunno mang kuang kuih (I thought you all call it sengkuang? We call in mangkuang here!)
but that is what you can find in chai kuih…mostly, with thin strips of carrot perhaps. I think there used to be tiny bits of tofu long ago, not sure but no, no chives – those will be sui jiao or whatever you call those dumplings -my girl loves those too!
OK, I know now. It’s actually Teochew, just like the other chewy kuihs.
Sengkuang is a Malay word, right? We usually call it mang guang too, just like you folks out there.
There’s another Teochew kuih called soon kuih, I think you might have this kuih in Sibu too.
Similar to our chai kuih here with added bamboo shoot strips.
If you go to proper dim sum restaurant, you can find Teochew fan guo (similar to your chai kuih in shape but with carrot, peanuts, coriander etc inside). Do you know ang tao kuih (red peach kuih, sweet mung bean one)? There’s another type, the pek tao kuih (white peach kuih, savoury). This white one got glutinous rice, dried shrimp and peanuts inside.
Gosh!!! So many different types! This is Foochow territory, not so into those sticky kuihs – I don’t know any of those though I may have heard of soon kuih before. Don’t think I’ve tried though – I do not eat bamboo shoots. I only know this chai kuih that we have here, that’s all.
My favourites are the chai kuih and the tapioca cake. The blueberry tart looks beautiful and yummy.
They were all very good…except perhaps the serimuka – room for improvement, not the best I’ve had, that one!
I always LOVE seeing the Palm Trees near you! We don’t have them here in the North States of the US.
Those are planted – coconut trees. There are a lot of palm plants too here, a wide variety.
I love all these kuehs but over at my end it is quite hard to find the really good old school types. I have tried a few sold near my office but they all pale in comparison to the ones my grandaunts used to make. So I don’t bother buying anymore. When I was a child, I thought that chai kuih was horrible hah..hah… but I appreciate them now.
I do enjoy Lulu’s and Nyonya Colours but they are rather expensive. I hear there is a stall at that place in Paramount, selling all these kuihs, all very nice. My friend did show me a shop close by but I was too full then so I did not want to stop by and check that place out.
I love how affordable it is to have your car washed here. In Australia, it costs a bomb!
Oh? I wonder how much one would need to pay. That is why I get them to do it for me – three or four boys doing it, will get it done in no time at all. Would take ages if I were to do it myself.