Travel Tips

I guess this page is dedicated to the chef of my family - my Grandmother. She loves making great desserts, cakes, traditional kuehs (also referred as small sweet cakes). Presenting to you: the Ang Ku Kueh!

Ang Ku Kueh is one of the Chinese traditional cakes. it's a layer of sticky dough that has filling like "tau sa" (meaning bean paste), peanut or coconut etc... It's part of the dessert, if i recall.
Here's the breakdown of the definition :-
"Ang" = Red
"ku" = Tortoise
"Kueh" = Cake (small cake)

Well, Red Tortoise Cake definitely sounds wierd. Well, it's usually red in colour (red symbolizes prospertiy and good luck), and the shape of this cake resembles that of the shell of a tortoise. I guess that's how we have Ang Ku Kueh. (this is the Hokkien Dialect)

THe picture you see here is an uncooked Ang Ku Kueh. Ang Ku Kuehs have to be steamed in order to cook them. The character on the kueh is pronounced as "Shou" (in a high sharp tone) meaning longevity.

Translation:
Huat = Fa (in mandrin)= To prosper
In mandrin, it's called the Fa Gao

It's very sweet and slightly sticky, uses a sticky type of flour and coconut sugar, if i recall.

My grandma makes it small so that it's easier for the kids to have them. Usually the really big ones are used as offerings to the gods and ancestors.

Hmm.. i need sometime to work on this kueh. It uses a special kind of ingredient known as Kee (i will need to research on this)

Bascially it tastes quite plain but goes well with curry, soy sauce. It's something you wanna eat after a meal (not really like a dessert). It's soft and taken in small quantities.

This one resembles that of the sponge cake that we eat, only difference being that instead of putting it in the oven to bake, it's being steamed.

If you notice this one and the Huat Kueh, great care is taken to make sure that the cake "blooms" or "huat", meaning to say that the face of the cake should crack. This symbolizes prosperity.