Tepee

OH NO! Not another cow joke! (re: history of loveletters). Claypot food's aplenty in Malaysia. There's a very good claypot chicken rice which I have once a fortnight. I'll remember you, Ben, each time I go for one.

I'm like a nut case, giggling over this at odd moments. My 3-yr old keeps asking me, "What's so funny?" For the benefit of those who don't know chinese. -side: Da Niu = name of the lucky brother bi jiao = more (compared to) lan = lazy i.e. Da Niu is more lazy -side: da = big niu = cow bi = compare to The other 2, you know already, is bigger than a cow's! Pssst...we should be so lucky we don't have a forum host/police.

Ah, yes, simnel cake I made it a couple of years ago. Instead of the balls on top, I made little marzipan chicks.

Wow, Aprilmei, that's a lotta beans! Thanks for the heads-up. This ignoramus hasn't used a vanilla bean before. Gosh, even if I ordered the minimum amount, I think it'll take me forever to finish using them. But, I think I'll bite the bullet and order them one of these days.

Hold that gai mo so! Who was the one who said,

Cake ideas: Popcorn in a basket Fish roast chicken plate of spaghetti

That, my Innocent One (not that I'm not innocent), is the vital word. Perhaps, like me, it's not in your vocabulary.

My dear Laksa, do you honestly expect me to believe that you don't know the punchline of this (very graphic) tale? Anyway, a married woman I may be, but those words shall not leave these lips. By the way, you should have added a word of caution before you started the story. Do not have any liquid in mouth before the following read.

What do the characters mean when reversed? ← Oh my!!!!!!!!! Michael, you don't want to know!!!!!!!!!!! Ai yoh! Laksa, oh, Laksa, where did you unearth that classic tale from? I tell you I'm so inspired to draw a chinese comic strip of that. I'll certainly look at my loveletters differently from now on....... Wahahhhahahaha....

Indeed it does. You're making me hungry, Michael.

Love-letters are called gai dan geun in cantonese. You can see it in this post, the right-most biscuit. In Malay, it's called kuih kapit or kuih belanda. It's either rolled as shown here or folded like the other picture. Don't know how it got its loveletter name, though. To romanticise it, I would imagine it would have been started once upon a time, when overcome by the festive air, some lover would have sneaked a note into one of these to his over-chaperoned girlfriend.

Methinks 'jeruk' is Malay for pickles. edit: oops, hi, Shiewie.

Different food but same reasoning. The bit of tapioca flour in wheat starch dough (1/4 cup tapioca flour to 1-1/4 cups wheat starch) for making translucent (reference to the skin) steamed chinese dumplings, helps to make the sealing easier, and the dough more elastic (less prone to split during the steaming process). Thank you, FaustianBargain, for your recipes, especially, the vadai Yes, it's really good when it's hot. Luckily, the putu mayam cum vadai man who plies our route on a motorcycle (used to be bicycle a couple of years ago) must have gotten his stock right off the stove.

I love green tea anything. 3 years ago, I made a green tea dessert (right at the top). I called it tiramisu for ease of description, but actually it consisted of a flourless chocolate cake and layers of zabaglione (in which I added 3 sachets green tea powder), chocolate mascarpone mousse, and coffee/kahlua soaked fingers in between. I sifted chocolate powder and green tea powder in a check pattern on top. You must excuse the rather uneven sponge fingers (my first attempt!). I must make this again!

Chey! It would be rancid by the dog's first bark if this is for next year. Nooooooo.....this is from a well-hoarded stock. Go for it, Shiewie. Since you like your love-letters soft, omit the oven step.

Neen go, anyone? I made this for dessert tonight and did it disappear quick. To make: Open up a softened love-letter (the fan-shaped ones). Insert a piece of neen go. Steam for 10 minutes. Then pop into the oven to crisp the love-letter for 5-10 minutes. Neengo will still remain gooey.

Lucy, your opening is almost.......poetic! I'm sure I'll be a guest who overstays her welcome.

Sue-On, DH has, on many occasions, seen the yau tieu guy make the one with the sticky rice middle. According to him, - the guy takes a longish block of prepared sticky rice (I suppose it's just sticky rice steamed with salt added to it). - he then rolls the yau tieu dough into a flat rectangle, - wets the sticky rice on all sides, - position the sticky rice block in the middle of the dough, - covers the block with dough, pinching the joins - proceeds to slice the now longish block into individual pieces. Will post the picture later....have sent DH on his merry way to the market to get some. I really love the way this thread has developed. We've all learnt the many ways to eat a yau tieu. Are there more?

Thank you, guys! These are fantabulous ideas!!!! Psst...Shiewie, can you whisper in my ear who did your aunt's cake? Very interesting work of art.

LOL! I'd love to do a 3-D tiger (growl) but think of the implications of 'slaughtering' it.

You don't say....DH says he's Teo Jew (*sic)! Sure, birthday cakes are a western thing. Being the youngest daughter has a lot of say in our house ( I wonder why ), so I get to say we need to have a birthday cake. And a 3-tier one at that! I really want this cake to be very unique. An 80-year birthday doesn't come by very often. Mom wants to keep the guest list as short as possible and it's looking like 10-14 tables already. We did one for mom's 70th birthday 2 yrs ago, and we had problems getting 100 over of the same bowls, spoons, chopsticks we were giving away as favors. Kew, there is not much requirement in a 'chinese' birthday cake, except it shouldn't be too white, too dark, too auspicious(mom's requirement), or feature inauspicioius number of symbols/embellishment. Many thanks for the ideas. Much as the artist in me like the noodle idea, Jason, I think I don't want to risk having the 'noodles' break on me. Will peaches be too feminine? Perhaps, I should make them gold. Will look into bats, though. Keep 'em coming!

From your description, Pan, your peanut candy is more or less the same as the kacang tumbuk posted by Kew. I know exactly which one you're talking about. They are still 'around'. Will go ISO. Some are still wrapped in paper!

My father will be turning 80 in chinese years come July. If we can straighten out the politics behind the invitation list (soon!), I can get down to planning the size of the birthday cake. Oh, did I say I get to make the cake since I'm the enthusiastic cake-decorator of the house? Mother is saying that they don't want the word, "sau" (longevity) on the cake, or any symbol which speaks too loudly of long life. Er, that will be like tempting fate, know what I mean? I'm christian, so I don't subscribe to all that superstitions, but I will respect their wishes. He's born in the Year of the Tiger. So, what am I left with? Peach? Fishes? Mynah bird? I would appreciate ideas, please. Thank you.

Erm, did you say apples in fried rice? Nothing wrong with mixing sweet and savory. In fact, chinese food is all about a whole cahoots of flavors, sweet, sour, salty, and even bitter being present in a dish. Just a question of which flavor should raise its hand.

I love yue tau mai fun (Fish Head Noodles). I usually make a stock out of ikan bilis (anchovies) first, and add salted fish, salted vegetables and tomatoes (not included in the linky). Note the dash of evaporated milk. This is real comfort food for me. This thread must be freaking out some of our members if they do chance upon it! Roly poly fish heads, indeed. For some of you with caucasian spouses, what say them?