Hey everyone!
My last post was about Singapore snack foods but there's just too many so here's a continuation! Oh and by snacks I mean those typically eaten for tea break at coffee shops, not snacks like potato chips (that'll be in another post!). Hope I don't make you too hungry! š
1) BBQ pork bun (char siu bao åē§å
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Char siu bao a bun filled with barbeque-flavoured pork, called char siu. It is one of the most famous and classic Cantonese dim sum dishes. Dim sum is a style of Chinese cuisine (particularly Cantonese) consisting of small bite-sized portions of food served in small steamer baskets or on small plates. Dim sum is typically served with tea or eaten for brunch.
There are two major kinds of cha siu bao; the steamed version and the baked version. Steamed cha siu bao has a white exterior, while the baked variety is browned and glazed. I've mostly only eaten the steamed version, as it's the one that's most available. Maybe the baked one is not as easy to keep because it might get soggy and not crispy after a while.
Char siu bao is probably one of my favourite baos. Soft and fluffy on the outside, with the oozing soy based thick gravy and the meaty filling on the inside, it's definitely a yummy snack to eat on a rainy day. š
Besides high class restaurants, char siu bao can also be found in many hawker centres or from bao shops like Nam Kee Pau or Hokee Pau, for about $0.80.
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2) Soybean pudding/Soybean curd (tau huay / dou hua č±č±)
Dou hua is a Chinese snack made with very soft tofu. I read that there are sooo many different versions of dou hua. In Singapore and Malaysia, it is commonly known as tau huay in Hokkien and is commonly served either with a clear sweet syrup alone, with ginkgo seeds suspended in the syrup, or in a sugar syrup infused with pandan. Alternatively, it can also be served with palm-syrup (Gula Melaka).
Personally, I'll only eat tau huay once in a while, but it's quite refreshing as a snack or a dessert. I remember when my school/JC used to sell it in the canteen and there were quite a few flavours and my favourite was the bandung flavour. Now there are also quite a few different flavours sold in hawker centres but I've never seen a bandung one. š
I think in hawker centres they usually serve tau huay hot/warm, but if you buy it from shops like Lao Ban, it'll be cold. So this snack is good to eat on either cold/hot days. It costs about $1.50 at Lao Ban but may be cheaper in some hawker centres.
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3) Red tortoise cake (ang ku kueh / hong gui ji ē“ é¾ē²æ)
Known as ang ku kueh in Hokkien, this is a small round/oval shaped Chinese pastry with soft sticky glutinous rice flour skin wrapped around a sweet filling in the centre. It is molded to resemble a tortoise shell and is presented resting on a square piece of banana leaf. Red tortoise cakes are shaped like tortoise shells because the Chinese traditionally believed that eating tortoises would bring longevity to those who are eating it and bring about good fortune and prosperity.
There are two main components in red tortoise cakes, the skin and the filling. The skin is made mostly from glutinous rice flour and sweet potato whereas the fillings are made from precooked ingredients such as mung bean or ground peanuts and sugar. In Singapore, bakeries sell different varieties of ang ku kueh of assorted flavours that include peanut, coconut, sesame, red bean, green bean, etc.
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4) Kueh tutu (putu piring)
Known as putu piring in Malay, kueh tutu is a round-shaped traditional steamed rice flour kueh or sweet snack filled with palm sugar. It is commonly found in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Southern Thailand. Kueh tutu is primarily made from rice flour or glutinous rice flour and filled with ground peanut or brown palm sugar mixed with shredded coconut. It is served on pandan leaves to add fragrance.
I read about a stall with quite a long heritage in making kueh tutu by hand: Tan's Tutu Coconut Cake. Located at Havelock Food Centre, it is run by Ms Tan Bee Hua, who took over her father's business after he passed away. Her father migrated here from China and started by selling song gao (a popular Hokkien plain rice cake) in pushcarts and later innovated by adding coconut and peanut. Her brother took over after that and opened Tan's Tutu Coconut Cake and they've been running since the 1970s!
I haven't eaten kueh tutu in a loooong time but I remember my dad buying it for me back in primary school. I'm not sure where he bought it from my mum works nearby here so it might have been from this very stall!
I think the next post will be something different, but there'll be more snack posts on the way because there's just sooo many snacks!
Thanks for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://tacocat.vornix.blog/2018/06/26/tacocats-treats-6-singaporean-snacks-part-2-%f0%9f%a5%96/
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