A Holiday Find

We've been living in Malaysia approaching four and a half years now and, while we certainly haven't gobbled up everything the country has to offer, we are pretty familiar with its culinary landscape. It's not often that we come across an unfamiliar edible. When we do, it's always cause for celebration, but especially so in this case.

Most of our sojourns in George Town (there have been quite a few of them these last six months) involve at least one trip to Chow Rasta Market -- usually on our last day, to buy a bulging bag of purslane to take back to our kitchen in Kuala Lumpur (why is this lovely green vegetable not sold in KL? or perhaps it is, and we just don't know where).

By now we know Chow Rasta's lanes and shops and hawkers well. But about ten days ago we came across something new: an elderly vendor making an unusual type of kuih ketayap, on the spot.

 

How could we have missed her before? It turns out she's only there on Saturdays, public holidays, and school holidays -- when her daughter-in-law is free to help with the rolling, wrapping, and selling.

This lady's ketayap differ from the standard version -- the type that's sold all over Malaysia -- in several ways.

There's no pandan juice in the batter, so the kuih's wrapper is white instead of green. And it's made only of rice flour and water (so we're told, anyway), so the wrapper's texture is sticky-chewy rather the usual flapjackish chewy-spongy.

The filling is made not of shredded coconut cooked with gula Melaka (coconut palm sugar) and a pandan leaf, but of shredded coconut and a sprinkle of chopped peanuts mixed with white cane sugar.

 

There is something quite special about a kuih ketayap hot off the griddle. This vendor's always are; she can only cook two wrappers at one time and customers tend to purchase in bulk. 

So you place your order. The daughter-in-law jots it down on a plastic bag with a magic marker and tells you to go and find something else to do for thirty minutes. You return and claim your bag of too-hot-to-hold ketyap, blow on them furiously to cool them down, and take a bite.

The lightly oily wrapper is pleasantly soft and gummy, and its warmth heightens the aroma of the roasted peanuts and the flavor of the fresh coconut, and melts some of the sugar. This ketayap's not too sweet, so two -- three, even -- aren't at all out of the question. 

Daughter-in-law tells us that mom-in-law learned to make ketayap this way from her husband, and that he began selling at Chow Rasta Market over 40 years ago. She thinks she's the only Penang vendor of this sort of kuih ketayap still at it. Whether or not she's right about that I don't know. But I do know this all-business ketayap vendor is a treasure.

Here's to serendipitous finds. I think you can guess where we'll be this Saturday morning.

Chinese kuih ketayap, Chow Rasta Market, George Town, Penang. Saturdays, public holidays, school holidays from 7:30 am until sold out (usually by 10:30am or 11am). 60 sen each.

(The pandan version are sold freshly made at night, from a stall at George Town's McAllister Road night market, in front of the Sunway Hotel.)

Comments

[the lacquer spoon]

Well, different culinary activities are going on in every corner of the globve. Selamat hari Natal dari Jepang!

[Foodie]

I bet this smells like the nut carts in NYC, no?

[borneoboy]

Hi Robyn and David. Merry Christmas, and may the New Year bring you even more adventures in food and travel.

[Rasa Malaysia]

This is very very interesting. I have never ever come across anything like that in Penang! It's almost like a hybrid between "ban chien kuih" and kuih tayap.

[Deng Huang]

Your RSS feed seems to be broken. It's truncating the posts. Unless that's intentional. In which case, good-bye Eating Asia. :(

[Robyn]

lacquer spoon - same to you, and Happy New Year!

Foodie - well yes, in fact it does.

borneoboy - thanks, same to you. Happy New Year!

Bee - well, she might be the only one. Flavor reminded me of the deep-fried glutinous rice balls coated in sesame seeds.

Deng Huang- A bit of patience please -- I don't have any control over the RSS feed, that's Typepad's job. And threatening to bid us 'good-bye' neither helps the matter, nor inspires fear in my heart. Happy Holidays.

[Indian Takeaway]

These things sound really nice any chance you can post a recipe for us?

[Jencrafted]

I think she's right - she may very well be the only vendor in Penang selling this type of ketayap. I grew up eating the green (pandan) ketayaps and have never come across this during my 20+ years in Penang! Great discovery, guys! A wonderful discovery today for me too as I found your site (via D.Greenspan's site)!
Love the photography and writing! Brilliant!

[borneoboy]

Hi Robyn and David. Happy New Year 2010 !

[Robyn]

Indian Takeaway - sorry, not likely in the near future. You could try noodling around with rice flour batter though...

Jencrafted - Welcome to eatingasia! Hope you'll be stopping in again. Yep, I do think she's the only one.

Borneoboy - same to you -- best wishes for 2010! Thanks for reading.

[3hungrytummies]

I just read about the same stall from another blog. Apparently this is a Cantonese snack. Have a look if you read Chinese.

http://www.got1mag.com/blogs/kimcherng.php/2007/09/28/a_amse_nappe_a_ac_ac

[Renaissance Clothing]

Like a home cooked meal on the street

[Chiliapi]

Wow, very cool. I miss Penang.