The delicious traditional Chinese food!
Thursday, 3 October 2013
How much do you know about Kueh Chap?
Wednesday, 2 October 2013
Culture and History of Kueh Chap
Among the dishes that we people of the valley miss out are Sarawak Laska, Sarawak Kolo Mee, Tomato Kuey Teow and Sarawak Kueh Chap just to name a few.
It was started at the Ming dynasty, There lived a general named Qi JiGuang (戚繼光) and he was given the Imperial task to defend Southern China from Japanese Sea Pirates and Commoner Armies (日本倭寇). Qi JiGuang was worried about his armies food supply for this Imperial task as it would be difficult to transport food due to the high-mountainous area. His second worry was that his armies would not be able to accept the local food in Southern China. His worries stole sleep from him and decided to take a walk to think of a solution. He happened to come across a kitchen where an elderly lady was preparing food for her family. He observed the elderly lady pounding uncooked rice into fine powder and later adding water into the fine rice powder to turn it into sticky rice paste (米漿). Once the sticky rice paste is ready, the elderly lady poured some of the rice paste on to the side of a hot wok. The paste immediately starts to solidify upon contact and the solidified rice paste is peeled from the wok. The elderly lady repeated this process until she ran out of sticky rice paste. Thus, Kueh Chap was originally named Ding Bian Cuo (鼎邊挫) or Ding Bian Hu (鼎邊糊) (English translation would be Wok Side Cooking or Wok Side Frying) due to this process. Coming back to the story, the elderly lady proceeds to make a soup with some vegetables and fermented meat. Once the soup came to a boil, she started tearing the solidified sticky rice paste into smaller bits and threw them into the boiling soup. A few moments later, the dish was ready to be served. Qi JiGuang has finally found the answer to his problems and learned how to prepare this dish for his armies from the elderly lady. With the food supply problem sorted out, the expedition to Southern China went smoothly and Qi JiGuang’s forces manage to protect Southern China from its enemies. From then on, this dish spread around Southern China and the solidified sticky rich paste dish received its more commonly known name, Kueh Chap, when it spread to the Teochew City (潮州市). Due to the vast culture in different areas of China, Kueh Chap is prepared differently depending on where you go. For instance, the soup base for Kueh Chap in Fu Zhou will be white or milky in color whereas the soup base will be dark brown if you are in Teochew. The Sarawak Kueh Chap definitely has its roots from Teochew, China as the soup is dark brown in color.
It was started at the Ming dynasty, There lived a general named Qi JiGuang (戚繼光) and he was given the Imperial task to defend Southern China from Japanese Sea Pirates and Commoner Armies (日本倭寇). Qi JiGuang was worried about his armies food supply for this Imperial task as it would be difficult to transport food due to the high-mountainous area. His second worry was that his armies would not be able to accept the local food in Southern China. His worries stole sleep from him and decided to take a walk to think of a solution. He happened to come across a kitchen where an elderly lady was preparing food for her family. He observed the elderly lady pounding uncooked rice into fine powder and later adding water into the fine rice powder to turn it into sticky rice paste (米漿). Once the sticky rice paste is ready, the elderly lady poured some of the rice paste on to the side of a hot wok. The paste immediately starts to solidify upon contact and the solidified rice paste is peeled from the wok. The elderly lady repeated this process until she ran out of sticky rice paste. Thus, Kueh Chap was originally named Ding Bian Cuo (鼎邊挫) or Ding Bian Hu (鼎邊糊) (English translation would be Wok Side Cooking or Wok Side Frying) due to this process. Coming back to the story, the elderly lady proceeds to make a soup with some vegetables and fermented meat. Once the soup came to a boil, she started tearing the solidified sticky rice paste into smaller bits and threw them into the boiling soup. A few moments later, the dish was ready to be served. Qi JiGuang has finally found the answer to his problems and learned how to prepare this dish for his armies from the elderly lady. With the food supply problem sorted out, the expedition to Southern China went smoothly and Qi JiGuang’s forces manage to protect Southern China from its enemies. From then on, this dish spread around Southern China and the solidified sticky rich paste dish received its more commonly known name, Kueh Chap, when it spread to the Teochew City (潮州市). Due to the vast culture in different areas of China, Kueh Chap is prepared differently depending on where you go. For instance, the soup base for Kueh Chap in Fu Zhou will be white or milky in color whereas the soup base will be dark brown if you are in Teochew. The Sarawak Kueh Chap definitely has its roots from Teochew, China as the soup is dark brown in color.
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