Chye Yean 菜燕 (Agar Agar)

“Chye-yean” (菜燕),Chinese (Hokkien?) for agar-agar. However, I have only ever heard the term ‘agar-agar’. The first thing that pops into my mind are the colourful agar agar jellies from my primary school tuckshop. Baking Mum has some exquisite versions of the traditional layered agar agar dessert here and here.
Most interesting to me is the strong [...]

Read Full Post »

Fun Kor 粉果

I had some problems working out this recipe. Firstly, I misread grandmother’s handwriting as ‘Tim Kor’ instead of ‘Fun Kor’. Secondly, she wrote a second recipe on the same page in the same pen for ‘Chye Yean’. As there were no cooking instructions, and only partial ingredients for the Fun Kor, I failed to realise [...]

Read Full Post »

Sri/Seri Kaya

Is kaya a custard or a jam? Cracking my head over this semantic question has kept me from posting this recipe — not even that, but mere notes on ingredients — which grandmother noted down. She has listed two sets of quantities, the one on the right originating from her friend, “Mrs S.K.”.
Grandma wrote ‘coconuts’ [...]

Read Full Post »