Passing down kuih bangkit skills through generations

Passing down kuih bangkit skills through generations
By CAVINA LlM
[email protected]
.
GEORGE TOWN: With steady hands,
octogenarian Cham Ah Moi carefully
presses dough into a wooden mould
of animal. and plant motifs as she
makes the kuih bangkit.
Her gran daughter Cheah Qiao
Hua, 18, waits with a natural red dye
to dot the "eyes"· of the animals,
which take on the shapes of tortoises, fish and roosters. She makes sure
there are no smears.
Earlier, Cham's daughter-in-law
Tan Ean Ean,47, prepared the dough,
mixing flour with egg yolk, pandan
essence and coconut cream before
kneading it.
"Preparing the kuih bangkit is not
difficult. In fact, it is easy. You just
need a lot of patience and passion to preparing delicacies: (from left) Tan, Qiao Hua, Yi Hua and Cham arranging freshly made traditional Chinese New Year
ensure that. it's fragrant and deli- cookies at their family home in Queen Street, Penang.
cious," said the bubbly Cham, 83,
skills to Tan some 21 years ago, said
"Doing this will compromise its to stick to the old methods.
who has been making traditional
"I bake them over hot charcoal," the most important step in making
cookies for the Chinese New Year quality," she said.
The doting grandmother, who she said. "It keeps the, cookies fra- the kuih bangkit was the kneading
celebrations since she was 12.
Cham lamentedthat in this mod- learnt the art of baking traditional grant even after they are stored for process.
.- . --: --- "I love this cookie as it has a
em age, many "adopted short cuts" . cookies from her mother while some period."
Cham, who passed on her baking sweet, melt-in-your-mouth sensagrowing up in Ipoh, Perak, is proud
when baking the delicacy.
tion, although it crunches when you
bite it," she said at her family home
in Queen Street here.
Tan, who sells economy rice when
she is not rushing cookies during the
festive season, said making the cookies had always been "a family affair"
as three generations would come
together to bake them.
"My daughter Qiao Hua seems
very interested in it, so I am teaching
her."
The mother of four said the family
also made other traditional Chinese
New Year cookies like kuih kapit
(love letters), peanut cookies, butter
cookies, oat and nestum cookies.
. The cookies have been huge
favourites among her family members, friends, neighbours and the
people over the years.
'
"Some come from outstation to
get them," said Tan; adding that the
family made about 4,000 cookies
daily.
The cookies are priced between
RM17 and RM25 per container,
depending on the size and type of
cookies. Tan can be contacted at
016-4737208.