It's Tea Time

The traditional tea time treats that used to be available mainly at market and roadside stalls and pasar malam are now going big time commercially.

THINK crisp hot fried bananas, savoury yam cakes, apom swimming in coconut milk, melt-in-your-mouth kuih and you can understand why Malaysians look forward to tea time.

Never mind if you don’t have time to make them yourself. There’s plenty of these yummy treats to tempt your palate (and ruin your diet) on sale in every nook and corner. The question of where to go really depends on whether you are looking for a relaxed sitdown with a teh tarik or a quick takeaway.

Thanks to commercialism, there is never a problem with choice. However, authenticity is a real bone of contention and nothing can be more irksome than a ketayap with a meagre coconut filling or a kuih talam that has been artificially flavoured.

Mum’s the expert: Wan (left) learnt to make melt-in-the-mouth kuih from his mother Mak Jah

So how are the best kuih supposed to taste? If you have sampled the kuih talam at the Mak Jah Café at Jalan Kolam Air, Ampang, you will want no other after that – the white tops of the kuih here are practically sagging from the weight of rich coconut cream.

Better known as Mak Jah, Halijah Karim, now 65, started the business at the end of a row of MPAJ stalls opposite an animal shelter some 20 years ago.

On closer inspection of her seri muka, you will also see a translucent layer between the glutinous rice and the green top. This, explains Wan Mahalel Wan Daud, 38, Mak Jah’s son, is due to the caramelising effect, a testament to the fact that they have not stinged on the amount of eggs and sugar. As a result, the kuih all have a luxurious melt-in-your-mouth feel.

“What I have learned from my mother is that you have to be a perfectionist when it comes to making kuih. My mother believes that a kuih should be rich in coconut milk and eggs. As it is, she uses no less than eight eggs for every tray of kuih,” says Wan.

Though Mak Jah is retired now, this grand dame is still head of quality control and is known to test every tray to make sure that all are in accordance with her stipulations. Those that don’t meet her QC standards will not be seen at her stall.

The issue of being “generous” is a sensitive one. The ones who are guilty of meagre ketayap fillings and airy curry puffs will give the standard excuse of inflation and compromises in profit. But old-timers like Sun Yoke Lan, 55, have different answers.

Going places: Malaysian kuih have the potential to be exported.

“One way to ensure return customers is to make their stomachs remember you,” says Sun who has been running her nyonya kuih stall in front of the Yit Seang coffee shop at Jalan Thambypillai in Brickfields for the past 30 years.

Sun’s strategy is simple. She gives away big portions, be it her trademark steamed pumpkin rice cake or her large deep fried prawn cucur.

Both Halijah and Sun will attest that their kuih business strategy has been tested and tried by time. As it is, Halijah’s kuih is also sold at the Daily Express in KLCC and the Warung in Mid Valley Megamall.

After having kept a roadside enterprise alive for three decades, the question of expansion is bound to pop up for these traditional tea time vendors. In most cases, it will involve relocation, which many believe will sound the death knell for their livelihoods instead.

Thus, most are staying faithful to their original spot, one case being the Mr Chiam Pisang Goreng stall at Jalan Tun Sambanthan 4, Brickfields.

Another is the vadai and curry puff mobile van situated between Jalan Telawi 6 and 7 in Bangsar, which is operated by Kanagaratnam Vengadasamy, who is in his 70s, and his wife Visalatchi Thanugodi, who is in her 60s. They have been there for the last 15 years and the simple reason for their decision to stay put is that everyone knows them.

It is a similar story with the Chiams. After 27 years, numerous mentions in foodie blogs and appearances in food programmes on TV, the most recent one being 1 Day Five Meals which airs over Astro Wah Lai Toi and is hosted by Angel Wong Chui Ling; the father and son team are content with their roadside spot. Never mind that there is no space for the duo to prepare their bananas and sesame balls for frying. The Chiams have opened a preparation room above the shophouse. A buzz from an intercom at the stall will see a basket of nien kao sandwiched between slices of tapioca or freshly rolled sesame balls being lowered in a plastic basket to an eager recipient below.

But modernisation has a way of changing mindsets and now that the current generation prefers the air-conditioned comforts of the supermarkets, it may be time to rethink the issue of location.

The Lim brothers of Homi Chicken Curry Puffs are an example. Having established a name for themselves at the Hock Seng Two coffee shop for almost 20 years in SS2/66, Petaling Jaya, they made a move to apply for a spot at The Gardens Mid Valley four years ago.

With a monthly rental rate of RM8,000, one wonders what gave the Lim brothers the courage to make the jump with nothing but curry puffs as their star product.

Lim Meng Kong, 54, the eldest of the three Lim brothers, reveals that they have had to set up a shop lot factory in Jalan Kuchai Lama, which now produces about 3,000 raw curry puffs daily.

“The decision to expand was like taking the big plunge. There was no business strategy. What we did instead was to take the opportunity as the situation presented itself. It began when my brother, Meng Lee, saw an existing curry puff chain prosper. He thought he could do something better and that was how we came to be here.”

Like the Lim brothers, Lady Luck also had a role to play with Wong How Yong, 54, a kuih supplier who started from a roadside stall at the PJ Old Town market 20 years ago. Eventually, she moved to a stall inside and one day, eight years ago, a Caucasian approached her and asked if she would like to supply Giant, the hypermarket. That opportunity gave her the courage to venture into the catering scene in addition to supplying local kuih to the hotels’ buffet lines.

“It just happened out of the blue and at that time I was still making kuih from my home kitchen,” recalls this former housewife.

Her chief worry then was how she would be able to supply the volume required, but she soon found the solution.

Of course, comfort, convenience and hygiene will come with a price and as Homi reveals, a slight change in pricing was necessary to cover costs. Puffs sold in The Gardens are between RM2.00 and RM2.50 each compared to the ones in their SS2 HQ, which are only RM1.40 each. Still, when one compares the posh contemporary settings of The Gardens to the hot stuffy surroundings of a roadside operation, what is an extra 60 sen?

And thanks to the constant demand for the different varieties of kuih, the makers have had to lean on each other. “It has become very normal for them to sell each other’s products because one factory just cannot handle the making of so many varieties,” says Wong.

This has led to another emerging trend such as that of Deli Delight. A nyonya kuih kiosk in Mid Valley’s basement right in front of Eu Yan Sang, it is run by Theresa Yoong, 60, who has been a familiar face here for the past eight years. Yoong runs a consignment style operation with other kuih and biscuit suppliers.

How far can one go in the kuih business? Nancy Lu, 52, of Lulu Nyonya Kueh believes it can even be exported. She is already looking into this aspect, with help from her brother Tony Lu, 48, whom she describes as “the one with the ideas”.

Since the business started in 2000, Lulu Nyonya Cakes has opened five outlets all running on the kiosk format in Sungai Wang Plaza, Mid Valley, Amcorp Mall, Great Eastern Mall and Jaya Jusco Taman Maluri. And they are also supplying kuih to hotels for the buffet lines.

In the future, says Lu, there are plans to take the kuih business into the gift market, which requires compact and attractive packaging for travellers to take home as presents for friends and family. In line with this, there are plans to work on freezing the kuih, Sara Lee-style, for export. The R&D remains to be done, however.

At such a rate, it will not be long before the kuih lapis becomes as international as the cheesecake. Already, as Lu reveals, there have been enquiries from as far away as Abu Dhabi.

A new touch to the traditional

IT is hard to imagine the popular ketayap as anything else but green in colour, flavoured with pandan and stuffed with a sweet filling of grated coconut and gula melaka. At Ibunda, a Malay fine diner on Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, patrons may well see some surprising changes, however.

Here is where you’ll find ketayap with Philadelphia cheese fillings or love letters dipped with roselle salsa all served in dainty portions.

“Malay desserts are traditionally very heavy and with the addition of coconut milk and glutinous rice, it can be very overwhelming after a starter and a main course. So, we decided on a serving that would not exceed 600g,” says Mohd Sofi, 35, the sous chef and spokesperson of Ibunda.

Glamorous twist: The banana pengat coated in sugar

The inspiration is still Malay in origin, he insists, taking Ibunda’s signature dessert, the Nangka Gulung, as a case in point. It was created after the chef and restaurant owner, Zabidi Ibrahim, saw a cempedak fritters stall.

“The whole idea is to be different, to push the boundaries on what is considered the norm in Malay tea time treats. In the end, it is all about culinary creativity,” says Sofi.