Pix below: for lunch or dinner:
Glutinous Rice with meat, chestnut and other fillings, wrapped in either pandan or bamboo leaves. Some fillings have Cognac, pork belly and garlic, depending.
The picture above shows the dessert or tea time version, sweet filled with red beans or just dipping it into syrup. Generally known as kee Chang.
“When I was a kid I had kidney problems so I got sentenced to a completely no-salt diet, thus no bachang for me because of the salted meat in them. I could eat only the yellow alkaline keechang - 'neat' without fillings. So, very bland, no taste at all compared with what my cousins and neighbours were eating - that was really tantalising and torturing. Only after I was declared free of the kidney problem (in Form 2 - today Sec 1) could I get to go from no salt to low salt then moderate salt.
James Kwok, who writes as well as he speaks. Thanks James for your BAH CHANG story. A very healthy one!
Now in my my 70s, with a wife (also of Pioneer Generation vintage) who was a hospital nutritionist-dietitian, we are in the very very minimal salt/sugar/fats & oil stage of our lives. And of course the bahchang in front of me is of the vegetarian kind - fillings made from mock meat conjured out of gluten - not real pork. What a full circle. “
Cheers.
Article by James Kwok.
Thanks very much James.
I like BAH CHANG. But they are charging $5 to 5.50 each. Rip off.
ReplyDeleteNot going to pay these prices. Thought they were around $2.50 which isn’t great for a lump of glutinous carb rice and some little filling! A dry mee pok is $3/- and you get a better meal out of that. Though I wouldn’t shout about it!
👌🏻✌🏼👍🏼🙏🏼
ReplyDeleteMy bak chang story :- a neighbour gave us 4 yesterday morning. This evening wanted to have for dinner :- all turned slimey, gooey & yucky. So we couldn’t eat them.
I hope this tradition will find new meanings.
ReplyDeleteIt fades away when people forget their customs and culture, replaced only by another.
Parents should tell related stories to their children, both meaningful and relevant to remember our own roots.
After all what is life without these traditions.