I had dinner with a fellow Singaporean last night and we started to talk about food. What else. But last night we started reminiscing about our favorite childhood breakfast. I remembered that my mum used to buy a variety of kuehs from the coffee shop across our block and serve them as breakfast the next morning. Kueh is actually cake but the consistency is very different from cake as you know it. It is closer to pudding rather than cake. Talking about them made me missed them. So I decided they deserve a space on my blog. You can still find them easily in almost every market. Thanks to a blogger Rose, here are some of the pictures and recipes if you would like to try making them at home.

Bak Tong Gou (steamed white sugar sponge cake)
This is a white sponge cake with a honey comb texture. Bak Tong means white sugar in Cantonese so it is slightly sweetened. They were sold in triangular pieces. I remembered that they also sold the same using brown sugar instead but I never knew what the name for the brown ones were. Here is the recipe.



Huat Kueh
I call this the chinese muffin without the cake texture. It is also sweet like a muffin. I like those that comes in pink or yellow rather than the brown one. Sometimes they also buy this as offerings during chinese festivals.
http://roseskitchen.wordpress.com/2008/10/03/huat-kueh/


Gu Cai Kueh (Steamed Chive Cake)
These are little steam dumpling stuffed with chives. There is also a similar version but stuffed with turnips (Sun Kueh) but I prefer the ones with  chives. Unlike other dumplings, this one has a flat  half moon shaped. I must say this one is an acquired taste. It is savory and is served best with dark sweet sauce and chili sauce.
http://roseskitchen.wordpress.com/2007/02/24/koo-chai-kueh/



Peng Kueh (Steamed Rice Cake)
Again, these are more like dumplings rather than kueh. The skins are made from flour and they are stuffed with a mixture of glutinous rice and mushrooms. Because of the filling, it is savory. The dumplings are then shaped using a mould into a tear drop shaped dumpling. What's interesting is the color. The skin is pink in color! My grandma used to make them a lot when I was a child.
http://roseskitchen.wordpress.com/2007/04/10/teochew-png-kueh/


Ang Gu Kueh (Steam red cakes)
Opposite to Peng Kueh, these are sweet. They are stuffed with peanuts. They are also shaped using a mould into a turtle shell like dumpling.
http://roseskitchen.wordpress.com/2007/05/23/ang-ku-kueh-ii/