It is auspicious, because of its shape, and little kiddies love it. It's also a more traditional Chinese type of pastry. Such things are generally called 'kueh' from the Chinese word 粿 (pronounced 'guo' in Mandarin, 'gwo' in Cantonese, 'kwe' in Hokkien). They are also very popular among Indo Dutch. In Java there is a humongous variety. One of the types which even non-Indo Dutch are frequently familar is 'spek koek' ("bacon cake"), named so because with multiple layers of light and dark batter it resembles streaky bacon. It's often trotted out at Christmas time, an elderly auntie having spent hours patiently making it. The dark layers are perfumed with real cinnamon, plus also nutmeg and cloves. It's a mixture similar to what is used for honing koeken (honey cakes) and several other almost mediaeval sweet baked products.
Generically, Indo cakes and sweets are called 'kueh kueh'/'kwe kwe'.
Hokkien versions are often strikingly coloured.
Common flavourings are pandanus extract, palm sugar, coconut milk, shredded coconut, crumbled peanuts, pili nuts or kenari, cinnamon, lotus seed paste, sugar and mung bean paste, and such like. Even durian, but, errm, not my cup of tea.
Here's the contact info for a shop in Bellflower, Los Angeles area, from whom Dutch and Dutch Indo ingredients can be ordered:
Holland International Market
9835 Belmont Street
Bellflower, CA 90706
PH: 562-925-9444
FX: 562-925-5777
hollandinternationalmkt.com
I myself live in San Francisco, and there are shops where I can find everything I need locally. It helps that I'm somewhat multinlingual, inquisitive, and don't mind experimenting. But I have heard good things about them. The owner of Holland International Market (Maria Cervantes) is not a native speaker of Dutch, Indonesian, or Hokkien, but she knows her stuff and has a devoted customer base. Her business is highly regarded.
HOMEMADE ANG KU KWE
Sometimes I make kwe kwe at home. Not often. Red Turtle Cakes (紅龜粿) are made of red-dyed glutinous rice flour and sweet potato dough filled with dow sa or sweetened chopped peanuts, pressed in a mold or shaped by hand, and steamed. In Singapore, Java, and Malaya there is often a square of banana leaf underneath when that is done.
Here? Um, we don't have daun pisang in the Bay Area ....
And I don't own a turtle press.
PS: cake is usually rendered 糕 ('go') which is not the same as 粿 。
PPS: When it comes to food and other cultural elements, most Indos can and do cherry-pick. There is no defining culinary style, though there are some preparations everyone knows, and the places and cultures which shaped their earlier generations are so diverse as to be almost meaningless. And as far as ethnic derivations, there is little similarity; what does a pure bred of seven generations posted to the Indies have in common with someone whose grandmama was from Makasar, or the son of an Amboinese father and a woman of partially Portuguese descent? And sometimes someone who is so darn white that they glow in the dark speaks pure old-school Betawi Malay with his parents, while a descendant of minor nobility from Java might speak only Dutch and prefer erwten soep and gehaktballen.
The Indo group is, in the final analysis, much like a hutspot.
Albeit one with sa eutik eutik sambal.
BTW: Here's a nice video of Toine making, among other things, sambal oelek.
His ketjap manis recipe is far more complicated than mine.
His website: toineskitchen.com
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