One of the most loathsome translations of a Chinese food has to belong to the poor yu tiau or yau char kuey. Coined ‘oil stick’ in Hong Kong, other enterprising businessmen have began emblazoning their delivery vans with the same name. It gets me sick to my stomach each time I see it. ‘Oil stick’ conquers up ideas of coagulating visceral fat and melting batons of deep-frier gunk. While it is true that too many of these deep-fried Chinese bread sticks will probably cause health problems, it just strikes me as unkind to name the food so literally. I much prefer ‘Chinese crullers’ to ‘oil stick’!
The new-ish stall at my usual NZX eating shop now has a cruller guy who is parked at the front of the shop, on the pavement. This guy is great. When I first swooped down on him with Kit shooting the food, he was very wary and if he could communicate better (he is another migrant worker, perhaps Vietnamese, maybe from Myanmar), I am sure he would have asked that we not take photos. However, after noticing I was a regular client at the eating shop, he’s calmed down quite a bit, and when I went to get some hot, piping fresh char kuey to eat with my curry noodles, he grinned and asked why I was not photographing his wares.
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| The assortment of yu tiau and chin pangs. |
He’s an enterprising trader, this man. Not only does he make all the usual traditional variants of this snack (the traditional yu tiau, the usual salty ham chin pang, five-spice ham chin pang, red bean stuffed pang), he also has a few new variants which include garlic yu tiau (I most highly recommend it, as it marries the savory near bitterness of fried garlic chips with the sweetness of the yu tiau dough), and a selection of interesting stuffing for the ham ching pang which include custard, sesame, corn, lotus seed paste and kaya.
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| Erin is probably the only person in the family who can afford to eat as many of these deep-fried snacks as she wants! |
The snacks vary from RM1 per stick of yu tiau to about RM1.50 for the stuffed ham chingpangs.
Ming Yang: Jalan 1A/41B, Pusat Dagangan NZX, Ara Jaya 47301, PJ.
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