Paying Homage

- Amy Van

Antoinette’s chef-owner Pang Kok Keong has been delving deeper into his Hakka heritage of late. One of the foods that he has experimented with making is a steamed Hakka kueh filled with leek, tau kwa, garlic and dried shrimps. “My mother used to make the kueh when I was very young, and I tried to re-create the taste.” He adds: “To me, the flavour of Hakka cuisine is very rustic and heavily seasoned. It’s not something that can be replicated easily because you need to have tasted it before to understand what the flavours are about. When I made this kueh, everything was from memory. I asked my mum to show me the method, although she hadn’t made the kueh for years. Based on trial and error, I kept making it until it was satisfactory.” And the result? His mother gave him a thumbs up for his effort.

Pang has also been working on the Hakka version of the pink-coloured png kueh (rice kueh). “This is the most time consuming to prepare as the rice for the filling has to be soaked and steamed over a long period of time. You have to wrap the filling in dough and steam again,” shares Pang.