UNINESS

“Lift the pot lid!” Upon lifting the lid of the steamer, scorching hot gusts of steam escape. Smoke from the woodfire and the steam create a misty cloud-like effect, filled with the sweet aroma of glutinous rice and sugar. Fresh from the pot, glutinous rice cakes have a dark caramel surface while the inner layer is golden in colour, with a smooth and soft texture. Stir using a chopstick, curl up a morsel, take an eager bite despite its high temperature, a pleasant sweetness lingers on the palate.

Glutinous rice cakes are a must-have for Chinese New Year celebration, used for prayers or gifting among family and friends. In the past, almost every family will make glutinous rice cakes before Chinese New Year. In Hakkanese it is called Tài Lǒng Cí (big basket glutinous treat), because it is contained within a bamboo basket that is one foot in diameter. Line the bamboo basket with heat-treated banana leaves, mill the glutinous rice into semi-liquid form, add equal parts of sugar and mix evenly, then pour the mixture into the container and steam for at least 18 to 20 hours.After the steamed glutinous rice cakes cooled down, cut into long strips and put into a tiered bamboo basket alongside other festive gifts, to bring along when visiting family and friends.

49-year-old Lim Swee Lin, whose ancestry is traced back to HeXi Hakkanese village in southern China, is a fourth-generation immigrant, born and bred in Kepong, Kuala Lumpur. His mother, who learned to make traditional treats from both his maternal grandmother (from JiaYing, MeiXian) and his paternal grandmother (from HeXi), ran a wholesale business in Kepong from the 70s to the 90s. As he grew up, he would help out after school. Glutinous rice cake making starts from one month before Chinese New Year, in Lim’s teenage years, he would stay up throughout the night to help tend the fire, adding firewood or water when necessary. Under a subtle influence, he gained glutinous rice cake making skills.

Now a maker of micro landscapes, Lim frequently participate in artisan markets. In conjunction with the Chinese New Year themed You Ni Market 18.0, he decided to share the taste of Chinese New Year he experienced while growing up, replicating the hard and weary process of making traditional glutinous rice cakes to acquaint market-goers with authentic Tài Lǒng Cí. Lim insists on sourcing natural ingredients, using untreated wood (rubber and acacia) for firewood, opting to use bamboo tubes from edible species as containers, which he also line with banana leaves. Lim’s glutinous rice cake mixture is not made from commercially available glutinous rice flour and refined sugar, instead glutinous rice is soaked overnight and ground into semi-liquid form, and then add raw cane sugar which is rich in nutrients and minerals.

Piling firewood, starting a fire, and building a simple red brick stove are all muscle memory to Lim. Boil water in a large iron-cast pot, layer some wood in the pot and arrange the bamboo tubes filled with glutinous rice cake mixture on it, then close the lid. During the cooking process, it is crucial to maintain a burning fire, making sure that the fire does not die out as the weather changes. After steaming for eight to twelve consecutive hours, the glutinous rice and raw cane sugar mixture became fully incorporated and caramelization took place. The aromas of the bamboo tubes and banana leaves became infused into the glutinous rice cakes as well. Consuming while hot, sweetness is at its prime, yet more complex flavours may develop after cooling down.

As Lim takes up the challenge of making glutinous rice cakes on-site, to ensure that things go well, he sought advice from his mother, and engaged his son’s help while providing him with hands-on training. The making of traditional Tài Lǒng Cí passed over four generations, not only strengthening family bonds, but also a continuation of Chinese New Year celebration, wisdom and cultural heritage.

有你 UNI Production
Producer : Daniel Lim
Cinematographer : Amelia Lim / Michael Lerk
Drone : Daniel Lim
Video Editor : Michael Lerk
Copywriter : Pua Hui Wen

COPYRIGHTS 2025 ECHINOIDEA SDN BHD

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Around 3AM, when the surroundings are enclosed in darkness, and most people are still sound asleep, the five-foot-way of a double-storey shophouse in Kampung Simee, Ipoh, is brightly lit. A few white-haired ladies are either seated in front of a rectangular charcoal stove or shuffling between two rows of round charcoal stoves (ten in total), busy making traditional Chinese New Year cookies. The aroma of cookies wafts alongside the red-hot smoldering charcoal, music plays from the radio in the corner, sometimes interrupted by lively chatter. They are busy as bees from before sunrise until sunset.

This double-storey shophouse has been around since Kampung Simee was founded, acting as a grocer and home to four generations of the Low family, where all members of the family would now gather. Ranked seventh out of ten sisters in the third generation, Low Siew Tiong sparked an interest in cookie-making from a tender age. Each year, as the festive season approached, she would help neighbours to make cookies after school. After becoming an adult, she suggested to her sisters that they all work together to make Chinese New Year cookies for sale. Unexpectedly, they kept it up for over forty years. Before getting married, they all lived under the same roof. After getting married, during the two months preceding Chinese New Year until New Year’s Eve, they would make a special effort to return to their old home, where they busied themselves with their annual cookie-making.

The charcoal stoves and cast-iron moulds resurfaced from the storeroom to make mouthwatering kuih kapit, egg rolls, and Indonesian style cookies. The inspiration for Indonesian style cookies was a local delicacy they tasted during a trip decades ago where they visited friends in Indonesia. Upon returning home, they come up with their own version: fry a thin round pancake, fill it with peanuts or meat floss, and fold it into a square. Egg rolls are the bestseller, coming in two varieties: hollow or filled with meat floss (inspired by a trip to Hatyai). Kuih kapit, Indonesian style cookies, and egg rolls may appear similar, but the makeup of each batter is different. The Low sisters stick with the same ingredients’ ratio, without making adjustments to suit consumers. They insist on using charcoal, as it instills a unique flavor which consumers love.

Kuih kapit is baked using the rectangular charcoal stove. The sisters work closely together, handling 20 moulds at the same time. From baking, folding, to packing, each step is carried out in an orderly manner. There are no fixed roles, they can swap with each other anytime. The round charcoal stoves are for Indonesian style cookies and egg rolls, which Low Siew Tiong can single-handedly take care of five at a time. The Low sisters, all of whom have genetically white hair, bustle around the shophouse and the five-foot-way. Apart from charcoal-baked cookies, they also make deep-fried honeycomb cookies, and the older sisters are in charge of oven-baked cookies, totalling up to over twenty types.

The making of cookies is not sophisticated, but the process is gruelling, especially as they get older, they endure sore limbs after work. The Low sisters could only accept orders according to their physical capacity, estimate the production time, and close orders one month before the Chinese New Year, focus on completing orders, then wrap up work to enjoy the holidays. In previous years, they used to work right up to New Year’s Eve, and the siblings pooled money to dine out together for the reunion dinner. What they look forward to the most is on the first day of the Chinese New Year, all members of the family gather at their old home and take family photos.

Year in, year out, the making of Chinese New Year cookies became a family ritual, where family members and neighbours help each other out, sit together, chat, and bond. Handmade traditional Chinese New Year cookies, whether gifted to relatives and friends, served to guests, or enjoyed by the family, carry a legacy of warmth and festive spirit.

有你 UNI Production
Producer : Daniel Lim
Cinematographer : Amelia Lim / Michael Lerk
Drone : Daniel Lim
Video Editor : Amelia Lim
Copywriter : Pua Hui Wen

COPYRIGHTS 2025 ECHINOIDEA SDN BHD

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