Going bananas over kuih
A sea of sweets inside, kuihs which would whet any appetite. The outisde of Kak Jah's corner.
By Alexandra Wong
AUG 22 — Why didn’t anybody warn me that Ampang was such a dangerous place for the sweet-toothed?
Just down the road from my client’s house at Jalan Lee Hin Neo is the eponymous named Bakery, which serves delectable cakes and pastries, some of which I’d only read about in recipe books, like “brioche”. And just minutes away lies the Holy Grail of kuih.
While tucking into nasi lemak and Nescafe tarik at Mak Jah’s Corner, the corner outlet in a row of hawker stalls in front of 7-11 next to the SPCA, a lady and her daughter-in-law shared my table. As Malaysians usually are wont to do, we ended up striking a conversation about the best eats in the vicinity. The older lady enthused, “Oh this place [where we’re eating nasi lemak] sells the best kuih in the world! I come all the way from Gurney to buy it!”
Try the bingka ubi, one of the favs...
My ears perk up at the mention of Gurney. I obviously know she’s not talking about the Drive all the way in Penang. But still, Gurney is a good 15 minutes’ drive away. I make up mind to try it soon enough. I’m not much of a kuih aficionado, though, so there is no urgency to my mission, which is why, I only ended up trying it out about two weeks ago.
Now that I’m paying attention, I begin to notice details which had hitherto escaped me in earlier sojourns. You know, like how you notice all the Myvi’s in town when you yourself plonk a deposit on one?
Or the other fav, kuih bakar.
Like how there is a perpetual line of people asking to “bungkus” (doggy-bag) kuih after their breakfast, and that there is quite an impressive selection of kuih Melayu: some that I am well-schooled in from buka puasa bingeing sprees, some that I have seen but never eaten, and some, which I have never seen …wait a minute. My eyes land on a tray of brown squares that look suspiciously like brownies.
“Apa tu (What’s that)?”
“Bingka ubi kayu dengan gula melaka (Tapioca squares with palm sugar).”
My throat goes dry. Even with my limited experiments in the kitchen, I instinctively know such a combination, if well-executed, would be devastatingly yummy.
“Bagi satu (Give me one piece),” I say.
“Cukup ke (Is it enough)?”
The crowd lining up at the counter
I nod wordlessly. On the slow amble back to the house. I carefully study the square of sweet clad in its plastic wrapping. I had picked the corner piece; it’s usually the best part, with its attendant charred sides and all.
It gleams with moistness. It is firm yet springy to the touch, and very granular, almost like a honeycomb bee-cake, a good indication that the kuih has been steamed long enough. The colour is a dark rich brown, almost like bitter chocolate. Only one way to find out, I think, as I bite into it while passing by the SPCA….
The girl looks up at me in surprise. Didn’t I leave just a minute ago?
“Bagi dua keping lagi (Give me two more pieces),” I say sheepishly, “dan… ni apa (and… what’s this)?”
“Bingka pisang (Banana square),” she says with a smile. It turns out to be densely packed with banana, firm where the dough is, and soft where the morsels of fruit are compressed.
I tried the regular bingka ubi, i.e made from white instead of palm sugar a few days ago. The tapioca fragrance is more pronounced, the taste is more delicate, almost as lovely as its gula melaka brethren, which has the power to invoke my drool even as I just think about the bits of half-melted palm sugar releasing their pungent, earthy scent of burnt nectar, smoky and sweet, while gumming up my molars.
Apparently, Mak Jah’s is an institution. The family running this business has been selling kuih for more than 20 years now. “We used to trade under that tree,” Encik Mazlan, her brother, points to a tree just next to SCPA.
“Do you make your own or borong (get your stock from somebody else)?”
“Oh we produce our own!” he looks so shocked that I feel that I’ve almost insulted him. “We make about 85 per cent of our own kuih, except a few things like the cream puff.” Which explains, again, why the bulk of the kuih is displayed in homely talams (aluminium trays).
And you'll see the prices are pretty welcoming. Come fetch!!
I have yet to try their agar-agar, apam gula hangus, cokodok, cucur udang, kasturi kacang, kuih bakar bunga, lepat pisang, masalode, pulut panggang, talam kasui, talam seri muka etc. I am sure I spotted at least 25 types at last count, but who cares?
In the presence of such mouth-watering awesomeness, who has time for trivialities?
Mak Jah’s Corner
One of the outlets in the row of shops in front of 7-11,
Jalan Kerja Air Lama,
Ampang Jaya,
68000 Ampang.
Opens 7.30am - late afternoon.
Though Mak Jah’s opens from morning till afternoon, Alexandra Wong (bunnysprints.blogspot.com) reckons the best time to go is early in the morning. She went back three times to try capturing their entire array of kuih on film, only to be told that some were already sold out, and this was at 8.30am!
