Monday, February 8, 2010

Mission Kueh Bangkit

Our Sunday saw me go into a frenzy over finding Mr Harry's Nonya Kueh shop. If I could only have one Chinese New Year cookie, then it has to be kueh bangkit. Not any kueh bangkit, only Harry's! Kueh bangkit is a light coconut cookie made from tapioca flour. Its hard to the bite but the good ones should melt in your mouth. I remember how when we were kids, my sister and I use to help my mum make rooster-shaped kueh bangkit and we'll dot each cookie with a little red dot to represent the rooster's eyes!

So back to my story. We headed to Joo Chiat on Saturday evening intending to get our yearly supply of kueh bangkit from Uncle Harry's Nonya shop only to find that an Everything With Fries cafe had taken over! Sigh, another victim of the cafe culture! Disappointment was an understatement. I considered making do with the ones from a competitor - Glory - but theirs were hard and bland, I couldn't bring myself to waste $10 on a bottle.

I spent a good part of Sunday searching for leads on where Mr Harry may have moved to only to find a cyber geek's post on Hardware Zone asking if anyone knew where Harry had gone. Convinced by mid afternoon that Mr Harry has called it a day altogether, I reluctantly picked up a bottle of kueh bangkit while visiting Chinatown only because (a) the lady boss promised me it was melt-in-your-mouth material and (b) it was a reputable shop in Chinatown so how bad could it be! We put it to the test immediately on the car ride home - everyone agreed it was OK, it did melt in our mouths but something was just not the same.

Still undeterred by the fact I already had a bottle of kueh bangkit at home, I continued on my cyber search. God must have known how much I wanted my bottle of Harry's kueh bangkit cos I eventually stumbled onto a post in Juicy & Delicious reminiscing about the closure of Mr Harry's shop. While reading, it appeared clear that Uncle Harry had decided to call it a day . To my absolute delight, she provided a contact at the end of her post! The rest, they say is history. By 8pm, after more than 24 hours of searching, I was reunited with my kueh bangkit - now there's meaning to my Chinese New Year again!

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