Kueh Ketayap

Looking at the variety of kueh available this Ramadan month reminds me of the kueh that I used to eat when I was young and living with my parents. In those days we never (none that I can recall) buy any kueh at all. All the kueh that we had were made by my mother. Even "chendol" she made her own, everything from scratch; the green thing, coconut milk, brown sugar syrup. I remember on many occasions helping scrape the coconut flesh with the "kukor". Now they do it with the electric machine. My favourite kueh made by mum was "kueh ketayap" (it still is my favourite kueh now). When mum is not around the house I sometimes make my own kueh. The usual kueh that I made was the "tepong talam" because it was the easiest to make and always cooks well. It is cooked by steam, you can never go wrong with a steamer. Mind you we don't have gas or electric cooker at the time, we used firewood. At that time I was maybe 9,10 years old and no stranger to the kitchen. Once I fried a bird that I shot down myself with a catapult. I always carry along a catapult (made myself) and a razor blade every time friends and I went into the bush. On that particular day I shot a nice little bird and so used the blade to slaughter it. After pulling out all the feathers and the insides, what remains is a bird the size of a small thumb. At home I then add some salt then deep-fried it for a few minutes and eat it all in one go - wow crunchy, sedap! Much later when I was older I mentioned this story to a British friend and he said I was a cannibal!