Chwee Kueh Cravings

About two years ago, three months before I came to Melbourne to further my studies, I ate a packet of chwee kueh every Sunday morning(ish) for breakfast. The chwee kueh from the hawker centre opposite from my housing estate had the most generous helping of chai po (fried pickled radish) topping, such that every mouthful of the piping hot rice cake had plenty of chai po to go with it. I would savour every bite of chwee kueh, and not a single bit chai po would go uneaten. (Back in my not-so-adult-days I practically licked the packet-paper clean.) Had the chai po topping not been generous, I would be forced to ration the topping so that every spoonful of the steamed rice cakes would have a decent amount of chai po to go with. That's quite sad, I know.

Around August of last year, this new asian coffee shop opened along Bourke Street near Chinatown, called Singapore Chom Chom. As I was walking past the shop with my hostel mate Beanpole late one night, I caught a glimpse of the sign in all its fluorescent glory was a picture of a plate of chwee kueh! I tell you, never had I been so excited over a plate of chwee kueh in my life. I began gesturing frantically to beanpole and kept pointing at the sign, being extremely excited about discovering my sorely missed chwee kueh in Melbourne. It had been six months since I last had chwee kueh. Needless to say we went inside the shop, sat down and each got a plate of chwee kueh. We were served with three pieces of chwee kueh each, and each topped with the saddest looking amount of chai po I have ever seen. And guess how much it was? It was AUD$4.50 a plate - I could have gotten about 5 packets of chwee kueh back home, that's like 25 pieces of chwee kueh! Nevertheless, it was still a good feeling to faintly reminisce my favourite Singaporean dish. To think both of us spent AUD$9.00 on just basically rice flour and pickled radish, LOL, just sounds so absurd!

And when I returned to Singapore during that summer break, the first dish that I sank my teeth in was - guess what? - that's right, chwee kueh! Haha! Though it wasn't from my favourite stall, I didn't mind it too much, after all it's been a while since I had a packet of decent chwee kueh. For the next two months, I had chwee kueh every Sunday for breakfast again. As if that wasn't enough, I think I went to Chomp Chomp twice in the same week to satisfy my chwee kueh cravings, hehe, the second time I dragged Xinz with me, just before we went for Mambo Nite at Zouk! I think we ordered eight pieces, hehe!

Sigh, I really miss my weekly chwee kueh over here. I'm missing it so much, I'm willing to trade my soul for a plate of chwee kueh right now, haha! Some young and inspiring entrepreneur should start a business here selling authentic chwee kueh from Singapore, and I promise that I would be their number one customer, without a doubt! ;)