10/19/12 - Penang Dessert

I was finishing my lunch of chicken, rice and vegetables the other day when one of my co-workers brought over this package of food.

They appeared to be round pastries, each about the size of a ping pong ball.  I looked up from my computer with a single eye-brow raised and asked the potentially loaded question, "What are these?"  The response of "traditional Penang dessert" wasn't exactly as descriptive as I had hoped for so while she called another person over to describe them to me I turned to my trusty friend Google and found the following website:

http://www.ghee-hiang.com/

Before digging any deeper I figured that any place that had been in business for over a 155 years must be doing something right, so I popped one in my mouth.  The problem with this was it dried your mouth out like a saltine cracker so I had to be careful to not start spraying crumbs everywhere.  There's a big enough ant problem without me contributing to their daily picnic at my desk.  By this time colleague #2 had shown up to try and describe to me what I was eating (half choking on until I found some water).  She said the middle of them were made of a bean paste (pretty common in Southeast Asia at least) and some brown sugar.  That was reasonably accurate, but I was trying to mentally describe it to myself as I still hadn't decided if I like it or not.  For everyone of a certain age the following description should help and if you don't get this I pulled the companies description off their website and included it at the bottom.

There is a Friends episode where Rachel is trying to make a traditional English Trifle for dessert for Thanksgiving.  The problem she runs into is the pages of the cookbook get stuck together and she ends up making a combination English Trifle/Shepherds Pie..... custard, jam, lady fingers, peas, meat, onions etc.  Nobody except Joey (of course) likes it.  Well this kind of a had a sweet/savory taste to it as well and once I realized the Friends connection I nearly sent a shower of crumbs out of my mouth I was laughing so hard.  I ended up eating another one, deciding that my mixed feelings were more on the like vs. dislike side and even brought some back to Singapore.

Pastries' ingredients such as wheat flour, green beans (commonly known as mung beans), molasses, and almonds are wholesome in nature. Wheat flour is naturally low in fat, and provides proteins and a range of vitamins and minerals. Green beans are high in dietary fibre, folate and copper; ideal for weight loss and maintaining an optimum health. Molasses is low in cholesterol, a good source of magnesium and potassium; a healthy sweetener. Almond offers heart-healthy monounsaturated fat, calcium and magnesium, and it is an excellent source of vitamin E which helps protect against cardiovascular disease.

Hey - if nothing else you know they are somewhat "good for you."