Lou Gung Paeng - Husband's Biscuit
Frankly, it tasted a bit weird. I don't know how to describe, but just not to my liking. Perhaps it was the seaweed that they added in.
My favourite chinese pastry is no doubt the Lou Por Paeng - Wife's Biscuit.
There are a few legends relating to wife's biscuit.
One of them being: A needy couple used candied winter melon to make some round shaped pastry and peddled these on the street. It was such a hit that the husband decided to name this pastry wife's biscuit as a gratitude to his wife.
Yummy candied winter melon
The other being: A Teochew pastry chef brought some candied winter melon pastry baked by his wife to his colleagues in a restaurant in Canton. The chefs thought that the pastry tasted awesome and decided to tweak the pastry and sell them in the restaurant. As the pastry was first baked by the Teochew chef's wife, they decided to name it 'Wife Biscuit'. (Credit - Wikipedia.org)
But, I always relate wife's biscuit to the Hong Kong drama series, Square Pegs 戇夫成龍. The utterly touching love story. Remember the famous main character - stupid and good nature Ah Wong 丁常旺, played by Roger Kwok? The length that he is willing to go to earn his wife's (Ling Choi Fung 凌彩鳳, played by Jessica Hsuan) approval and affection is heartrending, especially the part where he painstakingly dried up the candied winter melon and baked the special pastry where he later named it Lou Por Paeng.
Beauty exists in simplicity is what this series is trying to say. Judging by the awesome lou por paeng, I totally agree.
Anyway, this is a popular snack in Hong Kong. The most famous one is probably from an old confectionary shop in Yuen Long. Years back whenever we visit Hong Kong, we used to make special trips to Yuen Long just to buy them. Tasted awesome when just out of the oven. The pastry is very flaky and fragile.
Craving for lou por paeng? No need to fly to Hong Kong these days. Just pop into the confectionary shop, Sin Eng Heong in Ipoh. Their lou poh paeng can certainly compete with those in Yuen Long.
Their other pastries are equally alluring, in particular the kaya puff, flaky, crispy, fragrant and egglicious kaya filled.
On weekends and public holidays, the acclaimed pastries may run out fast, it is advisable to order in advance, to avoid leaving empty-handed and sour-faced. Aiyah, I have misplaced their number and address. Well, the shop is on the street next to Lou Wong Bean Sprout Chicken.
Let me end this post with Ah Wong's famous line, "I'm happy as long as the one I love is happy."
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