We have been quite use to the original scraper with a wooden base which the urban Malays have been using. Today this old fashion wood base coconut scraper can still be found in many kampong homes.
Then when electricity came to Sibu as late as the 1960's some one invented the electric rotating scrapper. The proto type is still in use in many parts of Sarawak. We thus started to buy grated coconut by the katis in sundry shops. How convenient it was for women!! We made onde onde and other kuihs more easily after that. Kaya was made faster as a result too. We did not have to start from scratch.(or scrape)
However if we look at our fellow women in the rural areas who do not have the benefit of electricity we realise how fortunate we are in the cities and towns.
This simple metal scrapper is used by many housewives who do not have the benefit of the urban service of an electric scraper. They have to depend on their own coconut trees behind their longhouse for an old coconut to drop and save for the time they need to make their cakes or kuih.
Besides scraping coconut this metal scraper can be used to scrape many other kinds of root vegetables.
What a clever and simple invention.
10 comments:
my mum had a rounded spur like a cowboy's boot stuck to a rectangular block. you sit on the block.
Every household had a long wooden block and a scraper at the end of it in the old days
Ann...that means your mum had the oldest version of a coconut scraper...one that my Ah Kung had....
Yes Daniel...My grandfather had one too and when we moved to Sibu town my mother depended on the town sundry shops for our grated coconut....
eventually the spur on the wooden block gave way to the electric one ..........which cost only 50 cents for them to grate per coconut.My mom usually went to the one along the Channel Road...where chieng doh were sold(next to the poultry market).How refreshing is the milk being extracted to make kuih or curries...SEDAP
recently i been looking for the manual ice shaver to make ice kacang like the one in pua chu kang. how cool to make one's own ice kacang
Hi Anonymous...yes I love Channel Road in the olden days...when we knew almost every shop keeper and the pace of life was slower.
I remember the old chendol and it seemed to taste better too in those glasses.
And the coconuts seemed to be better too.
Bengbeng
Nice of you to visit. How are you? Yes it is nice to make one's own ice kacang like PCK's family...I am not sure if we can still get the one he has on TV....
The Cantonese were regarded as SAN BA LAUs by the Foochows.
Guess what, my mum still prefered to use her old faithful, Not the electric ones where you get the brown peel/skin, LOl and you have to pick the brown bits if you want to make YEH BAO. Mum said hers was white as snow.
Dear Ann
The old version is still preferred by many. True..about the brown specks...I used to go beserk picking the brown bits...The electric grater can grate only the white grated coconut but it ends up more expensive. If it is just for the santan...never mind the brown specks....Your mum was a good cook.
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