Sibu Tales : Malakeeling (Butter Cream)

The butter cream biscuits came to Sibu with the colonialists because it was an English biscuit.

Most Foochows cannot pronounce the R and so the name of malakeeling biang appeared in the Foochow dialect in the 1930's probably in Sibu.

My Ngie mah loved the malakeeling biang and my dad would always buy a tin for her whenever we visited her in Nang Chong. Such a gift in Foochow is called Ming Neng, meaning FACE FRONT. Social politeness required a small gift called Ming Neng whenever we visited friends and relatives, sometimes without notice. In Bahasa Malaysia Ming Neng is called Buah Tangan, or Hand Fruit.

The tin was a rectangular tin and surprisingly when stuffed many old ladies could even use it as a good neck rest!! My grandmother used to say that it was a good height for the head.

Many kampong children, be they Melanaus or Chinese, used the biscuit tins to keep their school text books safe from water when they travelled in small boats to their school.