Before Chinese New Year, most Foochow families,especially if they have a very capable grandmother, would start making Tong Gui, a steamed rice cake which is simply made from lots of rice flour and sugar.
Although a Foochow woman I should be good at making this cake, I never had the time to make this cake, due to my work as a teacher. It takes time to steam the cake slowly, and most women would prefer a kerosene stove to do the slow, low heat steaming, using very traditional way. None would ever think of using the micro wave to make this traditional cake. The time for steaming is rather long about two to even three hours.
I have a gas stove, and gas these days is not cheap.
Besides in the olden days it was considered quite hazardous to make this cake because a tired mother or grandmother could fall asleep at the traditional wood stove in the village house.
Having said all that, my siblings and I always appreciated the tong gui we received from our relatives from down river, steamed to perfection.
In recent years, just before CNY my siblings, cousins and I would swap stories about our Sanba days...
We remember one aunt who was so tired from rubber tapping, and all house chores that she fell asleep at the wood stove, waiting for her tong gui to cook (a good few hours) and in the early morning hours, her kitchen caught fire.
She had literally dozed off..But thank goodness every member of the extended family, from the other units of the large house, came to the rescue. Only the steamer had caught fire, and a bit of the attap roof.
Foochow kitchens in those days were always built as an annex with a langdor in between. The four families who lived under one roof, including my grandmother, were saved from a Chinese New Year fire. Praise God.
Today, most of us would enjoy the lovely tong gui in another way. After Chinese New Year, the tong gui would be fried with a light egg batter for breakfast. It is an ever popular dish.
How I miss eating both styles of the tong gui.
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