CNY Seaweed Snacks Recipe

Chinese New Year is finally here! Gong Xi Gong Xi!

Traditionally, every household will stock up variety of snacks at home in anticipation of relatives and friends who would visit during Chinese New Year.

One of the best one is the seaweed cracker. It is basically deep fried seaweed wrapped in spring roll skin.

Use egg as sticking agent and applied it onto the spring roll skin. Place the seaweed on top, apply another layer of egg with brush. Sprinkle some sesame seed and seal it with another layer of spring roll skin. Use scissor to cut to your favourite sizes. Tossed them into a hot boiling oil to deep fry.

Let's see how it is done in action.

农历新年来咯！恭喜恭喜！ 传统上，每个家庭都会在农历新年期间准备各种零食来招待拜访的亲戚朋友。 最好吃之一是紫菜饼。它基本上是用春卷皮包裹紫菜然后拿去油炸。 用鸡蛋作为粘着剂，将其涂在春卷皮上。将紫菜放在上面，再用刷子刷上一层鸡蛋。撒些芝麻，然后用另一层春卷皮盖上去。用剪刀将其切成您喜欢的尺寸。最后把它们放入热沸腾的油中油炸。 让我们看看它的过程吧！

How To Fry Prawn Crackers

Make sure the oil is extremely hot, drop it into the wok. As soon as it expands, make sure to stretch it to prevent it from wrapping around itself.

Finished product.

Penang Popiah

Local food enthusiasts concur that the best popiah to be found in Penang is at Ong Leng Hin's stall at the Padang Brown hawker center; his popiah is generally deemed second to none.

Popiah, or fresh spring rolls, is Hokkien in origin, but local influence can be detected in the use of chilli sauce. Brown bean paste is also used to flavour the spring rolls.

A savory filling of stewed julienned sengkuang (yam bean), diced beancurd and spring onions is wrapped in a paper-thin crepe. Some cooks also add crab meat for an extravagent twist and shallot crisps for aroma.

For out-of-towners, it might be a bit of a challenge to locate Ong's stall, as it has no sign! Loyal customers all know where to locate the stall and its reputation has spread far and wide via word of mouth.

Visitors should look out for the "Penang Cafe Coconut Water" stall. You'll find Ong's stall right next to it.

Ong's family recipe for popiah has been finding favor with Penangites since the 1950s. As a child, he used to help his father at the same stall he now runs.

Ong begins his day at 7am, stewing the julienned yambean and other ingredients in crab stock for four hours; he is one of the few remaining popiah sellers in Penang to still use crab stock in his recipe.

Unlike the Vietnamese spring roll, the Penang version is much juicier as Ong's yambean filling is moist. Some customers like their popiah doused with lots of extra yambean gravy.