Our Chinese New Year Tradition - CNY cookies

Chinese New Year is the most important festival in my family. In preparation for the celebration, many families make Chinese New Year Cookies as gifts to friends and relatives or as snacks for visitors. Gift-giving is a significant part of Chinese culture that my mom insisted we uphold. Weeks before Chinese New Year, our family would gather at my late aunt's flat to bake these cookies. Our family’s signature treats are Ribbon cookies and Kuih Ka Pek.?

Ribbon cookie is a crispy snack shaped like a ribbon. It involves several steps, each requiring different skill levels. It begins with my aunt preparing the dough. Similar to pasta-making, she works the dough until it's ready to be rolled through a pasta machine, creating thin sheets like lasagna. My aunties or older cousins usually handle this to ensure the sheets are of consistent thickness. It’s crucial to roll the dough to exactly 2mm thick. After that, they layer two sheets of dough and cut them into small rectangles, which the kids will then turn into ribbon patterns.

This is the fun part, and it requires little skill—well, maybe just gentle hands and a lot of love! Typically, the younger generation gets to help with this step. Using a traditional stainless steel stamp, we create three even-cut lines on each rectangle. Then, we flip one end over through the middle incision, and voilà, a ribbon-shaped cookie!

Now that I’m a parent, I admit that the imperfections my kids make when helping with food prep can drive me crazy. But on the other hand, I’m thankful for all the family food prep sessions I had as a child. Not only did I learn recipes and cooking skills, but I also learned patience and kindness. Of course, any imperfect ribbon cookies get recycled through the pasta machine, giving them new life in the next batch. In this family tradition, there is no food waste.

The next step is for the adults only. The perfectly shaped ribbon cookies are now ready to be deep-fried. We use a very large wok, filled with hot oil. A few minutes in the hot oil, and they’re ready to be enjoyed.

Kuih Ka Pek, also known as Lover Letter, is made at a separate station outside the flat. It’s a bit unconventional to make cookies in the open corridor on the 11th floor next to the fire staircase. Unfortunately, these low-cost, high-density flats don’t provide a common area for community activities like this. Nonetheless, people get creative when lack of space.

Making Kuih Ka Pek requires high skill and speed. To prepare these, we use a traditional BBQ pit filled with charcoal and a mold shaped like scissors. We open the mold, pour a thin layer of batter on one side, close it, and place it on the charcoal for about a minute.

The next task is for those with metal fingers. Once the cookie is done cooking on the charcoal, we have only a few seconds to take it out and fold it into a perfect quarter. My aunts and cousins are absolute pros and can do this with their bare hands.

Once the cookies cool down, they’re ready to be packaged. In Malaysia’s hot and humid climate, anything crispy, like chips or cookies, must be stored in airtight containers. If not stored properly, they lose their crunch. We call it 漏风 (loose air). We reuse old Milo tins, lining them with red baking paper. After all, it’s for Chinese New Year, and red is the most fitting color for the occasion.

*Penang Stories is a collection of short stories accompanied by architectural illustrations, created by Jaslyn Ng, an architect based in Melbourne, Australia. Originally from Penang, Malaysia, Jaslyn moved to Melbourne to study architecture at RMIT, where she continues to practice. These stories capture her memories of Penang, as seen through the lens of her architectural background.