My Checkered Cake Memories

Checkered biscuits have always been one of my favorite street foods in Hong Kong. Although they look similar in appearance, compared with checkered biscuits, they are not as exquisite as waffles. You only need to add whole eggs and sugar and mix well, then add flour and water little by little, and finally add vegetable oil and mix well, then you can make a smooth batter, there is no part of protein separation when making waffles, and there is no need to beat the egg yolk until For the stand-up part, there is no need to add egg whites to white sugar gradually, so that the egg whites are whipped, it is just a simple food.

Also because of the different steps, the taste is different from waffles. The checkered cake is softer and thinner. When the outer skin is hot, it has a slightly crispy texture. The taste is a bit like pancake. Traditionally, the inside is It will be sandwiched with butter, sugar, and condensed milk, and later it will have different flavors such as chocolate, matcha, and the like.

Warm little shop, childhood memories

I still remember the first time I tasted this delicacy. When I was young, on my way to school every day, I opened a new small restaurant. There is no gorgeous decoration in this small restaurant, only food is made The stove, placed in front of the shop, is a simple snack shop. Running it, was a couple who looked a certain age with a line of wrinkles on their faces. The men were selling food such as fish balls and siu mai, while the women were making egg waffles and checkered cakes. It was summer, and the heat of the food would always make them sweat profusely, but it still didn’t hinder them. Enthusiastic, always has a smile on his face, and always likes to chat with guests in his busy schedule.

Every time it is made, the faint aroma of eggs will float out of the store, making people salivate. Not only the smell attracts them, but when they are completed, they always have a golden skin. Passers-by, also because of its eye-catching appearance and attractive smell, can't help but pay more attention to this small shop that is not very conspicuous. At that time, of course, I couldn’t resist the temptation. Even though I knew I didn’t eat much, at that time, after all, a piece of bread was enough for dinner. After eating, most of them couldn’t eat dinner, but I still took my mother , Insist on buying for me.

My mother is quite tolerant about food, so she went to buy it without saying a word. "A checkered cake, thank you", my mother shouted to the proprietress. The proprietress skillfully opened the preheated checkered cake mold, and then quickly poured the golden yellow batter in the container into the checkered cake mold.

Checkered cake molds have tiny squares that eventually form the unique checkered shape of checkered cakes. As the batter pours, it spreads out in the mold, eventually filling every space and even starting to overflow a bit. The proprietress gently closed the top cover of the mold, only to see the batter flow down drop by drop, and finally fall onto the solidified cake crumbs below. I shook my mother's hand and asked, "Isn't this a waste?", but the proprietress suddenly replied to me at this moment, and said with a smile, "Think about it, the cake mold is so hot, if you don't pour it quickly Go on, will the checkered cakes burn before they are ready?"

I thought about it carefully, and it seemed to make sense, so I watched the proprietress make checkered cakes again, and saw that the proprietress began to rotate the checkered cake mold from time to time, and the batter flowed down from time to time during the rotation. Before I even opened my mouth this time, the proprietress told me, "This is to let every place be heated evenly, so that every place can achieve a crispy feeling." Unexpectedly, the proprietress, who has never met before, can also predict the foresight, so I also forcefully swallowed the words I didn't spit out, and swallowed them back into my stomach.

With the rotation again and again, the sound of the timer sounded, and the proprietress put the checkered cakes on the rack to let the egg waffles cool down a bit, and then put the checkered cakes in a paper bag. I thought it would be handed directly to my mother, but the proprietress walked out of the shop, bent down, handed the checkered biscuit to me, and said with a smile, "Your checkered biscuit, hold on tight."

I happily took the checkered cake given by the proprietress, and as the checkered cake was in my hands, bursts of aroma rushed to my face. I was so looking forward to it, of course I couldn't wait to stuff the checkered cake into my mouth.

The first thing I feel is the aroma of condensed milk and the sweetness of sugar. It is sweet and has a thick feeling of condensed milk, which is irresistible. As you chew, the taste of peanut butter with peanut granules slowly emerges. Even though it is just ordinary peanut butter, it is mixed with the previous sweetness and the taste of condensed milk, so that the dry feeling of peanut butter is gone, and the taste is smoother. , and because of the existence of peanut particles, the whole becomes more layered. When chewing to the end, the taste of butter, the smell of eggs and flour of checkered cakes will also slowly come out, and blend harmoniously with the previous taste in the mouth. After eating here, I also had a satisfied smile on my face.

Although this is not the best checkered cake I have ever eaten in my life, the kindness and enthusiasm of the proprietress made this checkered cake the best in my life.

In the future, I will occasionally visit this checkered bakery. Even though the proprietress' enthusiasm remained undiminished, the wrinkles on her face still increased. No matter how kind a person is, after all, he will grow old day by day. Until one day, the familiar smell was gone, the store closed, and this memory was also locked on the wheel of time.

A hawker shop that disregards food hygiene, a small memory in middle school

My secondary school is located in an old-style housing estate. There are not many snack bars nearby to choose from. Every day at noon, there will be an old man, smoking a cigarette, setting up a stall there, selling common street snacks, including checkered cakes.

At first, I didn't have much intention to buy, because at that time, I always felt that the hygiene of hawker shops was not very good. But looking at the endless flow of people in front of the small restaurant every day, I still feel a little bit moved in my heart.

One day, after I went out for lunch at noon, on the way back to school, I felt that I also wanted to eat something sweet, so I also planned to stop by the hawker store and buy a checkered cake.

But when I took out my wallet, my friend stopped me and said to me secretly, "Don't buy it, the ash from this old man's smoking will fall on the food from time to time."

"That's a bit of an exaggeration." At that time, I replied with a half-believing attitude.

"It's true, I really saw it," my friend said in a confident voice.

Although I still have doubts in my heart, since my friend has come with such a positive attitude, it should be true. Although I am quite disappointed in my heart, I don’t want to pay for the pain.

 Cantonese primary school is uncomfortable with posting money to buy: spend money and suffer

So I had no choice but to go back to the snack department of the school and buy chocolates to eat, which satisfied my little desire for dessert.

Until one day, I actually saw the scene of dropping cigarette ashes on the food. I saw the old man took advantage of the gap while making food, picked up the cigarette in the ashtray next to him, smoked it twice, and the thick smoke slowly Yes, it came out from the cigarette, and then the hand holding the cigarette hung down, and the ash slowly fell from the burning mouth of the cigarette, and scattered on the food. Fortunately, my friend kindly reminded me at that time, otherwise I would have become the one who tasted the new taste: soot checkered cake

Even though this hawker shop is not hygienic, and occasionally some people feel unwell and have diarrhea after eating, but there are still a lot of people who buy, maybe they are hungry and panic, maybe they don’t mind, maybe it’s because of the sight. It’s clean if you don’t see it, I don’t know, people are so interesting

In fact, checkered cake and I still have a lot of small stories. When I am depressed, it will become my little partner to comfort me, accompany me and support me. After studying hard, it also became a small reward for me and a small motivation for my dedication.

Okay, let’s not talk about it, let’s buy a checkered pancake/egg waffle first😝