KompiaSimon Richmond, et al.
Lonely Planet: Discover Malaysia & Singapore
'. Lonely Planet, 2013. or kompyang (;

Minbei Northern Min () is a group of mutually intelligible Min varieties spoken in Nanping prefecture of northwestern Fujian. Classification and distribution Early classifications of varieties of Chinese, such as those of Li Fang-Kuei in 1937 and ...

: ;

Mindong Eastern Min or Min Dong (, Foochow Romanized: Mìng-dĕ̤ng-ngṳ̄), is a branch of the Min Chinese, Min group of Sinitic languages of China. The prestige form and most-cited representative form is the Fuzhou dialect, the speech of the capital ...

: ;

Hinghwa Puxian (Hinghwa Romanized: ''Pó-sing-gṳ̂''; ), also known as Pu-Xian Chinese, Puxian Min, Xinghua, Henghwa or Hinghwa (''Hing-hua̍-gṳ̂''; ), is a Sinitic language that forms a branch of Min Chinese. Puxian is a transitional variety of ...

: ; Minnan: kiâm-kong-piáⁿ ��光餅 ; ms, kompias / roti kompyang; id, kompyang / kompias) is a bread product that originates from

Fuzhou Fuzhou (; , Fuzhounese: Hokchew, ''Hók-ciŭ''), alternately romanized as Foochow, is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian province, China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute t ...

, the capital city of Fujian Province of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

as well as Fuqing. It is popular in Fujian and has spread to other areas including the Ryukyus, Taiwan, and parts of Southeast Asia including Indonesia and the Malaysian towns of Sitiawan, Sibu, Ayer Tawar, Sarikei, Bintangor and other places where the dominant Chinese community is of

(alternatively spelled Foochow or Hokchiu) and Fuqing ancestry (where it is sometimes nicknamed "Foochow bagels").

History

Kompia was named after Qi Jiguang, who invented it. When Qi Jiguang led his troops into Fujian in 1563, the

Japanese pirates ''Wokou'' (; Japanese language, Japanese: ''Wakō''; Korean language, Korean: 왜구 ''Waegu''), which literally translates to "Japanese pirates" or "dwarf pirates", were pirates who raided the coastlines of China and Korea from the 13th centur ...

, fearing his name, engaged mainly in guerrilla-style battles. Qi Jiguang noticed that the Japanese pirates could always trace where his troops camped because of the smoke that rose up to the sky when the soldiers prepared their meals. He found out the Japanese pirates had no such problem because they brought onigiri with them. So Qi Jiguang invented a kind of bread with a hole in the center so that they could be strung together to be conveniently carried along. Later, to commemorate Qi Jiguang's victory against the pirate raiders, the bread was named after him as ''guāng-bǐng'' (or "Guang cake").

Ingredients

Kompia is made with

lard Lard is a semi-solid white fat product obtained by rendering the fatty tissue of a pig.Lard
entry in the o ...

, onions, salt and flour. A ball of flour is stuffed with a filling of other desired ingredients and flattened with a rolling pin. It is then slapped onto the sides of a traditional home-made Chinese oven and takes approximately 15 minutes to bake. Meat is often used as a filling in the bread.

Variants

A variant with sesame seeds scattered on top and baked without any filling is known as 麻饼. A sweet variant known as 征东饼 (literally "Conquest of the East cake") uses a proportion of

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...

to substitute the salt in the dough.

References

Indonesian breads Biscuits Chinese breads Military food {{bread-stub