''Put chai ko'' () is a popular snack in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. It is a

rice cake A rice cake may be any kind of food item made from rice that has been shaped, condensed, or otherwise combined into a single object. A wide variety of rice cakes exist in many different cultures in which rice is eaten. Common variations include ...

made from white or brown sugar, long-grain rice flour with a little wheat starch or cornstarch. Sometimes red beans are also added. The batter is poured into porcelain bowls and

steamed Steaming is a method of cooking using steam. This is often done with a food steamer, a kitchen appliance made specifically to cook food with steam, but food can also be steamed in a wok. In the American Southwest, steam pits used for cooking ha ...

until cooked through. Then it is allowed to cool and served at room temperature. Traditionally, the hawker inserts two bamboo skewers into the cake to turn it out and the eater holds the skewers to consume. At present, most ''put chai ko'' are sold in plastic bags. The pudding cake is

palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae ** List of Arecaceae genera **Palm oil * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music ...

size and is sweet in taste. It is soft, but can hold its molded shape outside a

bowl A bowl is a typically round dish or container generally used for preparing, serving, storing, or consuming food. The interior of a bowl is characteristically shaped like a spherical cap, with the edges and the bottom, forming a seamless curve ...

Names

The snack is also known by a number of English names, including Put chai pudding, Rice Pudding, Earthen bowl cake, Bootjaigo, Red bean pudding or Put chai ko.

History

The pudding is made like other traditional

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

steamed cakes. It is said to have originated in the Chinese county of

Taishan __NOTOC__ Taishan may refer to: *Mount Tai Mount Tai () is a mountain of historical and cultural significance located north of the city of Tai'an. It is the highest point in Shandong province, China. The tallest peak is the ''Jade Emperor Peak ...

, which is west of

. The pudding reached its popularity peak in the early to mid-1980s when hawkers sold it all over the streets in their push

cart A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by draught animals such as horses, donkeys, mules and oxen, or even smaller animals such as goats or large dogs. A handcart ...

s. At the time, there were only a small handful of flavors. One of the dish's cultural trademarks is that it is served in a

porcelain Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to oth ...

bowl or an

aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

cup. The snack is still available today in select

Chinese pastry Chinese bakery products ( or ) consist of pastries, cakes, snacks, and desserts of largely Chinese origin, though some are derived from Western baked goods. Some of the most common "Chinese" bakery products include mooncakes, sun cakes (Beijing ...

or snack shops, or from street hawkers. The pudding can also be served like an

ice pop An ice pop is a liquid/cream-based frozen dessert on a stick. Unlike ice cream or sorbet, which are whipped while freezing to prevent ice crystal formation, an ice pop is frozen while at rest, becoming a solid block of ice with an icy textur ...

, held up by two

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...

sticks.

Classic Hong Kong flavors

* Plain white sugar * Brown sugar * Plain white sugar with

azuki bean ''Vigna angularis'', also known as the , azuki bean, aduki bean, red bean, or red mung bean, is an annual vine widely cultivated throughout East Asia for its small (approximately long) bean. The cultivars most familiar in East Asia have a un ...

s * Brown sugar with any one of the beans in the genus ''

Vigna ''Vigna'' is a genus of plants in the legume family, Fabaceae, with a pantropical distribution.Aitawade, M. M., et al. (2012)Section ''Ceratotropis'' of subgenus ''Ceratotropis'' of ''Vigna'' (Leguminosae–Papilionoideae) in India with a new ...

Gallery

File:Sticky Rice Pudding.jpg File:HK SKD TSO 將軍澳 Tseung Kwan O 唐俊街 Tong Chun Street 寶邑路 Po Yap Road 將軍澳廣場 TKO Plaza mall 永旺超級市場 AEON Supermarket cooked food January 2023 Px3 Steamed red bean rice pudding.jpg File:Put chai ko from Chi Kee Congee Shop.jpg White steamed red bean rice pudding 3.jpg, White ''put chai ko'' made with white sugar

References

External links