Popiah

It's the month of February. Chinese New Year is just around the corner. The atmosphere is definitely not here. But there's a small party today and Ping felt like making popiah. Nope, not because 'siow eng bo ming kia cho' but just thought about it. Furthermore, Ping had all the ingredients.

Woke up early this morn, got all the necessary stuff done and started by thawing the popiah skin. The popiah skin that Ping got is actually not the real popiah skin that we use back in Penang. It is 'Spring roll wrapper' - the Vietnamese style. Similar but thicker. It had to be kept moist so Ping placed in on a pan and cover it with a damp paper towel - Viva Kleenex - love this product! Seriously, it is almost like a cloth. When Ping has to clean the stove, one towel is all you need. Definitely environmental friendly. You can even rinse it off, wring it dry and reuse it.

For the popiah filling, Ping bought carrots (they have ready sliced carrots here!!), taugeh (bean sprouts), hong kuak (mengkuang/jicama), tau kua (beancurd) and hae (shrimps). After slicing them into strips (except for the carrot and shrimps), Ping stir fry them with tau eu (soy sauce) and chicken stock. The chicken stock didn't seem to make much difference because the hong kuak is very sweet. Of course, these are not exactly the ingredients we would be using at home. One of the missing one is or kui tau (French beans). They do have it here but they are sliced and frozen. Ping didn't like it that much the last time Ping got it. So Ping skipped that and used carrots instead. If not mistaken, some of the popiah also have peanuts in them right? Can't remember edi lah..or was that chun piah? Hmmm...can only remember that they are wet and messy and of course, ho chiak!!
To wrap them up, Ping also had a layer of romaine lettuce. The original popiah uses 'oh wa chai' but Ping didn't know what it's called in English. They are slightly crispier than romaine. Or maybe it is romaine? Aiyah...all lettuce taste pretty much the same. Furthermore, 'oh wa chai' looks like romaine too. Couldn't really google for it either since Ping's Hokkien spelling is pretty much 'pua sai tang' (bucket of half shit). [Side tracking - By the way, Ping found the lyrics for that one hokkien song by 粱静茹 but Ping totally don't know how to translate it!!] Ping spread some 'oh eu' (oyster sauce) on the lettuce and place a few spoon full of the filling on it and wrap it up. Ping is not very good at wrapping them as Ping had a few that had holes in them. But they are still edible!! Bleh!
Ping also could not find any 'ti chiow' (don't know what it's called in English either so couldn't find if they have it here) that is why Ping used 'oh eu'. Ping end up making about 20 of them. Most of them are intact but there are quite a few with holes. Brought some over to Steph's place this evening and kept some for Fan. Will be having popiah for dinner for the next few days. Not as 'ti' (sweet) and 'saucey' as the ones available at the hawker stalls (especially the one at New Lane) but at least Ping gets to eat popiah! By the way, mummy, the popiah phui mian tiok chian...but still not like the one we have at home.