Chwee Kway - Form vs Essence
Chwee Kway. Either you love it or you hate it.
For the uninformed, which are probably not many, chwee kway is a chinese snack often eaten for breakfast. It's essentially steamed rice flour cakes which are totally tasteless, eaten with preserved salted radish. The plain-ness of the flour cakes complements the extreme salt content in the radish well. Either you hate it or you love it. Personally, I quite like the pairing of the taste and texture contrast, but the radish is often SOOOOOO oily at most stalls that I end up with a bloated stomach the whole day. Yearck.
The thing is, chwee kway is round. It's supposed to be round. Everybody thinks of 'round' when they think of chwee kway. Chwee kway cannot be of any other shape. It just can't. It's just the way it is, no rhyme, no reason.
I buy breakfast sometimes from a little stall near office. The auntie self-proclaims to have been manning the stall for 12 years, and she makes pretty good stuff. I enjoy her food quite a bit. Hers is one of those Chinese-snack-breakfast-stalls selling CCF (chee cheong fun), yam cake, pumpkin cake, dumplings, pau etc. But unlike the other stalls who take their food from suppliers and factories, this auntie has helmed the stall by making her own stuff! Cool rite?
But therein lies the problem.
Her chwee kway doesn't fit the mould. It isn't round.
It's square. A cube. A block. Anything but chwee kway.
I've seen many aunties give the stall-owner a queer look when she opens her giant steamer and fishes out these blocks of steamed rice flour when they ask for chwee kway. Can you imagine? The sight is actually quite funny. And the aunties would actually ask 'Huh? is that chwee kway?? Eeyer. Your chwee kway square one. I don't want.' Sounds ridiculous? I've seen it right before my very eyes.
Chwee kway is steamed rice flour cakes eaten with preserved salted radish. Round chwee kway is steamed rice flour cakes eaten with preserved salted radish. Square chwee kway is steamed rice flour cakes eaten with preserved salted radish. Steamed rice flour cakes eaten with preserved salted radish is chwee kway.
It's interesting how we often can't recognise something just because it's changed shape. Or we think something isn't what it is anymore just because it looks different from what we are used to.
I remember reading about a man who had his legs amputated because of disease. And he said 'The toughest thing is that people see me as somebody who was. I am not who I am, I was who I was.' Even when somebody's outside changes, is he who he still is inside? Our form is changeable, but can our essence remain the same?
Our form is often what academics like to call 'social constructs'. Chwee kway must be round because it has always been round, because we are used to it being round. If it is not round, it cannot be chwee kway. People define what a chwee kway is. But a chwee kway does not cease to be a chwee kway just because it is square. Its substance, its essence remains identical.
So often, we try to fit ourselves into the moulds that others give to us. Just like the rice flour, we fit ourselves into the round mould and make ourselves that shape. The fundamental aim of every human being is self-actualisation. What is that? If we looked at the words and break it down, it essentially means we become 'our actual selves'. Ironically, too many voices out there today tell us that we are only self-actualised when we become successful in business, make a tonne of money, able to speak like Adam Khoo.. etc. The irony is that these goals are what society tells us we should be, they may or may not be 'our actual selves'. Self-actualisation leads to happiness and joy. But too many 'successful' people today are not happy, not because they are failures, but because they tried to be round when they are actually square.
And so, chwee kway should be defined as what composes it, not what it should look like. Can we also accept those who don't look like what society thinks it should look like? Can we also enjoy chwee kway that is square, savouring the salty-plain and smooth-grainy contrasts? Sure we can, but we must first put aside our thoughts that square chwee kway is not chwee kway and be willing to take a first bite.
Other vs actual me. Rejection vs acceptance. Round vs square. Form vs essence.
You choose.
But I still want my breakfast. :)
For the uninformed, which are probably not many, chwee kway is a chinese snack often eaten for breakfast. It's essentially steamed rice flour cakes which are totally tasteless, eaten with preserved salted radish. The plain-ness of the flour cakes complements the extreme salt content in the radish well. Either you hate it or you love it. Personally, I quite like the pairing of the taste and texture contrast, but the radish is often SOOOOOO oily at most stalls that I end up with a bloated stomach the whole day. Yearck.
The thing is, chwee kway is round. It's supposed to be round. Everybody thinks of 'round' when they think of chwee kway. Chwee kway cannot be of any other shape. It just can't. It's just the way it is, no rhyme, no reason.
I buy breakfast sometimes from a little stall near office. The auntie self-proclaims to have been manning the stall for 12 years, and she makes pretty good stuff. I enjoy her food quite a bit. Hers is one of those Chinese-snack-breakfast-stalls selling CCF (chee cheong fun), yam cake, pumpkin cake, dumplings, pau etc. But unlike the other stalls who take their food from suppliers and factories, this auntie has helmed the stall by making her own stuff! Cool rite?
But therein lies the problem.
Her chwee kway doesn't fit the mould. It isn't round.
It's square. A cube. A block. Anything but chwee kway.I've seen many aunties give the stall-owner a queer look when she opens her giant steamer and fishes out these blocks of steamed rice flour when they ask for chwee kway. Can you imagine? The sight is actually quite funny. And the aunties would actually ask 'Huh? is that chwee kway?? Eeyer. Your chwee kway square one. I don't want.' Sounds ridiculous? I've seen it right before my very eyes.
Chwee kway is steamed rice flour cakes eaten with preserved salted radish. Round chwee kway is steamed rice flour cakes eaten with preserved salted radish. Square chwee kway is steamed rice flour cakes eaten with preserved salted radish. Steamed rice flour cakes eaten with preserved salted radish is chwee kway.
It's interesting how we often can't recognise something just because it's changed shape. Or we think something isn't what it is anymore just because it looks different from what we are used to.
I remember reading about a man who had his legs amputated because of disease. And he said 'The toughest thing is that people see me as somebody who was. I am not who I am, I was who I was.' Even when somebody's outside changes, is he who he still is inside? Our form is changeable, but can our essence remain the same?
Our form is often what academics like to call 'social constructs'. Chwee kway must be round because it has always been round, because we are used to it being round. If it is not round, it cannot be chwee kway. People define what a chwee kway is. But a chwee kway does not cease to be a chwee kway just because it is square. Its substance, its essence remains identical.
So often, we try to fit ourselves into the moulds that others give to us. Just like the rice flour, we fit ourselves into the round mould and make ourselves that shape. The fundamental aim of every human being is self-actualisation. What is that? If we looked at the words and break it down, it essentially means we become 'our actual selves'. Ironically, too many voices out there today tell us that we are only self-actualised when we become successful in business, make a tonne of money, able to speak like Adam Khoo.. etc. The irony is that these goals are what society tells us we should be, they may or may not be 'our actual selves'. Self-actualisation leads to happiness and joy. But too many 'successful' people today are not happy, not because they are failures, but because they tried to be round when they are actually square.
And so, chwee kway should be defined as what composes it, not what it should look like. Can we also accept those who don't look like what society thinks it should look like? Can we also enjoy chwee kway that is square, savouring the salty-plain and smooth-grainy contrasts? Sure we can, but we must first put aside our thoughts that square chwee kway is not chwee kway and be willing to take a first bite.
Other vs actual me. Rejection vs acceptance. Round vs square. Form vs essence.
You choose.
But I still want my breakfast. :)
Heritage and classic foods of Singapore must never be changed. Original Flavours of Singapore, such as chwee kway, chay kway teow, S'pore chicken rice, and many many more from days (2-3 decades ago) where the humble street hawkers peddled their specialties in kampongs and street corners around Singapore should never be considered for improvisation/modification. So drastically making way for commercialisation and modernisation, they have been replaced and heading to a point of extinction. We should always find ways and accept many of the good things that embody the likes and uniqueness of our heritage that are already lost in this modern time.
Preservation will continue a tradition that is so Singapore otherwise our identities will be lost forever and the new and the next generations of Singaporeans will never ever be able appreciate and describe a dynamic little country known worldwide but cannot be found in the atlas.
Therefore, chwee kway should be round and must always stay round. Thats how they will be remembered.
Char Kway Teow should be stir fried in pork lard regardless. Chee Hum should not be replace by lalah. And the lists go on......
Hi aksim,
I think you have missed the point of my article. The point of the article is not about whether changes should be made to heritage foods, but to prompt thoughts about how we often mistake form for essence, or that we struggle to accept things that are different from what we are used to.
As a social worker by profession, this is something I see day in and day out, not just accepting people who are different, but also struggles to come to terms with changes that happen in our lives. :)
Liren, I'm always so amazed how you can turn something really trivial into an important life lesson. How the heck do you do that? It's unfortunate that not many people are able to look through physical forms or accept changes in life. Sometimes even the smallest shift can be a big challenge. A change is never caused by a single factor and what people deal with are the change factors and not the change itself.
anyway it's quite funny how that guy didn't want his chee kwey coz it's square??? thought the more important thing would be the chai por. *slaps forehead*