Homemade Radish Cake and New Town Bakery

Fried Radish Cakes

We made radish cake for breakfast today. But later in the morning I bought some taro cake and another type of Chinese cake that is rounded and coated with roasted sesame seed called chin toi, from New Town Bakery in Surrey. The radish cake was basically made of rice flour and mash radish. Both the rice flour and mash radish are mixed in water to form a thick paste. First, the paste was steamed and than once the paste turns into a more solid brick, it is sliced and fried with dried shrimps, chopped mushrooms, and chopped preserved radish.

Cantonese Taro Cake

The radish cake can take many different forms, flavours, taste, and recipes. Each Chinese dialect or community has their own unique radish cake recipe. In Penang, the radish cake is fried with bean sprouts, more chopped preserved radish, eggs, chilli paste, and with dark soy sauce. Just like the radish cake, the taro cake too has different forms and recipes. But the commercialized version has got to be the Cantonese taro cake recipe, where the the taro cake is stuffed with barbecue pork and deep fried whole in a pot of cooking oil. The barbecue pork that is stuffed in the taro cake is the same type of fillings that is stuffed in Chinese Siew Bao.

Chin Toi, Always Perfect

And then, we have the chin toi. In Cantonese it just mean a perfect pair. Nearly all the rounded chin toi are of the same size and shape. And each of these rounded balls are stuffed with sweet bean paste. Usually, red beans. All the three different cakes I mentioned today are very commonly served as dim sum items but sometimes can be found in smaller road side food trucks specializing in traditional cakes, sweets, and desserts. In Penang, although predominantly of Hokkein and Teochew origins, these cakes are still very popular.