Put chai ko

Put chai ko

Origin
Place of origin	Hong Kong
Details
Type	Cake
Main ingredient(s)	Steamed sugar

Put chai ko
Chinese	砵仔糕
Cantonese Jyutping	but3 zai2 gou1
Literal meaning	little pudding cake
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin bō zaí gāo Yue: Cantonese Jyutping but3 zai2 gou1

Put chai ko is a popular snack in Hong Kong. The pudding cake is palm size and is sweet in taste. It is soft, but can hold its molded shape outside of a bowl. The cake is 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 until cooked through. Then it is let cooled 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. But nowadays, most Put Chai Ko are sold in plastic bags.

Names

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

History

The pudding is made like other traditional Cantonese steamed cakes. It is said to have originated in the Chinese county of Taishan, which is 140 km (87 mi) west of Hong Kong. The pudding reached its popularity peak in the early to mid-1980s when hawkers sold it all over the streets in their push carts. 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 bowl or an aluminium cup. The snack is still available today in select Chinese pastry or snack shops, or from street hawkers. The pudding can also be served like an ice pop, held up by two bamboo sticks.

Varieties

Classic Hong Kong flavors

• Plain white sugar
• Brown sugar
• Plain white sugar with azuki beans
• Brown sugar with any one of the beans in the genus Vigna

See also

• Egg tart
• List of steamed foods

External links

• Put chai ko recipe (Chinese)
• Put chai ko recipe (Chinese)