Locally, it's known as Kai Chai Peng (鸡仔饼). The characters literally mean "chicken young biscuit", and its English name is "Kampar chicken biscuit". But I have no idea why they call it such, because it contains no chicken in it at all... not even chicken extract or essence or powder. Many recipes don't even have meat as an ingredient. I wonder if perhaps it sometimes functioned as chicken feed in the past... although I highly doubt so because the ingredients look like a lot of trouble, and besides, would the chicken stomach tolerate the spices? O_o
Anyway, it's possibly the tastiest biscuit-type snack I have eaten. Possibly better than the Lotus speculoos that I posted about earlier. But they're completely different... that was European and sweet. This one's Chinese or Southeast Asian (or even specifically a Straits snack), and very savoury, with appropriate and lively spices mixed in. Probably the only biscuit that I would describe as "hearty".
It also reminded me of these phoenix cookies from Hong Kong, but was overall a much better experience due to the texture and taste. My guess is that the Hong Kong bakery based it off this kai chai peng concept, which may have originated from Cantonese cuisine.
The ones I got came in little flat discs like these, about 4 inches in diameter... I suspect to match the diameter of the bottle it came in ahahaha, as I've seen many variants in its size and shape. Some of them look more like a typical Western cookie, as you can see from a preliminary google search. (Hope the link works. If it doesn't, just click on google images and search "kai chai peng".) These were sold at a local patisserie in the traditional local snacks red-capped bottle as shown in the image here. You can also see how thin each piece was.
Now on to the review proper. What I loved most about this version was how crispy it was, probably owing to its being so thin. I think its added crispiness was also due to a higher concentration of sugar, which helped to harden it upon heating, like the really sweet freshly-baked Famous Amos cookies, or else the crispy pastry topping that you find on top of the Hong Kong polo bun.
However, it didn't strike me as too sweet, probably because of the savoury and spicy tastes. I thought I tasted both garlic and shallots in it, although most of the recipes I found didn't have shallots as an ingredient. This one had shallot juice though.
There was also a strong toasted sesame taste. Perhaps the thinness of these together with the baking process, sugar and salt made the sesame flavour more pronounced.
I'm also not sure if they used meat in the one I tried, but I don't think so because I don't recall any meat-like ingredients. Nonetheless, some recipes include it. For instance, this one uses meat (but qualifies that it is optional), whereas this one doesn't at all.
Finally, what is common is that all the recipes I've seen feature a powder known by local Chinese as "five spice powder". It's basically a combination of ground star anise, cloves, Chinese cinnamon, Sichuan pepper and fennel seeds. And I think it's this spice combination that really gave this biscuit that punch.
Well, with all these ingredients, it's almost a meal... especially so if you decide to go with the recipe which uses the meat.
It also reminded me of these phoenix cookies from Hong Kong, but was overall a much better experience due to the texture and taste. My guess is that the Hong Kong bakery based it off this kai chai peng concept, which may have originated from Cantonese cuisine.
The ones I got came in little flat discs like these, about 4 inches in diameter... I suspect to match the diameter of the bottle it came in ahahaha, as I've seen many variants in its size and shape. Some of them look more like a typical Western cookie, as you can see from a preliminary google search. (Hope the link works. If it doesn't, just click on google images and search "kai chai peng".) These were sold at a local patisserie in the traditional local snacks red-capped bottle as shown in the image here. You can also see how thin each piece was.
However, it didn't strike me as too sweet, probably because of the savoury and spicy tastes. I thought I tasted both garlic and shallots in it, although most of the recipes I found didn't have shallots as an ingredient. This one had shallot juice though.
There was also a strong toasted sesame taste. Perhaps the thinness of these together with the baking process, sugar and salt made the sesame flavour more pronounced.
I'm also not sure if they used meat in the one I tried, but I don't think so because I don't recall any meat-like ingredients. Nonetheless, some recipes include it. For instance, this one uses meat (but qualifies that it is optional), whereas this one doesn't at all.
Finally, what is common is that all the recipes I've seen feature a powder known by local Chinese as "five spice powder". It's basically a combination of ground star anise, cloves, Chinese cinnamon, Sichuan pepper and fennel seeds. And I think it's this spice combination that really gave this biscuit that punch.
Well, with all these ingredients, it's almost a meal... especially so if you decide to go with the recipe which uses the meat.
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