Thursday, December 01, 2005

Kompia (光餅)

This is another Foochow specialties ~ Kompia (光餅) (the name of the pastry in Foochow dialect). Another must eat item when I go back home to Sarawak. I noticed I posted lotsa Foochow food lately :P (And I'm not Foochow btw but I grow up in Sarikei town; My dialect is Xinhui). There's lotsa Foochow people in Sarikei and Sibu town in Sarawak. So, I ate all these Foochow related products/food since young and I have lotsa Foochow friends. I bought few packets to bring back together with me to Peninsular Malaysia and I finished eating it the next day :P

The bigger kompia shown in the picture is the sweet version of kompia ~ it's bigger, light & fluffy. The smaller kompia in the picture is the salty version of kompia ~ Smaller and harder. There's a hole in the centre of this pastry. It's nice to eat when served hot but hard when the pastry is cold. The pastry can be stuffed with meat/char siew and other ingredients as well. And it can be soaked in gravy as well to give a better taste.

The crispy kongpia stuffed with ingredients (meat)

There's many different ways to eat these kompia. Some prefer it dry, some like it wet or soaked with gravy, some want it to be crispy or stuffed with ingredients.. It all depends on individuals.

These kompia is widely available in towns or cities with Foochow communities, eg. Sibu and Sarikei town in Sarawak and Sitiawan in Peninsular Malaysia. However, nowadays, kompia is available in other town in Sarawak as well due to influx of Foochow communities to those areas.

Some facts about Kompia (I get this piece of info from CooknEngr, my fellow foochow friend) ~ Kompia 光餅, a Foochow special was invented by a general "Chee Sheek Kuong" back in the Ming dynasty. The hole in the center is for the convenience of running a string through so that the warrior can hang a roll of Kompias on their neck. Fighting and taking a Kompia break at the same time.

"繼光餅,這個小名光餅的口糧,傳說是明大將軍戚繼光為打倭寇所發明,光餅中間一圓圈,可串起讓士兵掛於胸前,戰時隨時補充體力"

26 comments:

hornbill said...

ee... i'm the first person...

Chen... i love the kompia with meat... where is the best place to buy? In sibu, just opposite the wisma sanyan...

Anonymous said...

Why are you being so unkind putting up all beautiful Sarawakian hawker food up? :(

Chen said...

Hornbill,
Good loh u, can always eat kompia since your kampung so nearby only..
jealous :P

Darryl,
Oops.. I have some more Sarawak hawker food yet to be posted, like Sarawak Laksa, Kueh Chap etc :P

day-dreamer said...

I like kueh chap, you can get it in Peninsular Malaysia too.

Hmm... Sitiawan guong peng is nice, but it doesn't quite look like the ones in the pic you've posted.

Chen said...

day dreamer,
The kueh chap in Peninsular tasted different from the one in Sarawak leh..

The first kompia pict is the plain kompia.. the second one is with meat stuff..
the Sitiawan one which looks different, issit the one soaked with gravy? :)
I've never eat the Sitiawan kompia before...

Anonymous said...

Yo ive blog about kompia too last few weeks when im in Sibu, by the way Kuching got kompia ? I didn;t notice that :P

One more thing, i grew up in Sarikei as well. Hehe

Chen said...

kcyap,
Huh? U grow up in Sarikei as well? Then I find another Sarikei kaki here :D

Yeah, kompia is available in Kuching as well.. sold by one Foochow lady.

Anonymous said...

Yeah i grow up in sarikei, Just moved to Kuching for the last few months. BTw you are a doctor ? What kind of doctor ? Nice to know you too

Chen said...

kcyap,
Oh.. that's cool :) I met few Sarikei bloggers on the net. U are the 3rd one.
I stayed and grew up in Sarikei as well.

I'm a gov doctor working in one of the gov hosp in Penang. I worked in Penang for almost 6 years already. Previously I worked in Kuching.

day-dreamer said...

Sitiawan kuong peng is dry one wor... got onion taste one. It's salty.

Jellyfish said...

aiyak...
seems like nowadays so many ppl nak berebut rebut for 1st to comment

kekekekekekekekeke.......

btw, it looked like ramli burger :P

Chen said...

day dreamer,
the smaller one shown in the first pict is the salty one
bigger one is the sweet one ;)
I like both :D

jellyfish,
*pengsan* Whatlah u..
where got similarity with Ramli burger? :P

Cynthia said...

if i visit Sarawak someday.. and i asked my friend to take me to eat those Foo Chow food.. im sure he/she will freak out why i know so much about them. =) Can show off in the future ay?? LOL

Chen said...

Cynthia,
Hahha.. and use the foochow names for the food as well :P
Sure your friends will be *surprised*

Chen said...

evol,
not only looks nice, but tastes nice as well :D

Sharl612 said...

I have yet to develop the love in this FooChow food yet. Most of the time, I am eating it so as not to upset the folks that tapao it all the way from Sarikei to KL. *hehe*

c a r c a r said...

i love the crispy kongpia with meat!!!!!!!!!
ah!!!!!!!
i feel so hungry now....*kru kru *kru

wonder where can i get it from singapore?

pls furnish info for me fella frens of chen!

thank u thank u!

Alicia said...

i like your food posts :P and your doggie pictures xD

Chen said...

sharl612,
Wah.. He tapao the food all the way from Sarikei to KL?
Nice or not also have to eat liao...
Or else really wasted his "effort" :P

carcar,
Singapore ah? Dunno..
I can't find this in Penang as well :D

Alicia,
Thanks :)

Anonymous said...

Oh my God! I missed my Gong Bia already. I found a coffee shop in Taman University in Johore selling kolo mee (Kuching style, not Sarikei's Kan Puan)and Pien Neek. The sign proudly says Sarawak Kolo Mee as a differentiator.

Anonymous said...

I think the hole in the Kong Bia may have a more rational reason, i.e. the middle does nor cook as well as the side.

Chen said...

cousin daniel,
Woh.. U can actually get kolo mee & pien neek in Johore? (personally, I prefer kampua compared to kolo mee. Kolo mee is too oily :P )

Your reason for the hole sounds rational :)

Chen said...

glutton rabbit,
u are good, can think so far away :) Really a creative & thoughtful rabbit.
But I think when one is starving, even grass will taste nice to them as well..
Well, hygiene won't be a main concern during those time :)
Yeah, we are fortunate we don't have to face time like that..

Anonymous said...

Re KCYAP whose comments appear above:The real person behind the posting of daily entries in 2dayblog.com is Malaysian blogger Justin Yap. Justin’s own website is kcyap.com but he committed a wordpress contest scam earlier this year and he is now hiding behind the 2dayblog.com website. His website kcyap.com is now redirected to 2dayblog.com. If you type “kcyap +scam” in Google or Yahoo search box, you can view pages relating to the scam committed by kcyap.

Anonymous said...

Good effort to introduce Kompia. Next time if u have time, try the Sitiawan one, near Pangkor Island. You won't regret this. I promise.

Kok said...

Chen,
I still haven't tried the sweet version of kompia. Maybe next time.

But then, I think I'll prefer the salty to the sweet one. Cause I'm into salty kind of stuff. haha!