Since young, the “Atap Chee” (Atap Seed) has always been one of my family’s all-time favourite local desserts. My siblings and I always looked forward to our weekly trip from Johor Bahru to Singapore to visit our relatives and then “shopping” at either Rochor or Woodlands. We would always end up buying some snacks and tibits, and of course, half a kg. of “Atap Chee”. Back then, you could choose to buy as much as you want because the “Atap Seeds” are charged by weight. We normally bought about 500gm (just nice for the 6 of us in the family).
Nowadays, normally the “Atap Chee” (Atap Seed) are ready packed like the one above. :)
The “Atap Seed” is known as “Atap Chee” in the Teochew Chinese or Hokkien Chinese language. It is also known as “Ya4 Da Zi3″ in the Mandarin Chinese language. They are the seeds of the the “Atap” plant found in abundance in South East Asia. The leaves of the atap plant were used as roofings for houses (”Atap House”) and other buildings in the “kampung” (villages) long time ago. :)
The “Atap Seeds” are slighly larger and fatter than a thumb and transparent in nature. Some of them are soft and some of them are a bit hard. But either way, VERY nice! :)
My mom is very creative when it comes to eating the “Atap Chee” (atap seed): She likes to mix them with canned “Longan”, “Aloe Vera”, and “Sea Coconut”. The one above is short of the “Sea Coconut”, but everything else is there. Mmph, maybe adding “Nata De Coco” to it would be nice too … hehe :)
regards
hanyi
ps. The “Atap Chee” (atap seed) can be easily found in certain parts of Malaysia and all over Singapore. :)
ps. In places where the “atap chee” could be found, they are also added to the “ice kacang” (abc - air batu campur) dessert :)
Posts
