全马唯一一个竹筒年糕

What comes to mind when you think of glutinous rice cakes? Is it buying them with your parents at the market before Chinese New Year, the aroma wafting from the kitchen as they fry, or the soft, chewy texture when you eat them? For many people in Kuala Kubu Bharu, glutinous rice cakes represent learning, tradition, fun, and family reunions. "I started participating when I was 16 or 17, initially just for fun. But after participating in this activity (glutinous rice cake making), every year people would ask, 'You didn't make glutinous rice cakes this year?' So it became an annual tradition," shared Chen Weishan, coordinator of the Junqi Xincheng Chinese New Year event, explaining her motivation for participating in glutinous rice cake making. From a young age, Chen Weishan heard her grandmother tell stories of how every household in those days made glutinous rice cakes with firewood, but she had never actually witnessed the process. It wasn't until the Ulu Selangor Arts Youth Association (referred to as the Arts Youth Association) started organizing glutinous rice cake activities, encouraging young people in the village to participate, that she joined out of curiosity and a desire for fun, truly understanding the hard work behind making glutinous rice cakes. Each golden-yellow rice cake is steamed for 18 to 20 hours. From ingredients and production process to containers, Yiqing uses the most traditional methods. Each large pot of rice cake requires 25kg of glutinous rice. After being cleaned, it needs to be soaked for about 4 hours before being ground into a rice paste with water. This paste is then poured into a cloth bag and hung overnight to drain excess water. The real highlight comes the next morning. The drained rice dough needs to be kneaded, sugar is added, and kneaded repeatedly until it becomes a thick rice paste. While kneading the dough, volunteers also start a fire. Once the rice paste is ready, it can be directly steamed—all in one go. "These steps need to be done simultaneously for the finished product (rice cake) to look beautiful," Chen Weishan said with a smile. The above steps are just the beginning; the real challenge is yet to come. Because the rice cakes need to be steamed for almost a whole day, they need to be stirred every 1.5 to 2 hours to ensure the rice batter is heated evenly, resulting in good quality rice cakes. Therefore, some volunteers must stay overnight until the rice cakes are ready the next day. During the process, the fire needs to be checked frequently, and firewood added as needed. After each stirring, it's crucial to ensure the damp cloth surrounding the stove completely seals the pot; otherwise, steam will escape, the pot won't be hot enough, and the rice cakes may fail. "Over the years, we haven't failed, but if the heat is insufficient, it might have to cook longer, or the final color might not be as good." Once the rice cakes turn golden brown, they can be removed from the pot and placed in bamboo tubes wrapped in banana leaves. Chen Weishan revealed that the Youth Arts Association commissioned local indigenous people, Suku Temuan, to cut bamboo from the forest for the event, but not all bamboo is suitable; there are specific requirements for the size of each section. "Regardless of the size of the bamboo, each section has a capacity roughly equivalent to a condensed milk can." One to two weeks before the event, the volunteer team begins cleaning the bamboo tubes, removing any thorns, and repeatedly drying them for a week before use. Then, while waiting for the rice cakes to steam, banana leaves are washed, roasted, and wrapped inside the bamboo tubes. "This allows the rice cakes to absorb the aromas of both the bamboo and the banana leaves." The freshly baked rice cakes are sweet, soft, and chewy, with a slightly caramelized flavor—completely different from those packaged in plastic containers in supermarkets. "Homemade is safe to eat." Chen Shuxuan, who has participated in the rice cake event since its inception, shared that she remembers a resident who came with a bowl to buy freshly baked rice cakes and continued to buy them every year until his passing. "For many people, rice cakes are a taste of memory. Those bowls of rice cakes, I think, are more than just rice cakes."