RAMIE PANCAKE TO KEEP GHOSTS AT BAY

When I read today's Star newspaper, I found that the people in a small town in Perak believes that a certain pancake made from a herb called Ramie can actually help to keep ghosts away.  Want to know more?  Then read on ...



Ghost repellent: Demand for a certain kind of herbal pancake during Qing Ming in Pusing has its roots in a traditional superstitious belief.

Pancakes to keep ghosts at bay

Stories and photos by FOONG THIM LENG

north@thestar.com.my

WHILE offerings of fruits and kuih may be popular during the Qing Ming Festival, the Hakka community prefer their traditional pancakes which some believe can help ‘ward off’ wandering spirits.

In Pusing, a former tin mining town in the Kinta Valley, the chuh yip paan (Hakka for ramie pancake) is the ‘hottest’ selling item this year.

Kuih seller Lim Swee Moy, 63, said the traditional Hakka pancake was made of glutinous rice, sugar and ramie leaves which gave it a black colour.

“Apart from offering such pancakes to ancestors, the locals believe those who eat them before paying homage to their ancestors at graveyards would not be disturbed by wandering spirits,” she said at her house in Pusing, about 20km from Ipoh.

Lim said most of the pancakes would be sold out regardless of the number she made, adding she could easily sell a few hundred pieces at 50 sen each a day.

She explained that she had cultivated several ramie plants, which many people mistook for weeds, at a plot of land outside her house.

“The leaves are also used by herbalists for medicinal properties in treating women’s illnesses and in dispelling wind in the body,” she said.

Lim added that a restaurant had recently bought the leaves from her to make a special tong sui (Cantonese for dessert) for customers.

She has been making over 10 types of kuih a day, including the chuh yip paan, with her daughter-in-law and three helpers for over 30 years.

Among them were dumplings with shrimps and shredded mengkuang, sweet potato balls, tapioca cakes, sago kuih and yam cakes.

Her daughter-in-law sells the kuih on a tricycle near the market beside the town’s main road everyday.

Source: http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2011/3/29/north/8365314&sec=North