(Updated, once again, with prospective IDs and more photos.) Not long after my latest visit to Singapore, I began to search New York's various Chinatowns for creditable renditions of my favorite Singaporean dishes.
One of these, the rice dumpling called bak chang, also goes by many other names and is prepared in many varieties. On Grand St. I came across an elderly lady's sidewalk display (shown above and in this larger view) which reserved one corner for leaf-wrapped bindles. With the help of a passer-by fluent in both Cantonese and English, I learned that these contained peanut, pork, and egg, as well as close-packed rice. Fair-priced at $1.25, but nothing to remind me of Singapore.
Looking at my photo afterward, however, I wondered about all the other items the lady had prepared. Other sidewalk vendors, and storefronts, too, offer similar "small eats," but most are total strangers to me. My request for help garnered numerous responses (cited or linked to in the comments on the EIT website; thanks again, everyone!), so any tentativeness in identifying them is entirely on me. Perhaps some Eating In Translation readers will pay a call on this lady, sample some of her wares, and corroborate, supplement, or correct my IDs.
Shown below ($1 to $1.50 for each plastic-wrapped bowl): hefty taro balls filled with skin-on roasted peanuts and chopped turnip; steamed rice cakes, with an almost creamy texture, topped with scallions and baby shrimp; glutinous rice soon kueh filled with chopped turnip, bits of peanut and carrot, and perhaps ground chicken (hence the sobriquet "chicken in a cage"; trapezoidal nian gao, glutinous rice sweetened with brown sugar; and a second set of nian gao run through with ginger.
From a recent, Saturday morning encounter with this lady and her wares, I carried off two bowls of old favorites and two items new to me, for a grand total of $4. To my taste, the black balls (mentioned previously, in a comment by LenRoQ) were more herbacious than medicinal, and more chewy than gummy. Still a mystery. The tricornered items, somewhat stiffer, seemed to be made of the same substance; the sweet peanut filling, relatively firm on the morning of purchase, became more liquid after a night in the fridge. I imagine it would liquefy if warmed, too.
Though I wasn't methodical with my leftovers, I can confirm that the "chicken in a cage" is good when cold. The nian gao with ginger is good to share at any temperature — especially considering that each large chunk costs just a quarter.
Streetside "small eats" vendor
Grand St. (Elizabeth St.-Bowery, south side), Manhattan
Hours irregular; weekend mornings and early afternoons are your best bet
