Today is my mum-in-law’s birthday. For sure, my Sinnavan would have baked a coconut cake for her. My mum-in-law is not a dessert or a cake person. But she’d happily have her neighbour’s baked coconut cake.

My Sinnavan has been the baker and supplier of coconut cake for so long that I can’t remember when the tradition started. What I can remember is accompanying her to buy the real McCoy coconut, shell, husk and all, from Chinatown in London, and a shop nearer by in Greenwich. This was long before local supermarkets stocked anything and everything from wherever in the world.

She favoured See Woo, one of the many supermarkets/grocery stores in Chinatown. We’d go uptown to watch a matinee and/or visit someplace or other in London. Thereafter, we’d have Chinese food.

This is true. I didn’t usually tell her if I remotely liked a particular thing or chocolate because she’d remember and buy it generously in triplicates or quadruplicates (yes, there is such a word). As recently as March, she sent me chocolates by very expensive British post. Hmm.

That said, she did once, many years ago, refuse to buy me beansprouts that I had asked for as a side dish for lunch. She said she would not pay £5 for beansprouts, when she could get kilograms of fresh beansprouts for the same money. And, she would happily cook it for me at home. Fair enough.  

In true fashion, her grocery shopping involved heaving bags of not only coconut but also glutinous rice, very large frozen prawns, seasonings and condiments. She also bought egg tarts, coconut buns, and Chinese cakes. She liked the white glutinous mochi-like consistency cake, which is chewy, dusted with flour on the outside with peanut or red bean filling on the inside. She preferred the peanut filled ones.

I laugh as I write this. During one of her trips to KL, she and I went to Mid-Valley Megamall, a really big shopping centre in the city. On the basement level, there was a ‘Lulu Nyonya Kueh’ stall that sold a variety of ‘kuehs’ that literally lit up her face.

My Sinnavan and I bought many ‘kuehs’ to take home, and the white glutinous mochi-like cake to have whilst we were there. I don’t usually eat ‘kuehs’ but I joined her that time. The stall did not offer seating. I kid you not. As we stood and ate the ‘kuehs’, a stand fan from a neighbouring stall or shop blew the dusted flour on our faces and hair. I’m not sure what we looked like, but we didn’t stop eating, and we didn’t stop laughing.

Sadly, ‘Lulu Nyonya Kueh’ has stopped operations. There was a time when I used to order directly from its head office when I visited my sisters.

I also remember being quite amused that supermarkets/grocery shops in London sold durians. Even in the cold, the smell permeated. And, my Sinnavan bought them, on occasion, at a hefty price.

Back to the coconut cake. She cracked open the coconut in half with a cleaver. Cut the flesh into small pieces, and pulsed them in her grinder. She squeezed the coconut milk from the pulp for her cake. I don’t ever remember her using canned coconut milk. It was always the real deal, and she made it all seems so easy.

My mum had a traditional coconut grater that reminded me of a horse or rather a smaller version of a Shetland pony😊. Picture a horse. The grater with jagged teeth is the horse’s head at the front. The person grating sat on a flat wooden slab or saddle. My mum grated the fleshy bits of the coconut against the teeth of the grater. Hard work.

Thanks to modern technology, freshly grated coconut is readily available in most supermarkets/grocery stores, at least in this part of the world. Probably everywhere else too. To be honest, I’ve never looked for it in shops abroad. No reason to.

My Sinnavan also cooked coconut rice for my mum-in-law, which she enjoyed, and for niece number 1, whenever she visited.  Large prawns accompanied the rice, and it was her less spicy version of the ‘nasi lemak’. 

She also used the coconut flesh, mixed with brown sugar or ‘gula Melaka’ to make ‘inti’ or filling for ‘pulut inti’. Her favourite foods were always somehow glutinous rice related.

Still on coconuts, my Sinnavan was also the designated coconut breaker, particularly, when praying to the Gods for good weather and/or no rain especially in wet England. I’ve seen her expertly smashing and breaking them outside her front door. Into two proper halves, which is a sign of good luck, I think, and a job well done.

When I write about my Sinnavan, I revisit, I laugh, I’m sad, I’m grateful to have known and have had these experiences with her.