Story by Chan Lilian
CURIOUS to know why a biscuit is named lou-por pheng or “wife cake”?
Well, when Tanjung Bungah assemblymember Teh Yee Cheu gave these biscuits to the ladies in his constituency during the International Women’s Day, Buletin Mutiara’s Chan Lilian’s curiousity was piqued.
A check on Wikipedia showed a romantic tale of a wife’s loyalty and the husband’s faithfulness.
In the legend, a village was struck by a strange disease. The wife’s father-in-law was sick and when the family was unable to buy medicine to cure him, the good daughter-in-law sold herself to be a slave. When the husband found out, he was sad and he made biscuits with a flaky crust and almond and winter melon fillings.
His biscuits were so good, he soon made a lot of money and he finally earned enough to buy his wife out of slavery.
There are several legends and folklore about this biscuit but with these good morals of loyalty, filial piety and faithfulness, it is apt that Teh had chosen to give the women folk in Tanjung Bungah a piece of lou-por pheng with the sticker that says: “Show your hands, show your hearts”.
Teh distributed 1,000 pieces of “wife biscuits” in conjunction with International Women’s Day on March 8 outside Maybank Tanjong Bungah where thousands of senior citizens queued up to collect their RM100 under the Penang State Government Wargamas programme.
“It is a very pleasant surprise for me,” said Khoo Lian Hong, who was among those who received the biscuit.
Khoo, who is also a committee member of the Jalan Gajah Village Development and Security Committee, was around the area to help out during the Wargamas Programme.
A total of 4,192 senior citizens from the Tanjung Bungah constituency were eligible to collect RM100 for this session.
Maybank Tanjong Bungah was specially opened during the weekend to expedite the pay-out on March 7 and 8 and recipients can collect their money from Maybank till March 20.