What is Tikoy?

We were eating lunch at Shangri-La earlier, and we got served empanadas for dessert. Unlike the normal empanada, it didn't have meat inside it, instead it had lotus filling. The filling is actually mashed mung beans, and the small pastries reminded me of an ordinary hopia.

Everybody in the table haven't had anything like it and kept comparing it to the Chowking's lotus buchi and an ordinary mongo hopia. The empanada was sweet and sticky inside, causing my sister to comment that it tasted like tikoy.

My cousin, who had grown up in the states, apparently had never seen or ate tikoy in her entire life. Her Korean friend also haven't heard about tikoy, too. My sister was at a loss for words, and I ended up trying to tell them what a tikoy is and how it looks like.

"It's slightly translucent, brown and round, shaped like a cake that's about one and half-an inch thick. Chinese usually give them out as gifts during Chinese New Year. Anyway it's soft and sticky, kinda like the one inside these pastries. We usually slice tikoy the way we slice meat loafs, and fry the slices. Sometimes we coat them with beaten eggs to keep them from sticking to the pan. Do you know what moon cakes are? (She doesn't) Sometimes they give out moon cakes during New Year, too."

So much for trying. Haha! I suddenly remembered my Korean tutee, David, who knew little English. Sometimes we would come across things(mostly food) that he would not be able to relate to, and I end up drawing it for him. I guess where words and descriptions fail, drawings and pictures pick-up. If you have neither pen nor paper, you just have to draw them with words.