''Kue semprong'', Asian egg roll, ''sapit'', ''sepit'', ''kue Belanda'', or ''kapit'', (Love letters in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

) is an Indonesian traditional

wafer A wafer is a crisp, often sweet, very thin, flat, light and dry biscuit, often used to decorate ice cream, and also used as a garnish on some sweet dishes. Wafers can also be made into cookies with cream flavoring sandwiched between them. They ...

snack (''

kue Kue is an Indonesian bite-sized snack or dessert food. Kue is a fairly broad term in Indonesian to describe a wide variety of snacks including cakes, cookies, fritters, pies, scones, and patisserie. Kue are made from a variety of ingredients ...

'' or ''

kuih ''Kuih'' ( Indonesian: '' kue''; derived from the Hokkien and Teochew ''kueh'' – ) are bite-sized snack or dessert foods commonly found in Southeast Asia and China. It is a fairly broad term which may include items that would be called ca ...

'') made by clasping egg batter using an iron mold (

Waffle iron A waffle iron or waffle maker is a utensil or appliance used to cook waffles. It comprises two metal plates with a connecting hinge, molded to create the honeycomb pattern found on waffles. The iron is heated and either batter is poured or dou ...

) which is heated up on a charcoal stove. It is commonly found in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

and

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely surrounded by t ...

. The mold each has two plates that are clasped tightly together and attached to long handles for manipulating over a charcoal stove. The molds could be plainly flat, corrugated or etched with animal motifs such as fish, roosters and snails that are both auspicious and decorative.

Shapes and variants

In Indonesian the term ''semprong'' means "tube" or "roll", while ''sepit'' derived from ''jepit'' which means "clip". Both ''semprong'' and ''sepit'' are known as almost identical wafers, with the different only in its shape; the roll-shaped is called ''semprong'', while the triangular-folded shape is called ''sepit''. Both variants are called as ''sapit'' or ''sepit'' in Malaysia and Brunei, regardless of its shape. Traditional ''kue semprong'' are hollow, the new variants however, might add fillings, such as

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civ ...

or cheese.

History and origin

The ''kue semprong'' demonstrate colonial link between

and the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, as it commonly found in most of major cities in Indonesia. It is believed to be derived from Dutch egg roll wafer. The word ''Belanda'', meaning Dutch in Bahasa Indonesia, points to the egg rolls’ Dutch origins. The Dutch have a vast biscuit repertoire, which includes thin wafer biscuits similar to Kuih Belanda or Kuih Kapit. Many biscuit and cake techniques were passed to Malays by the Dutch, English, and Portuguese. These biscuits may have been brought to parts of Malaysia and Singapore from Penang, Malacca, by the

Peranakan The Peranakans () are an ethnic group defined by their genealogical descent from the first waves of Southern Chinese settlers to maritime Southeast Asia, known as Nanyang (), namely the British Colonial ruled ports in the Malay Peninsula, ...

Chinese, who, not knowing the name of the Dutch snack they had encountered, simply called it kuih Belanda or kuih kapit.

References

External links

Kue Semprong recipe Recipe Love Letters (Kuih Kapit) Made the Traditional Way , Virtual Malaysia Kuih Belanda

{{Malaysian cuisine Bruneian cuisine Indonesian snack foods Malaysian snack foods Singaporean cuisine

Shapes and variants

History and origin

See also

References

External links