Put Chai Ko

Put Chai Ko (Simplified Chinese: 钵仔糕; Traditional Chinese: 鉢仔糕; Pinyin: Bōzǎi gāo) is a Cantonese steamed rice-flour pudding cooked and served in small bowls ("put chai"), a classic street and tea-house snack on Guangdong Food and Dim Sum lists.

Characteristics

The cake is soft and slightly chewy, jelly-like but sliceable with a stick or spoon, and releases from the small bowl when loosened. Flavors include brown sugar, red bean, plain white sugar, or other sweet variations. It is cooler or room-temperature street food more often than a hot fry. Related rice snacks on Chinese Rice Snack include sticky cakes and porridges, but put chai ko's signature is the individual bowl mould.

Ingredients (overview)

Rice flour or mixed starches, sugar (often brown sugar for color and aroma), water, and optional red bean or other fillings. Batter is poured into small porcelain or metal bowls and steamed until set. Street vendors may unmould onto sticks for walking customers.

History and culture

Put chai ko belongs to Guangdong / Hong Kong street culture and appears in Cantonese snack enumerations next to other Dim Sum and Chinese Rice Snack foods. Tea houses may serve it among sweet items; roadside stalls emphasize the visual rows of steamed bowls. It is not the same as pan-fried Turnip Cake or Taro Cake, which are savory sliced cakes.

Serving and variations

Snack from bowls or on sticks; brown-sugar and red-bean versions are especially common. See Dim Sum, Guangdong Food, Hong Kong Food, and Chinese Rice Snack.

Vendors often display dozens of steaming bowls in rows—an easy visual cue in Guangdong and Hong Kong markets. Brown-sugar versions look darker; red-bean versions show beans through the translucent batter. Cooler weather stalls may sell them warmer from the steamer.

See also

• Dim Sum
• Guangdong Food
• Hong Kong Food
• Chinese Rice Snack
• Turnip Cake
• Taro Cake
• Nian Gao
• List of dishes (A-Z)