When I was a child, hot hawker food was often sold wrapped in a light brownish wrapping known as opeh leaf or opeh hak.
Char kway teow, fried Hokkien mee, chai tow kueh, char hor fun, fried crab bee hoon, orh luak, etc. Can you name more?
Opeh leaf is an excellent hot food wrapping as it insulates heat very well with lots of small air pockets inside its sheet, like organic bubble wrap. As an organic product it is earth friendly too.
But, opeh leaf or opeh hak is a lot more than just a traditional food wrapper. When the brown sheet wrap around steamy hot food and its sauces, they all interact with each other, infusing the food with a nice woody fragrance. The opeh hak was more than just a wrapping - it was like one of the essential ingredients for the best fried Hokkien mee, fried hor fun, fried kway teow etc.
It is hard to describe that smell and taste but anyone who grew up in that era (Malaysia and Singapore up to the 1980s) will know it.
In recent years, opeh leaf has made a come back, not as a wrapping but an underlining or decorative tray for nostalgic reasons. Used in this way, it imparts little if any fragrance to the food 😔
Where do opeh leaf or opeh hak come from?
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| Photo credit: Wikipedia |
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| Image credit: Wikipedia |
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| Image credit: Wikipedia |
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| Image credit: Wikipedia |
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| Image credit: Wikipedia |
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| Image credit: Wikipedia |
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| Image credit: Wikipedia |
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| Image credit: Wikipedia |
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| Image credit: Wikipedia |
The betel nut palm leaf sheath is made into plates, bags and other products in India. Using opeh for food wrapping is probably started by south Indians in Malaysia (though I have not seen Indian food in opeh wrap myself yet). If you know, please share 😊
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Take a photo of opeh "leaf" and email it to 📧 johorkaki@gmail.com
Thank you.
Reference:
Palm morphology and anatomy
Betel nut palm
Date: 10 Jul 2020