Fried Beancurd Bun
A Story of What Fades
A stall in a Singaporean coffeeshop, stirred by the morning bustle.
The tau kwa pau (beancurd bun) stall comes to life.
The bun itself --
A tradition that bides time.
🔶✨🔥🍞✨🔶
An orange spark lights
Beancurd stirs with a sizzle
Warm scent of childhood
Crooks its fingers
To the mouths that wait
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Beancurd bun aglow
A golden halo enwraps
The flame roars
Licks the fingers that reach
Then stills.
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It quiets.
Red embers amber.
Beancurd's scent fades
Reaching fingers withdraw
With time.
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The fire dies.
Fried beancurd bun's scent
Forever in the air
For the fingers that will not
Get to reach.
🔶✨🔥🍞✨🔶
Taw Kwa Pau, fried to perfection and filled with minced pork, sliced chili and a complimentary egg, was commonly served in coffee shops and hawker centres in Singapore a few decades ago.
A tradition of old, one my grandma held on to.
The flame that prepares it still burns-
If only in the heart.
🔶✨🔥🍞✨🔶
Original free verse poem by Michelle Liew Tsui-Lin. AI tags are coincidental.
For Vocal's The Last Flame Challenge.
About the Creator
Michelle Liew Tsui-Lin
Hi, i am an English Language teacher cum freelance writer with a taste for pets, prose and poetry. When I'm not writing my heart out, I'm playing with my three dogs, Zorra, Cloudy and Snowball.
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Comments (5)
This made me hungry. 🥰
Beautiful, vivid work - the scents and flavors of this scene come alive in your writing, Michelle! Stellar entry for the challenge, which really makes me want to try some taw kwa pau!
You made this dish sound so delicious 😋
Oh I loved this so much! First the line "Red embers amber" popped out at me because of the brilliant word choice (and also because it featured my name.) The line "warm scent of childhood" spoke to me. But my absolute favorite was "A tradition of old, one my grandma held on to. The flame that prepares it still burns- If only in the heart." I cannot bake without hearing my grandmother's words in my heart. Beautifully written.
I never heard of this dish but now I really want to try it! A poem that made me hungry, that's a first :D