These Tortoise-Shaped Cakes at Lady Wong Are Almost Too Pretty to Eat

In Dish Decoded we break down all the components, stories, and techniques behind a restaurant’s…well…dish that we’re obsessed with right now.

A specific craving hit chefs Mogan Anthony and Seleste Tan, right around Lunar New Year, in February 2021. They yearned for the kuih they grew up eating in Malaysia: palm-size snacks, both savory and sweet, that are often made with glutinous rice and feature local ingredients like coconut and pandan. Traveling back home was out of the question (sigh, pandemic). So the couple decided to try their hand at making their own—they’re alums of fine-dining institutions Jean-Georges and WD-50—in their home in Westchester, just north of New York City.

They steamed serimuka, a pandan custard cake with a sticky-rice crust, and whipped up mango curd pudding, and began driving into the city and selling them out of the trunk of their SUV. Anthony and Tan grew a strong following (they had thousands of followers on Instagram at that point), and as the city began to open, they wanted to make their temporary project a more permanent endeavor. In February, they opened Lady Wong, a decidedly Southeast Asian sweets shop in the East Village. They still sell the serimuka and pudding, but the real prize is the Malaysian Chinese angku kuih.

In Malaysia, the kuih was once prized (and consumed) during special occasions because of its tortoise shape, which represents longevity and good fortune in Chinese tradition. Now it’s enjoyed as an everyday snack there, and Tan and Anthony sell it every weekend at Lady Wong. The angku kuih has become one of the most popular sweets at the shop—and for good reason.

Here they break down the intensive process behind their best-selling kuih.

The Glutinous Rice Dough

“It has a clay-like texture,” Anthony explains. “Unlike traditional pastry, which bounces back when you press into it, this holds an imprint.” The glutinous rice flour dough incorporates pandan juice, which imparts a grassy, vanilla-like flavor, and beet or red rice powder for that red hue, which represents prosperity in Chinese culture. The dough is then wrapped around the filling, fitted into the mold, and steamed for about 20 minutes. 

The Mung Bean Filling

Tan and Anthony lean on Malaysian home-cooking methods for this kuih. They steam and cook soaked mung beans in a wok with pandan and sugar to give the classic filling a caramelized flavor and to thicken it. “It should be like scooping ice cream,” Anthony says. 

The Tortoise-Shaped Mold

“The tortoise is a long-living creature, hence why it represents longevity,” Anthony says. The bakery initially used a wood mold from Tan’s mother. “A lot of families in Malaysia have a passed-down version of the mold,” he says. But to keep up with production, they now rely on various plastic and fiber molds.