Penang housewife's labour of love for her 'love letters'

GEORGE TOWN, Jan 21  -- For forty-three-year-old Hee Swee Yen, living in financial hardship is something she had known ever since she was young.

But this had never disheartened her. Instead, it only motivated her to work hard, find ways to improve her life and generate extra income to ensure the survival of her family. 

For Hee, the pressure already began when she was still in school. At that early age, she was already helping her family earn money.

She then decided to learn how to make kuih kapit (love letters) even though she had zero knowledge and experience making the traditional biscuit synonymous with the Lunar New Year.

"When I was in Form Five at SMJK(C) Sacred Heart in Balik Pulau, each class was asked to produce something to generate income to cover the cost of producing the school magazine.

"My classmates and I decided to sell love letter biscuits. But the problem was none of us knew how to make it. Fortunately, the mother of one of my classmates volunteered to teach us how to do it.

“That was how I got the idea to make and sell love letters to support my family until now,” she told Bernama when met at her husband's cooking gas shop at Lebuh McNair here recently.

Hee, who hails from Balik Pulau, said she would get orders to make about 100 tins (large Milo tins) of the delicacy for Chinese New Year annually.

"In 2006, I began to seriously make love letters and I started appointing agents to help market my product around Penang. However, due to certain constraints, I had to stop making them. I got married and moved to George Town in 2019.

"In 2019, I decided to continue making love letters apart from helping my husband with his cooking gas business, but because of the pandemic, I could only take orders from walk-in customers,” she said.

“I took the opportunity to improve my recipe in terms of the usage of coconut milk, eggs and other ingredients to ensure my love letter biscuits are tasty and the response from my customers has been positive,” said the mother of two.

Hee said her love letter biscuits are sold at RM34 a container, adding that Malays and Indians were also among her regular customers.

"During Hari Raya and Deepavali, my Malay and Indian customers will place their orders but unfortunately, I can't afford to take a lot of orders because I work alone and at the same time, I also help my husband out. Still, the income that I get is enough to get by,” said Hee.

-- BERNAMA