Kompyang also known as kompia, is a biscuit

Biscuit

A biscuit is a baked, edible, and commonly flour-based product. The term is used to apply to two distinctly different products in North America and the Commonwealth Nations....

 popular in the Malaysian townships of Sitiawan

Sitiawan

Sitiawan, Malaysia is a region in the Manjung district of Perak, Malaysia....

, Sibu

Sibu

Sibu may refer to:*Sibu, Sarawak in Eastern Malaysia*Sibu Division*Sibu , an impact crater on Mars*Pulau Sibu, an island off the eastern coast of peninsular Malaysia*Sibu , name of a goddess in the Bribri tribe, in Costa Rica...

, Ayer Tawar

Ayer Tawar

Ayer Tawar is a small town of 30,000 people in the district of Manjung, state of Perak, Malaysia. Ayer Tawar literally means "fresh water" in the Malay language, although the word "Tawar" on its own means tasteless...

, Sarikei

Sarikei

Sarikei is a town, and the capital of the Sarikei District in Sarikei Division, Sarawak, east Malaysia. It is located on the Rajang River, near where the river empties into the South China Sea. The district population was 56,798...

 and other places where the dominant Chinese community is of Foochow (Fuzhou

Fuzhou dialect

Fuzhou dialect , also known as Foochow dialect, Foochow, Foochowese, Fuzhounese, or Fuzhouhua, is considered the standard dialect of Min Dong, which is a branch of Min Chinese mainly spoken in the eastern part of Fujian Province. Native speakers also call it ' , meaning the language spoken in...

) ancestry. Kompyang originates from Fuzhou

Fuzhou

Fuzhou is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian Province, People's Republic of China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute the Mindong linguistic and cultural area....

, the capital city of Fujian Province of the People's Republic of China.

History

Kompyang was named after Qi Jiguang

Qi Jiguang

Qi Jiguang was a Chinese military general and national hero during the Ming Dynasty. He was best remembered for his courage and leadership in the fight against Japanese pirates along the east coast of China, as well as his reinforcement work on the Great Wall of China.-Early life:Qi Jiguang was...

, who invented it, taking the idea from Japanese onigiri

Onigiri

, also known as or rice ball, is a Japanese food made from white rice formed into triangular or oval shapes and often wrapped in nori . Traditionally, an onigiri is filled with pickled ume , salted salmon, katsuobushi, kombu, tarako, or any other salty or sour ingredient as a natural preservative...

. When Qi Jiguang led his troops into Fujian

Fujian

' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...

 in 1562, the Japanese pirates, fearing his name, engaged mainly in guerrilla-style battles. Qi Jiguang noticed that the Japanese pirates could always trace where his troops camped because of the smoke that rose up to the sky when the soldiers prepared their meals. He found out the Japanese pirates had no such problem because they brought onigiri with them. So Qi Jiguang invented a kind of cake with a hole in the center so that they could be strung together to be conveniently carried along. Later, to commemorate Qi Jiguang's victory against the pirate raiders, the cakes were named guang bing.

Ingredients

Kompyang is made with lard, onions, salt and flour. A ball of flour is stuffed with a filling of other desired ingredients and flattened with a rolling pin. It is then slapped onto the sides of a traditional home-made Chinese oven. Meat is usually, but not necessarily, used as a filling in the biscuits. The biscuits take approximately 15 minutes to bake.