Sweet Dessert - PART 2 - Asian Desserts Kueh Kueh and snacks
This dish is called Chendol and mostly found in Malaysia and Singapore and parts of South East Asia.
It consists of fine shaved ice, topped with green, glassy worm looking shaped (pandan jelly), soft red beans, Attap Chee, coconut milk and Gula Melaka (palm sugar from Malacca).
The glassy 'worm' is actually pandan flavoured jelly. Attap Chee is a seed of the Nipah palm. The leaves of this palm are being used as thatch for huts, commonly called Attap hut. The fruits are know as Attap-Chee, chee means Seed. The texture is jelly like and it is sweet and used mainly for desserts. I was told by the stall owner that when it is soft, it means the fruit is fresh and when it is harden and crunchy, it is not as fresh. I personally like the crunchy ones and these Atttap Chee can be found in canned as well.
How someone judge a top Ace Chendol, depends on the taste of the Pandan Jelly, the sweetness of the soft red beans and most important is the freshness of the squeezed coconut and the Gula Melaka. The coconut has to come directly squeezed from the coconut and not from a pre-pack packet that one buy from the super market. The quality of the Gula Melaka is another factor to a delicious and sort after Chendol. That's how one distinguish an excellent Chendol from one that uses lower quality ingredients.
The current fabs that hawkers and restaurants are promoting besides the original ingredients includes cream corn, sliced jack fruits and durian (the King of Fruits). The latter is not a fruit that everyone can stomach the smell and taste. So only on request will the seller add this cream of Durian to the Chendol. It costs more to have that 1 scope of durian as topping.
Do try this dessert if you are in Southeast Asia.
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I bought this pack of Nonya snacks from a home vendor that specialises in Malaysian snacks in Perth and not many people can make authentic Nonya Kueh.
Do let me go through the items on this packet.
The round green and orange coloured snack is call Ondeh Ondeh...The ones in green are make from glutinuos rice flour. Whereas the ones in Orange colour are make from sweet potato. Both of these balls are filled with pandan juice and Gula Melaka or palm sugar. They are then rolled onto freshly grated coconut. The palm sugar that’s in the middle will literally shoot into your mouth when you bite on it. So be sure to close your mouth and put the whole ondeh ondeh into your mouth and eat. Do not bite on it, or it will shoot out all over. These are rather addictive and normally one do not stop at one or two pieces. They are usually sold in a packet of 6 or 10 or 12 pieces. They are sweet and delicious and one would find it impossible to stop eating.
The other sweet snack inside this packet is the Pulut tai-tai. This is a Nonya kueh also make of glutinous rice and with the butterfly pea flower which gives it a bluish colour. As can be seen on the packet below a tub of sweet fragrant egg kaya. This sweet goes together with the kaya, which is make with eggs, coconut milk, palm sugar and Pandan leaves.
The only dessert /snack on the pack that is the savoury, is the Pulut Panggang. This is a grilled glutinous kueh that can contain different types of fillings. Some fillings are meat floss, dried shrimp, sambal belachan, dried chicken floss...etc. It is wrapped with banana leaf and shaped like cylinder. The banana leaf will add flavour and when it is placed on the griller, there is a smoky smell added to this snack.
This is a typical scene in a local coffee shop in Singapore, where people will relax with Coffee or tea and have a piece of cake. To the locals this is dessert and snack time for some. Some go to a coffee shop to order a piece of cake to share as dessert after a meal. Others will have this as snack for tea time.
Photos - 100% taken by my mobile.
I hope i have given you some insight into some of the Southeast Asian food. They are plenty more different kinds of kueh kueh which I might not have eaten and not taken photos of.
Thanks for reading and supporting.