Our local cakes come in various colour and taste but mostly using basic ingredients like the coconut milk, sugar and rice flour only. However, with some ingenuity, they taste and look different.
For e.g. in the photo here, there is the multi-layer, red/white/pink cake (kueh) which is steamed layer by layer. It is called ‘9-layer-kueh’. And there is the green on the top and lower white rice kueh call the seri-muka. It has a delicious, milky (lemak) flavour. There is another type which has the white coconut milk layer on top and lower green layer called the kueh talam. Both kueh usually derive their green colour from the screwpine leaves(pandan).
In the forefront of the photo, there is a type of white and blue rice steam kueh call the pulut ta-tai. It is usually served with serikaya (a jam like paste made from coconut milk, sugar and eggs). The blue colour comes from a kind of flower call the bunga telang, a very beautiful blue flower.
These kuehs are usually sold in the morning and at night. A piece cost only 20sen-30sen. The kuehs in Penang are larger than KL, cheaper than KL and tastier too. (Penang people are more boastful, I think?)
One of the thing that we hardly see on the road nowadays is the Indian man who will ‘kandar’ (carry on the shoulder) two huge baskets of various type of kueh and shout ‘kueh, kueh’. Nowadays, they use motorbikes only. One of them is still selling kueh behind Penang Plaza (Giant Hypermarket) and another one comes by my apartment once in a while at 4pm. Besides kueh, he sell laksa, fried pohpiahs, nasi lemak and many other goodies. (make mental note to take bird’s eye view photo of him when he comes by.)
The above photo are kuehs ‘edges’ given by my neighbour. They have to take out the odd shapes and sell only those cut beautifully into diamond/square shapes. Therefore, all the odd sizes will be given away.
Read about Durian and Onde-onde in my earlier blog.
