Great Websites on Malaysian Traditional Games

I have mentioned before that I would like to highlight the old games that we play but it is with great pleasure that I am able to advise that there are already some websites on line preserving such games that I think I need not bother.

The first website I would like to highlight is Malaysian Traditional Games at geocities. This is a great site with detailed explanation of the games and excellent graphics, some of which taken from Datuk Lat's series on traditional games. Makes me want to play these games again. I hope this site lives forever and that many will visit it. I would be glad if I am able to contribute to increasing the page views of the site and some visitors will then be able to take the initiative. Kudos to the site owner who unfortunately chooses to remain anonymous. Keep it up and awaiting your updates on the remaining games.

The second is actualy part of a treasure trove of Malaysian Traditions that is written in Malay. The starting page for the site on Malaysian traditional games as linked in this sentence but regretfully the site suffers the common malaysite site ailment of improper linkages for this pageon the game 'aci sorok'. Thus I suggest that if you want to jump to other pages, you should start with the other games first. Unlike the first site, this page is more narrative in nature so if you are not already familiar with some of the games, you may not be able to grasp the nature of the game. But still a good effort in preserving our traditional games heritage.

Last website is an attempt to document the Asian traditional games but the webmaster has only managed to highlight some Malaysian games so far. Again another narrative style site written in English this time, I hope the site will expand soon. Anyway for those who think they can do better in highlighting these traditional games, I encourage you to so. At least we can encourage our kids to get out of the house and not be a slave to virtual reality gaming. If we can at least do that, that is good enough for me. And if you want to find out more, just google it. I have found at least two blogspot bloggers who have blogged on this.

Two Dumb Ideas From The Recent UMNO Convention

I have no wherewithal to really follow the matters raised in the recent UMNO convention but some of the issues raised in the convention highlighted in the media really raised my goat due to their sheer short-sightness, biasness and plain dumbness. Come on people! Your party is getting ready for a general election and here you are shooting yourselves in the foot and negating all you leadership’s efforts to show the People that UMNO is a party that is with it.

Forget the drum roll as they don’t deserve one but here are two dumbass ideas that managed to immediately attract my eye and distressed my brains. I may write more later if I find the will to discuss anymore such inane ideas.

1. The fella who suggested that all local university lectures must be held in Malay.

Hello friend which century are you living in? Here we are trying to raise our level of national competitiveness in the world stage and here he is going insular in the use of the Malay language. Promoting the use of the Malay language is fine but if this an attempt to help Malay students with a crutch because he cannot hack it studying in an English language environment is a sad reflection of your stage of mind because you forget that the fool will need to survive in an English speaking real world. What is the difference between our local students and those thousands of students that our government led by UMNO leadership has sent overseas? Do these overseas students study in Malay in these foreign lands? Are you trying to create an elitist class of graduates where these people are internationally mobile while the unlucky ones that has to work at local dead end jobs because those international corporations that we attracted to the Economic Corridors find that these local graduates wanting so they import foreign workers under the guise of expatriates. You want to see all those foreign pump attendants, factory workers and manual labourers who actually have university degrees and are itching to get a job commensurate to their qualifications fill these premium jobs that we created for companies that needs internationally savvy people in the positions. Man if these people can learn to ask “Hijau atau Merah” why is it so hard for our Malay students to master a simple language like English that uses the same alphabets and similar grammatical rules and structures. I can assure you it is more difficult to master Arabic, Mandarin or Japanese language.

I personally take it as an affront to my old alma matter who has managed to turn out tens of thousands, or is it hundred of thousands now of graduates who can thrive in English language companies as their lectures are held in English. So much so that these graduates are much sought after not only by major local companies but major international corporations. This leading edge was given to these students for the simple reason that the institution realised that they are initially seen as a sort of country bumpkin university compared to the various government universities, so they needed to gain the prestige that can only be obtained when their graduates do well in the real world. And I am glad they have done it as also attested by the various university ranking surveys. So please take a leaf and learn how to support our Malay students as what this institution that was actually created to support the Malay students has done. Ensure that remedial English classes are part of the core curriculum in the early semesters. Segregate the ones already with a good command of English from the rest so that you do not hold them back, it is all a matter of credit hours anyway. This is no different from the program to prepare those students going overseas students who needed to undergo intensive language classes. So why this cannot be done the same with our local students. Proof of the pudding you say. Ask which alumni the successful management class in the various corporations belongs to and I am sure many will say they are a product of the same Alma matter as I am, even when they have gone on to further studies in foreign Ivy League universities. Oh yeah if you are still wondering which institution I am referring to, it is simply the MARA Institute of Technology, the acronym of which really fits the bill. So the conclusion that I can make? Make sure that lectures are taught in English in order for us to compete with all other the nations that are already racing to do so, otherwise our local students will be left behind with that big crutch that you are trying to give in such a simpleton gesture. Playing to the gallery does not mean you can mortgage our future competitiveness.

2. The lady who says Air Asia Uniforms Needs to Cover Up

Here we have a world beating company and someone comes up with the petty idea again to criticise their air crew uniform. Flogging the dead horse again eh as this critique has been floated so many times that I get bored with the same response that Air Asia has to give each time. If you are talking about decency and such, make sure your male cohorts eyes and minds are clean first, as otherwise such uniforms will not excite them in the first place. And please remember that foreigners also use the airlines, and I am sure they do not really notice such things, its service that counts for them. So instead of being a fashion police to an airline that has not used public funds to make a success of themselves, why don’t you turn your thoughts as to how our public funded airline can become world beating again instead of trying to turn themselves into a second rate “world class” entity. Better still think of how you can spread the message that the correct meaning of covering your Aurat in Islam is to not only your hair with headscarves but to cover all skins and your body form. Hopefully after that I will not see anymore short sleeved t-shirt tight fitting jeans belly button showing chicks with a mini telekung walking around. Now these actually aroused me more that chicks in micro skirts and tube tops. And these bitches in tudungs have now become great actresses in 3gp clips it seems, how pious is that.

Enough said.

Post-script

And for those louts who love confrontational head-to heads with our Police force, I hope you enjoyed the itchiness of the water canon, bruises and cuts and whatever you may have endured during your dumb demonstration last Saturday. Do you really think you impressed rational citizens especially in Kuala Lumpur who you ruffians inconvenienced to support you and translate it to votes for the opposition? Man you guys achieved your mission of submitting your petition for clean elections, and yet you hooligans chose to disrespect the law. If you guys really want to show you really have the people’s support, call for a boycott of the coming election and if the present government is revoted-in with less than fifty percent turnout, then you have something to shout about and capitalise on. Otherwise please shut up and can the theatrical antics you imported from our neighbours. You have the nerve to call them uncivilised social misfits when they go to the streets, but how different are you when you do the same. Do you really think that our ordinary citizens will not think beyond your demonstrations that if your type of people who disrespect the law openly somehow becomes the government, anarchy may become the norm like what happened over there? The irony is that across town the government big-wigs went for a peaceful Hari Raya gathering with the ordinary people. They must be really impressed with your little side-show. Goes to show that dumbasses populate both side of the political divide.

You Don’t Eat Bean Curd You Say

It is amazing that many Westerners except those who claim they lead a vegetarian lifestyle look at a bean curd and goes blaargh. Well looking at the way bean curd is prepared in their non Eastern inspired recipes, is it any wonder. Can’t fault them though, they have been at it only so long. Even the avowed vegan hater Anthony Bourdain had to admit that the vegetarian meals prepared in India that he had were great on top of all the vegetables dishes he ate in his journeys across Asia. We have had enough time to work with soy beans to turn it into wondrous foods like tempe, miso paste, taucho paste and such so much so what is essentially a poor man’s substitute for meat, in this case specifically the bean curd, has been made into various dishes so palatable that to lead a vegetarian lifestyle is not a hardship existence. Known by variations of the name tow foo in Asia but in the Malay culture as tauhu or tahu in spelling, bean curds have been prepared in various forms from the semi liquid tow foo fah to my personal favourite fried. And these fried caked soy prevalent to the Malay region take the cake in my book, pun notwithstanding. Quite similar in preparation but more amazingly with interchangeable names between regions, they do differ enough in form and preparation to merit different nomenclatures. The sure thing is the origins of these dishes are again lost in time, so for a culture to claim it as exclusively theirs is an exercise in vanity.

Shall we start with the simplest of preparations, the stuffed bean curd or tauhu sumbat in Malay. This simply means frying up the bean curd, preferably the yellow firm variety, before cutting it into triangle halves and holing the middle for the stuffing. The stuffing itself can be as simple as a mix of julienned cucumbers and blanched bean sprouts sufficiently seasoned to more elaborate stuffing that can include carrots, mushrooms and scrambled eggs. Yes tauhu sumbat is quite similar to Nyonya Pie Tee(Top Hats), but you don’t need to make the casings. Nonetheless you can still find some tauhu sumbat being more elaborately prepared that its form can rival the pie tee. This usually originates from Indonesia and the ones served in the Indonesian Sundanese Restaurant chains are called Taupok , which is actually the Chinese name for pre-fried tow foo cakes usually used in curry noodles. It is also called tauhu kipas or fan tauhu though I can’t see why it is called that. Take a look at the picture and tell me where the resemblance to a fan is. This version’s filling is more elaborate and savoury that you do not need a sauce to dip in for me. Yet similar to the pie tee, the killer aspect to enjoy a tauhu sumbat is the dipping sauce and this is usually a chilli vinaigrette, and the best has a balanced hotness, sweetness and sourness taste to it. Nonetheless another nice way to enjoy tauhu sumbat is with a peanut sauce similar to satay sauce, but this needs some amount of preparation that may not commensurate to the preparation of the simple tauhu sumbat, so it is rarely prepared as such. The establishments that I find serves the sauce this way usually serves the sauce as a common sauce for their other offerings like prawn fritters and such, and may also serve the peanut sauce together with the chilli vinaigrette as a double dipping sauce option. The testament of the popularity of this tauhu sumbat that I can offer is that a major food company has even gone to the extend of trying to convince people to use their mayonnaise flavoured with curry powder as a contemporary dip, as I believe that their marketing research must have shown that their bottles of mayonnaise will fly off the shelves if the public takes the bait. I however doubt it will become common practise as the marriage of a creamy sauce with an already creamy bean curd is not really something made in heaven.

The next fried tauhu is actually grilled on a broiler hence its name tauhu bakar or broiled tow foo. However prefried pressed tauhu is used so that it can withstand the heat of the grill as soft tow foo will definitely lose its shape during grilling. The tauhu can be grilled over charcoal embers or an electric broiler as the purpose of grilling is to crispen the skin though charcoal grilling will provide more aroma. Prepared in various ways, this entails stuffing the grilled tauhu again with your choice of julienned vegetables and bean sprouts with a hot soy sauce caramel derived from dark soy sauce, white and brown sugar, crushed chillies, vinegar and prawn paste. The vegetables are either mixed in the caramel and stuffed in the tauhu as per the Chinese method or stuffed into cut up tauhu squares before the caramel sauce is poured on top. In this case the killer ingredient is the crushed fried peanuts that are poured onto the mix, giving a crunchy edge to the flavour. Some peddlers offer a special preparation with an additional ingredient, whereby strips of barbequed calamari strips is sandwiched inside the tauhu. The sweet chewy strips add an extra dimension to the overall taste when you bite into it, much like bacon strips in your typical burger. This surely is a case of an innovative food hawker improving on an already great tasting dish demonstrating that not only chefs know how to make a dish better.

A variation to this where the bean curd is not grilled is tauhu goreng or is also sometimes called rojak tauhu. Similar to a rojak buah or fruit rojak, firm bean curds are fried and cut up into bite sized bits before being again mixed with julienned cucumbers and blanched bean sprouts before a similar caramel soy sauce to those used for the tauhu baker is poured over the combination. The exception is that the caramel sauce is less caramelised in a thinner consistency and the crushed peanuts are already mixed in to the sauce, and may look similar to the petis based sauce used for fruit rojak. However the special ingredient that you rarely find even in fruit rojaks nowadays, that is the special prawn flavoured kueh, will add an extra zing to the dish if you can find it but I doubt any peddler will offer this in their tauhu goreng. But those prepared in my home must have this or the dish will not be complete. The problem is that usually half these prawn flavoured kueh will vanish into the mouth of the household kids while being fried even before the tauhu goreng is prepared. And this included me when I was a kid. And as you may have noticed, tauhu goreng is my most favoured dish amongst the three here. Thus it quite dismays me that this not a so common dish that is sold by food vendors due to its leceh (protracted) preparation, and I only personally know of two who has this dish on their menu. One is at the food court of Great Eastern Mall and the other that I accidentally found to my delight is at the My Mom’s Chicken Rice restaurant chain as it was listed as tauhu bakar but actually prepared as tauhu goreng. This may be due to the fact that most people are more familiar with the name tauhu bakar than tauhu goreng so they decided to use that name in order to attract people to try the dish. The one at the Great Eastern Mall is average tasting while the one at the Chicken Rice chain is a hit and miss affair, with the better prepared at the home restaurant in Ampang Point. Recently I found out from one of the local food blogs tauhu goreng is also available in Jalan Masjid India and looking at the account seems to be the real McCoy. A variation coming out from Singapore that used to be available in KLCC Suria Mall food court before their renovation is served in a tower form but I have not seen other local establishments serving this and it seems to be extinct. This version uses the eggy form of bean curd and tastes more custardy, so that may be the recent why it has not captured the local gourmands taste buds. Not only that, the portion is quite substantial to be eaten as a side dish as one piece is good enough for a personal meal. Whatever it is, there are still so many ways the tow foo is prepared that connoisseurs do not need to feel they are being left wanting.

Mandailing Chemor Highlighted

Indulge me as it isn't everyday one of my clan of my village is higlighted in the mainstream newspapers...man I wish I can get at that gulai daun ubi Tumbuk and Kuih makmur filled with pineapple jam...by the way she is my grand-auntie on my mother's side and auntie on my father's side. Strange? Not really since my dad married her distant niece.

Sunday November 4, 2007

We are the Mandailings

Chemor is also home to the Mandailings, people who originally came from Sumatra and rose to prominence in many fields in their adopted land. IT was not just the Chinese who sought refuge and prosperity in Perak. The Mandailing people fled the 19th century wars of north Sumatra and found greener pastures here too. The palace of their leader Raja Bilah, at Papan (near Ipoh), is renowned, but the community has other cultural treasure troves too, such as the home of Noormiah Mohd Jamil, or Kak Nadimah, 62, at Kampung Batu 9, just outside Chemor.

Kak Nadimah’s heirlooms are preserved in her 19th century house which is a veritable museum.

The yellow-green wooden house with white curtains billowing amidst well-carved windows was built in the 1890s by her grandfather, Mohd Noor Barola, and still stands solidly even though the traffic on the old Ipoh-Kuala Kangsar trunk road just outside has changed from bullock carts to Perodua Myvi’s.

Inside, her family has lovingly preserved tekat, gold thread embroidery almost a century old, as well as her mother’s 1922 bridal chamber adorned with tikar langkat weavings.
She also shows us – a group on a heritage tour organised by the Perak Heritage Society – a lovely oil lamp with the inscription “Sherwood’s Birmingham” underneath.
“When my parents married in 1922, they had to get new everything – plates, bed and this lamp.”
When asked about her excellent English, she credits her education at Raja Perempuan English School, Ipoh.
“We would be fined five cents if we spoke anything other than English,” she recalls.
She was born in Chemor but her work in arbitration has taken her to Kuala Lumpur, though she makes it a point to return regularly to maintain the house.

Nadihah’s parents got this Birmingham oil lamp for their wedding in 1922.

Many other well-educated Mandailings of Chemor (including her cousin, the former Navy Vice-Admiral Mohd Zain Mohd Salleh) have, like her, moved to the cities.
“There were 20-plus Mandailing families here. The young have gone to work elsewhere. The elderly have either passed away or moved to the cities to join their children,” she says.
The grand old homes now have “caretaker” families, including more recent Indonesian arrivals, thus continuing the historical Nusantara migrations.
According to heritage activist Abdur-Razzaq Lubis who is of Mandailing descent (in previous articles in The Star), Mandailing irrigation techniques applied in the Kinta Valley of Perak enabled the community to produce a surplus of rice to feed the ever-growing Chinese mining population. The gold mines techniques of Sumatra were also applied successfully in the state's tin mines.
The Mandailings were embroiled in various 19th century wars in Selangor, Pahang and Perak after they arrived here, acquiring a reputation as rebels and insurgents. When they lost, some chose to conceal their identities by dropping their clan names.
In Perak, Lubis notes that they made a strategic decision to change sides and become British allies and were rewarded with mines, positions as tax collectors and lands (used for rubber and fruit orchard cultivation).
He notes that in both Indonesia and Malaysia, official efforts are being made to “incorporate” the Mandailing identity into the more mainstream Batak and Malay identities respectively. Some Mandailings have also chosen to assimilate themselves as Malays to “make things easier”.
He estimates there are roughly 50,000 Malaysians of Mandailing descent, including nationalist-educationist Aminuddin Baki, former Inspector-General of Police Tun Mohd Hanif Omar and former Supreme Court judge Tan Sri Azmi Kamaruddin.
As for Nadimah, while she is proud to be Malaysian, she is also proud of her roots. Many Mandailings keep detailed family tree records, and Nadimah has hers (going back three centuries, written in Jawi) proudly displayed in her home. After all, she is the great-great-grandniece of Raja Bilah, once the grand ruler of Papan.
Meanwhile, another kind of migration – the suburban sprawl of Ipoh city, whose advance guard is merely 5km away from her kampung – beckons.
For now, the semi-rural setting here still cocoons the home and its antiques, which includes solid wooden cupboards, a four-poster bed as well as teacups and glass jars (collected by her family from around the world).
“There are many offers to buy all these things but I have declined,” she says.
Nadimah prepares a splendid Hari Raya spread for us, including the Mandailing classic of daun ubi tembuk or mashed tapioca leaves, lush with bunga kantan, lemongrass and coconut milk flavours. For dessert, she makes excellent ghee-enriched kuih makmur (prosperous cookies) filled with pineapple jam.
Apart from antiques, it’s to lovely to know that heritage of the culinary kind is alive and well! – ANDREW SIA

G’Me A Cuppa

Of course I know the correct term is mea culpa, but like it says give me a cuppa, I wanna take a break. I have been asked by friends why I mostly reminisce about foods in the blog. Do I intend to be a food blogger, or flogger, the moniker that is quite distasteful to me by its connotation. This may be due to the fact that they may not realise the true meaning of flogger, because if they did I am sure they do not want to be associated with such a vocation. And this is basically why I evoke about the past, as many a proverb in many cultures has exhorted that in order to go forward, you must not forget the past. To burn your bridges does not mean you cannot go back. It just means that you need to find another way while moving forward in order to return home, as that is still your primary objective.

Yes home, your place of sanctuary. Its form may change through time but home will remain a safe haven, as a calm port is for a sailor. Thus in the rush to advance to whatever marvels that awaits us in the future, I would like to be an instrument to remind all of us what it is all about, which is to make our nation a safe home for everyone. Certainly there are pitfalls in our path, pass, present and future, and we overcome it come what may but we should not lose sight of our objective. Do not fail to remember our colourful past, even something as trivial as Rose Chan that the young may go huh at, as such things are what made us what we are today. Hence let us not forget what things to cherish, lest they be pushed aside for fleeting baubles of faux joy, believing such will gladden our souls but actually leaving us a hollow nation and not a hallowed nation.

Yet in my recollections food remains the easiest to write about, as the saying goes a full belly is a sated soul. This is especially so since our society seem to rush headlong into ‘homogeny meals’ in the name of economics and convenience, as even lunch boxes has seeped into our golden service airline, no longer tolerating diversity and nuances in preparations. What a joke! And for those who chose to head into the other extreme, chasing the latest nouvelle fad of this chef and that in a sort of glorified bento existence since it is just that, a gourmetised lunch box, do they do not realise that these novelties are actually dishes that has stood the test of time after being tweaked here and there by the chefs. A food reviewer I claim not to be, as I have no tyre manufacturer stars, chopsticks or any such marques to give to any food establishments. I will only mention those institutions that remain true to their art, fighting to maintain our food heritage as culinary repositories so that such gastronomic legacies is not swallowed by the rivers of time.

Still I may write about other things that are part of our inheritance, such as the lost games of our nation’s childhood like konda-kondi, galah panjang, teng teng and others that may sound odd to kids of this generation. However I feel that my words would fail to elicit any curiosity in the young to ponder on these heirlooms, so it would be best to leave such recollections for those well versed in the visual arts or better wordsmiths than I to not only preserve the memory of such diversions but to revive so that children laughter while playing the games shall ring out again. But even then I have my doubts. Remember the nostalgic Merdeka advertisement of children playing a game of combat in the bushes of their village? In this age of virtual electronic role-playing, I have not seen kids replay such games and if a national campaign like that cannot bring out any response, how will others fare. Nonetheless for those things that does not require such visual aids and I feel I should reflect upon, I will surely comment even though it may be political, even if I am surely no political commentator. Notwithstanding the fact that bloggers seem to be a reviled species to the establishment nowadays; I am still proud to be associated as one cause I believe responsible bloggers are still doing a service to society. And if I can help maintain our food heritage amongst others by doing so, I say why not?

PUTTU UNITED

What is usually made of rice flour, steamed and eaten with palm sugar and freshly grated coconut, uniting Malaysians in savouring its heavenly taste whilst cross culturally shedding its origins through time as no one culture can any longer claim it as its own. Well that would be puttu, not the crumbly hard-pressed flour cookie that shares a similar name but the steaming hot sieved flour delights that over here are normally eaten as a sweet treat for breakfast or tea. Yes this is the steamed rice cakes as defined by the original Tamil word Puttu but the localised versions has been so bastardised, but in a good way, to the extent that the populace of its homeland may not longer recognise it and together with one version that appears to be homegrown has become uniquely our own.

The most wide spread form in the Malay Archipelago is the Puttu Mayam, otherwise known as idiappam in its native land. This has even spread to the Island of Jawa, where its name has been elegantly corrupted to Putu Mayang, or is it vice versa, as mayang is the Malay name for the act of swirling the puttu dough into stringy round cakes. Whereas the Singhalese, Keralans or Southern Tamils that would have collectively brought this cuisine to the region would eat the puttu as a savoury meal with curries, over here it has morphed as a sweetmeat eaten with the various regional forms of palm sugars or brown sugar, yet never without the shredded coconut that lifts the taste sensation up a notch. Woe betides you if you are unfortunate enough to be swindled by an unscrupulous vendor who gives you instead reconstituted coconut gratings with the cream pressed out, as what you would get is really rubbish. This is because the real pleasure of eating puttu mayam is that the puttu acts as the canvas for the marriage of sugar and coconut cream to burst into a flavour sensation, much like rice with its accompaniments. But it is not so strange when you think about its savoury origins eh. My favourite vendor sells his goodies at the intersection of Jalan Tun Perak and Jalan Lebuh Ampang in KL, and he is one vendor who is not stingy in the size and thickness of the puttu mayam where a three ringgit packet is the size of a rugby ball, provides generous amounts of brown sugar that is uncut with flour as some deceitful vendor may do and his grated coconut is guaranteed fresh, again in copious amounts. Now remember that most puttu mayam vendors are still Indians so there are some who still sells the puttu mayam its original styles, and one popular version with the health conscious set is the ragi puttu made with millet flour that gives it a darker colour, but methinks this is a rare breed.

Another type of puttu that has made the transition here is the puttu bamboo or putu bambu. The quintessence puttu in its homeland, its form here has been transformed from the original form of plain cylindrically shaped puttu coated with coconut to encase a filling of palm sugar that oozes out from its centre. Sadly this is a rare occurrence as many vendors stinge on the sugar by only superficially filling the puttu with the palm sugar, leaving only blotches of sugar to flavour the puttu. As the puttu can be quite dry in this shape as it is steamed in bamboo or bamboo shaped canisters, this would be a no-no for sweet toothy me and that forces me to usually do without. I would only want those oozing sugar like the one shown in the photo. The reason for this may be because the puttu bamboo can still be easily found in its original unsweetened form to be eaten as a savoury dish though some are eaten like puttu mayam with grated coconut and sugar, so puttu bamboo with the sugar filling is a half and half still. Yet you can also find ragi puttu bamboo with the sugar filling in certain areas, so it may just be a regional thing. In fact in the Philippines it seems that the version there incorporates a local fruit as the filling, showing well how the regional variations differs. And do not get me started on the various permutations in the various Indonesian regions.

While plain puttu bamboo eaten with coconut and sugar as accompaniments are called by the name of puttu piring in certain areas, the name actually refers to another type of puttu for the Malays in general. This puttu is something else all together although the ingredients and the way of steaming is similar to the puttu bamboo, and seems to be totally homegrown. Forsaking the bamboo canisters, these puttus are steamed instead in small saucepans that give it the saucer like shape. These saucepans are usually half-filled before the palm sugar is added, though the best like those sold by my favourite vendor are actually studded with palm sugar chips rather than spread with melted sugar, as this gives pleasurable bursts of sugar when you bite into it much like biting into buah melaka or onde-onde, and then more flour is added until the brim and trimmed off if necessary. Then the saucepans are wrapped with muslin cloth and put on the steamer until adjudged as cooked and taken out. The coconut gratings are then poured on top, before being covered with a piece of banana leaf that lends additional fragrance to the puttu as the steam interplays with the leaf to impregnate its essence into the puttu as the final touch. Served turned over so as to sit on the leaf, the putu piring only now awaits your bite but this may require a certain technique to ensure the coconut does not spill. I take the easy way out and eat it upside down myself. Oh yeah do not forget to observe the vendor juggling the saucepans while waiting, as this is quite entertaining by itself. The puttu piring is now so popular that it has become a featured item in hotel buffets, especially for the Ramadhan.

Variations to this native species? Well the Chinese version is called the kueh tutu where the coconut is already cooked with the sugar before being stuffed into the cake, much like coconut buns. A version from Perak not only forgoes the sugar and steamed in flower shaped cake vessels instead, but uses glutinous rice flour hence it is also called putu pulut. This is quite dry and though I come from Perak myself, I do not favour it. From the east coast comes putu halba, made from tapioca flour with halba or fenugreek added to the mix, supposedly giving an herbal take to the cakes. I have not tried this myself, as this version is supposedly becoming a vanishing breed on top of being a seasonal food item, so I hope to be able to taste it before it truly disappears. I guess that there are still many other versions of puttus out there, but this three types of puttus are those that can claim the mantle of cultural crossovers that unites us in our beloved food mad nation.

Ode To My Favourite Deepavali Sweetmeat.

In honour of the Deepavali celebrations, I am sure many a sweetmeats will be served to the honoured guests. I have always wondered why these are called sweetmeats, shouldn’t they be more accurately called sweet treats? In fact I initially thought these are marinated meats meant to be barbecued or cooked later, not the coconut candies, milk round cookies, halwas or many other types of sweetmeats that would be served that I am sure many other food bloggers will and have written about.

Thus let me recount the most favoured sweetmeat of mine, the laddu that can be sinfully rich if done well but which through the ages those commercially sold have become less generous with the ingredients, especially the ghee so much so that many of those available are now more sugar candy than my sweet laddu. Of many different types with names like mortichoor, they are made of different ingredients that results in different textures. I will not belabour you with the process of making laddu but I love mine to be sticky and soft, with just the right hint of spices so that it is not overpowering the overall taste. Since I was in Lebuh Ampang in my failed mission to buy puttu mayam and laddu from my regular peddler, I took the opportunity to buy from the Deepavali seasonal vendors and from the Sri Paandi Restaurant branch there.

Well the laddu from my regular peddler admittedly is a bit dry, as he has to cut cost by reducing the amount of ghee to keep it at forty cents apiece. Yet it is not dry like the wine, as the sugar and spice mix is just right and because of the dryness it keeps rather well which is good for me as I usually buy five pieces and I surely cannot finish it in one seating. As for the Sri Paandi version, it intrigues me after reading a posting on it so I just had to try it out. I must say for seventy cents a piece it is good value, as the spice and nuts in it was sufficient, and the milk taste does come out. Too bad the ones I got does not seem to have the whole almond, but I guess that is the luck of the draw. My only complaint would be is that it is a little too crumbly, as one that you may be able to see from the photo actually has broken off.

Now the last laddu is from the seasonal peddler and this tasted more like my regular supply but they are more liberal with the ghee so it is actually wetter and nicer, and only for an extra ten cents per piece. I guess for the festival the customers are more demanding and since there is more competition, the peddlers cannot really play around too much with their wares. Now for the Deepavali celebaration itself and a taste of hopefully home-cooked laddus, which would be definitely be superior than those being sold, as the house cook reputation rests on it. Lucky me!