Phenomenal by any standard of kueh benka ubi kayu (KBUK) I’ve had and I can’t believe it wasn’t made by someone else. Perhaps it’s because it’s my first time trying KBUK as fresh out of the oven as it can get without scalding my mouth? I love its mouthfeel. Further fragranced with oven-scorched banana leaf, this moreish confection is unusually (yet very pleasantly) light, moist and melt-in-your-mouth (just stopping short of being custardy). And to top it off, that deliciously crispy, caramelized crust…Again, can’t believe something so delectable could also be so doable.

BRIEF: “Steamed tapioca kueh with gula melaka tossed in grated coconut. An all-time favourite perfected by Chef over the years with a melt-in-your-mouth mochi texture.” SOOT’S TAKE: They do this very well.

Taking another remote mini tour of Malaysia’s East Coast with these unassuming yet incredibly fragrant coconut custard cakes. Did I mention they’re also scented with pandan and gula melaka? I have not the means (or motivation) to reproduce these with smoking coconut husks or charcoal as it is apparently done locally, so their enhanced billowiness and smokiness will just have to be experienced with a trip there. Someday I suppose?

Pandan-infused buttery pastry pouches of delectable spiced pineapple jam filling to take you away on a tropical vacay. Hands down the best ones I’ve ever made although I need to cut down on the pineapple jam cooking time (filling was a tad hard).

My first time attempting the traditional Singaporean style (with cookie cutters) of shaping these brittle yet melt in your mouth gems redolent of coconut and pandan. No question they’re the best kueh bangket I’ve ever made, and not only because they’re on point texturally and flavor-wise. Even my father thinks they are just like the ones his mother used to make when he was a child.

Sweet potato donuts, freshly fried and sugared. They aren’t much to look at (the orange ones look a little like bread crumbed, fried onion rings and I couldn’t get the purple ones to be as vibrantly purple on the outside as @thewayofkueh did in the book), but they’re scrumptious enough to have disappeared down the kueh chutes in a single sitting. Sticking with the Okinawan sweet potatoes the next time I do this, coz they taste waaaay better, texturally and flavor wise.

I learned recently that these are auspicious treats for Mid-Autumn Festival in some parts, and so I found an excuse to try them homemade. They might be the best ones I’ve ever had (suck it, dim sum places!) and the use of sweet potato to make their casings probably has a lot to do with it (also made the red bean filling from scratch)! I tried to make them as spherical as possible to resemble the moon but maybe the only things moonlike about them are their texture and their colors: orange sweet potato for a golden moon and purple sweet potato for those once in a blue moons?

“A perfectly smooth custard made with naturally extracted pandan and coconut milk steamed with fragrant glutinous rice cake coloured with fresh blue pea flower, served with young coconut sorbet.” Did this really cost $16++?? And did 4 of us really share this? 🤑🤑🤑🤑

One of the best I’ve had and I can’t believe it’s my first time making it! It’s redolent with the toffee-coffee-ness of Gula Melaka, further enhanced with the smooth, delicate fragrance of fresh pandan and texturally, it resembles Warabi Mochi which I love. It also closely approximates the Kueh Kosui I’ve had at a certain Peranakan restaurant along Beach Road, which for me, elevated what I’d previously considered to be a rather nondescript dessert.

Kueh Kosui, duo of Gula Melaka and Coffee Fudge with Grated Coconut and Crushed Nuts. From the folks at PERANAKAN KHEK.

Glutinous rice cooked with coconut milk and wrapped around savory spiced chicken in modern sandwich format and neatly parceled up in banana leaves. They weren’t kidding about the spicy.

Baked cassava cake for the occasion, drizzled with gula Melaka and coconut cream on the side.

Traditional SE Asian snack of steamed rice flour encasing a sweet filling of ground peanuts. 🥜

A roll of sticky rice filled with a spicy and flavorful shredded chicken filling.

So good! 😋

Excellent!

First time trying this combination of tapioca and palm sugar.

Pillowy soft and with the right balance of not-sickly sweet flavors.

A tad dry.

A nice selection of nyonya kueh to sample. Might’ve enjoyed it more had we not been so stuffed from dinner.

BRIEF: “Glutinous Rice W Spicy Coconut.” SOOT’S TAKE: These were maybe the best of the lot I bought to sample at home. They reminded me of rempah udang.

BRIEF: “Flour & Gula Melaka” SOOT’S TAKE: Not sure they’re the same thing as kueh kosui but these taste very similar.

BRIEF: “Cassava w. Red Sugar.” SOOT’S TAKE: Not had this before either but it was preferred to the kole-kole. Still, I prefer the kuih bingka ubi that I make.

My first time trying Lapis Surabaya. The cake layers are moreish but a Google search reveals I’ve been cheated of a third layer as this kueh typically exists in 3 layers. It should hence be renamed “Lazy Lapis Surabaya.” It is also very small for a $6 slice of cake.

Happy National Coconut Day! 🥥 Cassava pudding with coconut topping FTW. It’s amazing how such a simple combination of ingredients could produce something so sophisticated.

Culinarily traveling to the ancient city of Phetchaburi where this pudding, topped with a garnish of deep-fried shallots is a specialty.

12 h of painstaking work. Needless to say, the ROI on this wasn’t great. 🥴😫🥺😩 #BurntLayers #PainstakingLayer #AfterPainstakingLayer #ATonOfEggs #ATonOfButter #ATonOfWork

Apom: Nyonya rice pancakes. Berkuah: Meant to be a banana sauce but it was really more of a sauce with a gula Melaka base and banana pieces thrown in. A potentially winning combination which screamed for more banana.

It’s got corn, 😃 and who doesn’t want a dessert-snack wrapped in a leaf parcel? They also remind me of tamales. 🌽

Kuih Sagu and ondeh ondeh: gula melaka a flowing...