It’s practically unimaginable to outline kueh (generally written as kuih), the genre-bending dessert/snack that exists throughout Southeast Asia—particularly all through Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.
“There’s an enormous world to find with kueh, however to me, I all the time consider it as being colourful and crowd pleasing,” says Tara Carrara, one half of the sister duo that runs Los Angeles-based Bungku Bagus, a Balinese road meals pop-up. “Quite a lot of Indonesian desserts are actually playful. That’s the spirit of the dessert—it’s purported to be actually enjoyable.”
That’s positively the case for kueh lapis, a steamed cake with rainbow layers that peels away like string cheese. The Carrara sisters put together trays of kueh lapis each weekend for his or her stand in LA’s Smorgasborg.
There are dozens of various kinds of kueh to get enthusiastic about. What’s generally known as klepon in Indonesia and onde-onde in some elements of Malaysia is a glutinous rice ball stuffed with a palm sugar syrup that’s then rolled in coconut shavings—what Celene Carrara, the opposite half of Bungkus Bagus, refers to as “the OG gusher expertise” because of the sticky exterior and gooey sugar middle.
The historical past of kueh and its non secular affiliations
Kueh generally is a religious meals, one thing found on altars and prayed over. “If you see photographs of Bali and the ladies going to temple with massive, ornate [kueh] on their heads, it was for particular ceremonies,” Celene explains, “after which as soon as the rituals have been full and so they’d been provided to the gods, then it was okay for us to participate and eat them.”
Faith and holidays are additionally one thing that involves thoughts for Safira Ezani, who runs a Malaysian meals pop-up in Seattle referred to as Masakan along with her mother, Mas Puteh. “After I consider kueh recollections I consider Hari Raya, which is what we name Eid in Malaysia,” Ezani says. “They’ve what they name kuih raya. It’s not one thing you possibly can solely make throughout raya, however you see it extra usually—like these very flaky pineapple tarts referred to as tart nenas.”
Being so entrenched in faith additionally signifies that kueh has a longtime historical past. Victor Low, the founder and chef behind the Peranakan restaurant Kapitan in Chicago, means that kueh is what kings have been eating on a whole lot of years in the past. “The roots could be traced again to imperial China within the 1400s. The kings again then have been all splurging—they didn’t have only one meal, however a number of a whole lot of things on each plate,” Low says.
China has all the time been an unlimited nation, with regional cuisines that differ from metropolis to metropolis. When cooks throughout China honored the kings with their interpretation of kueh, they’d be made with totally different instruments and components. “That’s why kueh is available in so many varieties,” Low explains. Pair that with the best way kueh has migrated, and the components native to Southeast Asia, and you’ve got a whole lot of interpretations of this dessert snack.
For a lot of, kueh is a nostalgic style of childhood
For Puteh, kueh is intertwined with childhood recollections spent rising up in Negeri Sembilan, a state in Malaysia simply southeast of Kuala Lumpur. “We ate or made kueh virtually day by day,” Puteh reminisces. “My mother was a kueh vendor, so kueh is ingrained in our minds. The one I bear in mind my mother making loads is kuih koci.”
Little did Puteh know that she, too, would develop into a kueh vendor. Alongside her daughter, the duo determined to good the multigenerational household recipe and serve kuih koci at their pop-ups, which regularly embrace savory Malaysian meals of rendang and murtabak, in addition to spreads of kuih.
“Kuih koci is sort of like a steamed mochi wrapped in a banana leaf,” Ezani explains. The kuih is constructed of glutinous rice flour that envelops a shredded coconut and palm sugar filling, which is then layered with a salty coconut cream for a candy and savory deal with.
For Mogan Anthony, who cofounded Lady Wong, a bakery and kueh store in New York’s East Village, alongside his spouse, Seleste Wong, there is no such thing as a proper or incorrect time to get pleasure from kueh. “It might be dinner or snacks, breakfast, a late lunch, or tea time,” he lists off. “There’s no boundary or limits of the way you eat it or what time you eat it—it’s simply a part of the tradition in Southeast Asia.”
Widespread components used to make kueh
Anthony, who grew up in Northern Malaysia, near the border of Thailand, recollects his father choosing up packs of kueh for him after work. Though Anthony was raised in Malaysia, he has household in Thailand and has additionally spent a decade in Singapore. On the subject of kueh, he finds what hyperlinks all of the recipes—no matter regionality—are the components.
“Possibly they’re barely totally different colours from village to village or they characterize totally different household values or symbolism generally, however the major components between all these international locations are the identical,” Anthony says. This contains glutinous rice flour, palm sugar, coconuts, and naturally pandan. “We drink and bathe in pandan in Southeast Asia,” he laughs.
Low cites kueh stuffed with meats, flakier kuehs just like Western pastries, in addition to kuehs that toe the road between the 2, satisfying each candy and savory appetites. “It’s a dessert, it’s a delicacies, and it’s a meal,” he explains, “however the same commonality throughout all kueh is that it’s meant to be finger meals and it’s wealthy in presentation—that means colour, taste, texture, and style.”
On the subject of kueh, all the things is symbolic. A colour in a particular kueh might characterize prosperity, whereas its form may suggest longevity or luck. “All the pieces has a cause—from the best way it was ready to the best way it’s ready to the tasting profile,” Low says. “In the event you dig additional into it, you’re truly tasting part of historical past.”
Utilizing kueh as a method of preserving tradition
The connective thread between all these purveyors of kueh is the power to offer a style of house, for each themselves and for his or her prospects, and to additional educate the American public on what kueh could be.
Anthony and Wong based Woman Wong when homesickness for Singaporean treats all through the COVID-19 pandemic grew to become insufferable. Celene and Tara began Bungkus Bagus to copy their favourite restaurant in Ubud, figuring out they wouldn’t have the ability to discover something comparable in Los Angeles—in order that they needed to do it themselves.
Puteh and Ezani need to protect Malaysian recipes, making an attempt their finest to stay to basic components and preparations even in Seattle’s a lot cooler local weather. And Low desires People to acknowledge the huge and spectacular heritage intertwined with kueh.
“Our pleasure is bringing what we have been so blessed to have as youngsters to folks right here, for individuals who like us grew up in Indonesia and needed to depart or for no matter cause,” Tara says. “So many individuals are like, ‘Oh my God, I used to be l introduced again to my childhood or my aunt’s cooking.’ So I believe that for us, the dream is to convey that very singular expertise of Bali to folks right here in LA.”
Puteh feels equally. “If again house to Malaysia, it’s laborious to discover a comparable taste to what I grew up with as a result of all of the sellers are already useless and have taken their recipes to the grave,” she laughs. “That’s why I’m impressed to protect custom,” creating kueh alongside her daughter who can proceed to uphold its scrumptious, palm sugar-kissed legacy.
