Chendol

Chendol is a shaved ice dessert that is famous in malaysia. It's a combo of shaved ice, green jelly (i think made from pandan), gula melaka (malaysian palm sugar) and coconut milk.

I've never been a fan of chendol until this trip back to Penang where my cousin took me to the best chendol stall in Penang. It was quite an experience. There were droves of people surrounding this stall which was situated on a one way street. The road was being shared by this stall, cars, customers and motorcycles. It was standing room only and my usual standards for food hygiene went down a few notches.

Anyway, back to the chendol... I think what impressed my the most was the chendol man. The order of operations was as follows:

1) Get yourself in a position where the chendol man can see you

2) Tell him how many bowls of chendol you want

3) He makes it for you at the speed of lightning (and he keeps count)

4) You pay him

5) You distribute your ordered desserts to whoever else is with you

6) You slurp down your dessert under the beating sun while watching 50 other people do the same - and try not to get in the way of vehicles entering the road

7) You finish your dessert - it didn't take you long.

8) You give your finished bowl to the washing up lady who washes them right next to the stall with several buckets of water.

Here's a video of the chendol man. He'd win the chendol making Olympics.

Happy New Year!

Looking forward to lots of nom noms this year. Abigail is too! :D

I recently returned from a trip to my hometown - Penang, Malaysia. Had a great time eating hawker food and shopping and then eating again. It was a really different experience because it was the first time we've travelled with baby in tow. My next post might be a bit about this experience... anyway, during the trip, I fell in love with a new phenomenon : 3-layered tea! It's a drink that has been marketed by the company that sells evaporated milk so that it can increase its sales of their product. Basically, there are 3 layers - palm sugar, evaporated milk and tea. Simple. Here's a pic of how cool it looks:

See the 3 layers?? Wanna know how to make it? Pretty simple really.. i watched a video :)

Well, when I made it, obviously I didn't think about measurements at all. I just used whatever volumed glasses I had. Then I tweaked the taste. Here's an outline of my method:

Ingredients:

Ice - lots of it... especially if you plan on making this drink for a number of people.

Liquid/pourable palm sugar

Evaporated milk

Tea (i like mine strong)

Method:

1) Pour some palm sugar in glass. This should be the thinnest layer in your glass so measure accordingly. I prefer mine to taste more tea-like rather than syrup-y so I used around 2T.

2) Using a tablespoon, add evaporated milk to the palm sugar. Again, amount given is up to you. Avoid putting too much if you don't like it too sweet.

3) Add ice to the brim of your cup.

4) Pour the tea - don't hesitate. Just pour as per normal. I actually used earl gray which is what I had and it tasted great!

5) Admire the 3 layered effect!

Ta dah!

Anyway, for not much effort, this is a drink that will bring me back to a malaysian coffee shop when I feel nostalgic this year :)