Cendol - an Asia dessert.

What's a cendol? Or chendol - both spellings are used, either one correct or wrong depending on who you ask (I seem to see more ‘chendol’ in Singapore. Not going to go anywhere near the origin story…) At its basic, cendol is a cold and refreshing dessert based on a combination of a base of shaved ice covered in coconut milk and gula melaka (brown palm sugar, usually from the palmyra palm - the ones with fan leaves, standing proud and true in the rice paddies you'll see travelling through South-East Asia), plus a portion of the sweet, jelly-like, green cendol strips (the green worms) from which the pudding gets the name. 

The cendol themselves, more like otherwordly alien elvers than loamy worms, are made from rice slow cooked with pandan leaves (they contribute the vanilla-like flavour and green colour) and gula melaka to make a jelly that is then pressed through a strainer. 

Cendol topped with durian (front) and with attap and jackfruit (back); Ye Tang Chendol, Beauty World, Singapore. 

It's a a true 'planty' pudding, as on top of the original, or basic, cendol of those three fundamentals, it's possible to have a combination of all sorts of different toppings, usual ones include red bean, attap (immature fruits of the mangrove palm), durian, jackfruit, creamed corn, mango, grass jelly etc.

After getting the cendol, then how to eat it...do you mix it all together? Or gently slice down the ice and topping mountain spoonful by spoonful? 

Cendol topped with sweetened creamed corn, and the shaved ice doused in gula melaka; Nyonya Chendol, Bukit Timah Food Centre, Dec. 2023

Rice sheets or cheong fun.

Sometimes it's the most simple things that allow a restaurant, cafe or food stall, to be judged. Apart from the obvious things such as dirty cutlery or scuttling cockroaches, there will be something on the menu, a 'simple' classic, that gives away the skill and quality of the chef or cook. For me, it’s the cheong fun, 腸粉, rice noodle roll. If done well, the noodle roll should be thin but thick enough to hold the shape, pure white (yet translucent at the edges) and glossy, soft and silky (but with some bite), and freshly cooked off the steamer served up hot and plump with quality fillings - usually fresh prawn or char sui pork. Hot soy based sauce is poured over before serving. If done poorly, it’s granular, stodgy, thick and cold, with insipid flat, dull fillings. Always order a plate when having dim sum to get an idea of the kitchen.