Of the many Nyonya / Malay kueh, ondeh ondeh is my personal favourite. Many sold are, however, overly sweet and a little flat tasting - ๆญป็ or literally "dead sweet" in Chinese. I like the ondeh ondeh by Ang Mo Kio Nyonya Kueh as it is not overly sweet and has subtle layers of sweetness and fragrance.
That's because the retail shop was in Ang Mo Kio before moving here in
Hougang some twenty years ago. Ang Mo Kio Nyonya Kueh still produce some of
their kuehs in AMK though.
The Hougang retail shop looks like something in a time warp, back in time to
the 70s. The goods are laid out in colourful heaps on table tops like pasar malam. There's a
wide range of traditional Teochew and Hokkien kuehs and biscuits as well
as Nyonya / Malay kueh in the shop. Most are house made while others are
supplied.
Why so eclectic?
Ang Mo Kio Nyonya Kueh is in the third generation now. Yang Ying's paternal grandparents are Teochew who made Teochew kueh for a living. His maternal grandparents are from Batam and also made kueh (Malay & Nyonya kueh) for a living. So, at Ang Mo Kio Nyonya Kueh you will find traditional Chinese, Malay as well as Nyonya kueh ๐
I've been to Ang Mo Kio Nyonya Kueh shop four times so far, always focussing on their Nyonya / Malay kueh like this kueh salat (one of my favourites). I haven't tried their ang ku kueh and other Chinese snacks.
Another of my favourites at Ang Mo Kio Nyonya Kueh is their Lemper Udang - spicy dried shrimp wrapped in glutinous rice with coconut milk.
The thing about these bite size Chinese, Malay or Nyonya kueh that we love is they need to be handmade and most processes cannot be easily mechanised.
One of my favourites at Ang Mo Kio Nyonya Kueh is their ondeh ondeh.
Yang Ying and wife Hazel graciously showed me how they make ondeh ondeh.
At Ang Mo Kio Nyonya Kueh, the filling is made by blending two types of gula Melaka - one from Indonesia and the other from Malaysia. Both are sweet but in a slightly different way.
The wrap is made with a blend of glutinous rice flour and sweet potato (hence the yellowish colour). They also have blends with purple sweet potato and pandan leaf (green).
The ball of glutinous rice and purple sweet potato with gula Melaka inside is coated with shredded fresh coconut pulp and cooked by steaming.
The skin is soft spongy sweet with some squeaky bite from the sweet bits of shredded coconut. The gula Melaka filling is fragrant and just mildly sweet. The sweet potato and pandan leaf blends all have slightly different tastes.
So nice this marshmallow soft ondeh ondeh ๐ Many layers of sweet on sweet. Perfect with strong bitter coffee ☕
Ondeh Ondeh is a Malay snack which originates in Java, Indonesia where it is known as klepon.
Written by Tony Boey on 14 May 2021
If I remember correctly, they also have nice ang ku kueh with different kinds of fillings.
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