Kuala Lumpur - Nonya Colours at One Utama

While wondering around the One Utama Shopping Centre recently I came across this really attractive stall called Nonya Colours. I'm a sucker for attractive colours in food and couldn't resist checking it out. They specialize in "Nonya Kuehs", and they have a huge array of these delightful sweet and savoury cakes. I totally regret the big breakfast I just had at the hotel. Otherwise I would have gladly sampled most of what they had on offer.

"Nonya Kuehs" are very popular all around Malaysia. The "Nonyas" are females descended from Chinese migrants intermarrying local Malays. Therefore "Nonya" or "Peranakan" culture is a mixture of Malay and Chinese traditions, and the Nonya cuisine benefits from this cross-pollination. Today you will find the Nonyas mostly in Malacca and Penang. Due to the popularity of Nonya food, nowadays you can enjoy this unique and delicious cuisine all over Malaysia.

One of the most popular Nonya Kuehs is this savoury yam cake. Fresh yam is cooked with some flour, usually mixed in with some minced pork to keep it moist give it extra tastiness. This is then steamed and topped with a mixture of dried pickled radish, chili and dried shrimps. Really delicious !

These are another popular kueh called Putri Ayu or Kueh Nonya. It actually originated from Indonesia, and is a steamed cake flavoured with "pandan" extract, topped with grated coconut. The texture is like a sponge cake.

The huge selection of other kuehs.

Besides the cakes, this stall also serve other hot and cold dessert such as Pulut Hitam (Black Rice Pudding), Hong Tou Soi (Sweet Red Bean Soup), Bubur Cha Cha (a sweet dessert soup with cubes of sweet potato, yam and sago pearls - one of my favourites), Ice Kacang, etc. I must return to this stall on my next visit to KL !