little cakes - indonesian style

i am fascinated by the whole aspect of indonesian 'kue' here. kue is the word for cake in bahasa indonesia - the language spoken here and it encompasses a vast array of cakes, from your regular kind of birthday-type cake to the weird and wonderful, savoury and sweet, all shapes and sizes! so today i had the opportunity to get my fingers on some and thought i'd share with you how they eat cake on this side of the planet...

kue here in indonesia are often served wrapped up in banana leaves. and this is not purely for the aesthetic aspect but rather the kue are prepared, wrapped up in the banana leaf and then steamed. the first one i tried was called lemper ayam. and although ayam means chicken and thus this is a more savoury delight, it is still called kue. the spiced chicken was surrounded by sticky rice and the overall taste was surprisingly pleasing - the blandness and sticky consistency of the rice was immediately uplifted by the soft, spiced chicken in the centre. very tasty!

next up was kue dadar gulung and this was almost like a spring roll but sweet - it involved a thin black rice pancake with sweet banana inside. again it was interesting the contrast of the rather bland pancake with the sweet banana filling. the consistency of the banana was quite chewy and i believe it is a certain kind of banana they use for this. here in indonesia there is a vast array of bananas available at the market and each one used for a different purpose.

next came the kue sus and this was rather like a cream puff...a soft choux pastry exterior and a creamy custard like filling. it was soft and very melt in your mouth. delicious!

and there you have it...some charmingly delicious local delights for your consideration!