![Cakes that fall in the category of kueh, particularly Peranakan kueh, are generally sweet, though we do have savoury kueh as well. But even the sweet ones have a saltiness to them to balance it out. You’ll be hard pressed to find any sweet Malaysian or Peranakan kueh that could be described as cloying in sweetness[1].
So in answer to your question, seri muka is sweet-ish. It has a sticky glutinous rice base which is steamed with coconut milk and a little salt, and the green topping is a pandan and coconut cream flavoured steamed custard thing. There’s sugar in it, but the coconut cream seems to naturally make things have a more mild sweetness. It’s also more set than a regular custard and more dense than a pudding consistency.
I’m not doing very well describing this. And I can’t think of something I can compare it to in terms of texture.
[1] Richness due to butter, coconut cream or gula melaka[2] is probably a different matter.
[2] Palm sugar. If you look up palm sugar on Wiki, it shows you the white stuff. I’m not sure what they do to palm sugar to make it gula melaka. Or whether it’s a different palm. The cylindrical shapes are a result of pouring the palm sugar into bamboo moulds. You shave bits off as you need it. As a side note, it’s a bit hard to get good quality gula melaka these days because some people just dye it that golden brown colour. It’s not the same.](http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxs9yzxs2f1qz86zko1_500.png)
Cakes that fall in the category of kueh, particularly Peranakan kueh, are generally sweet, though we do have savoury kueh as well. But even the sweet ones have a saltiness to them to balance it out. You’ll be hard pressed to find any sweet Malaysian or Peranakan kueh that could be described as cloying in sweetness[1].
So in answer to your question, seri muka is sweet-ish. It has a sticky glutinous rice base which is steamed with coconut milk and a little salt, and the green topping is a pandan and coconut cream flavoured steamed custard thing. There’s sugar in it, but the coconut cream seems to naturally make things have a more mild sweetness. It’s also more set than a regular custard and more dense than a pudding consistency.
I’m not doing very well describing this. And I can’t think of something I can compare it to in terms of texture.
[1] Richness due to butter, coconut cream or gula melaka[2] is probably a different matter.
[2] Palm sugar. If you look up palm sugar on Wiki, it shows you the white stuff. I’m not sure what they do to palm sugar to make it gula melaka. Or whether it’s a different palm. The cylindrical shapes are a result of pouring the palm sugar into bamboo moulds. You shave bits off as you need it. As a side note, it’s a bit hard to get good quality gula melaka these days because some people just dye it that golden brown colour. It’s not the same.
