Kue talam

Kue talam, also written kuih talam, is a traditional steamed snack of Southeast Asia made from rice flour, coconut milk, sugar, salt and pandan leaves. It takes its name from the talam, a tray-shaped mould that was traditionally a large rectangular aluminium tray and is now often a set of small cups of ceramic, aluminium or plastic, so the cake is cut into rectangles or squares before it is served. It usually has two layers: a white top layer of creamy, mildly sweet and savoury coconut milk, and a firmer coloured bottom layer whose flavour varies, with green pandan, brown coconut sugar, yellow sweet potato or corn and purple yam or taro among the common ones. The coloured layer is steamed halfway before the white layer is added and steaming continues. A savoury version made with dried shrimp, called talam udang, belongs to Betawi cooking in Jakarta. The snack is found in the regional cooking of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, and it reached Lower Myanmar through the Sino-Burmese, where it is known as kway talan.