Guess what these are for.

The house cook was at it again. This time round, the intended outcome was a comfort food-type South-east Asian pastry.

The coloured liquid might have looked like some sort of paint, but they really were mixtures of flour, sugar, colouring and a very important ingredient that give the end product distinctive taste – coconut milk. The mixtures were then steamed to obtained the soft and sticky pastry.

I have not eaten this pastry for many, many years although I used to eat this a lot when I was a child. My impression of the work needed to prepare it was that it involved a lot of effort. It was also hard for me to imagine that placing those colourful mixtures in a steamer would transform them into a solidified and tasty snack.

When it was time for the taste test, I took a bite of a slice of the pastry. The taste and the texture were familiar, what I thought they were like when I ate it as a kid. Verdict: the taste is right. Success!

Kueh Lapis