Shaved ice over pandan rice-flour noodles, coconut milk and dark gula melaka, often with red beans, eaten standing in the street heat before it melts.

Cendol crossed the strait with Teochew and Peranakan traders and became a Penang street ritual in the 1930s, when Tan Teik Fuang set up on Lebuh Keng Kwee in 1936. The stall, now branded Penang Road Famous Teochew Chendul, still shaves ice over the same green pandan noodles, and the standing crowd on the lane is a George Town landmark in itself. The dish is a heat-management device as much as a dessert: coconut fat, palm sugar and ice against a 33-degree afternoon.

Where to eat Cendol in Penang

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Make it at home

Serves Serves 41 hrEasy

Ingredients

  • 100g rice flour and 2 tablespoons mung bean starch
  • 400ml water blended with 15 pandan leaves, strained
  • A few drops of alkaline water (air abu) or a pinch of baking soda
  • 400ml thick coconut milk with a pinch of salt
  • 150g gula melaka, melted with 2 tablespoons water
  • 200g cooked red beans, optional
  • A basin of iced water and plenty of shaved or blended ice

Method

  1. Whisk rice flour, starch, pandan water and alkaline water, then cook over medium heat, stirring, until it thickens to a glossy paste.
  2. Press the paste through a cendol press or a colander with 4mm holes straight into iced water; the strands set on contact.
  3. Melt the gula melaka into a syrup and salt the coconut milk lightly.
  4. Pack bowls with shaved ice, drain in a handful of cendol strands, add red beans if using.
  5. Pour coconut milk over the ice and finish with a generous dark ribbon of gula melaka syrup. Serve at once.

Editor tip. Buy real gula melaka blocks, not brown sugar; the smoky palm caramel is the entire flavour and white sugar substitutes collapse the dish.

Common allergens: None typical; contains coconut.