Putu piring



Singapore Infopedia

Background

Putu piring is a round, steamed rice cake filled with melted palm sugar or gula melaka, and eaten with freshly grated coconut.1 It is a local Malay snack.

Description
Made of ground rice flour, putu piring cakes are shaped by shallow round moulds. A spoonful of gula melaka (palm sugar) is sandwiched between two layers of rice flour. The mould is then steamed via a conical funnel.  After a few minutes, the cake is removed from the mould The putu piring is topped with freshly grated coconut that adds savouriness to the sweet cake.3 If the flour is sieved beforehand, the putu piring would literally melt in the mouth.4

History
Putu piring has the same ingredients as putu mayam (southern Indian string hoppers) and is served with the same toppings.5 Putu is probably derived from a Tamil word for something made with flour and coconut, while piring is Malay for “saucer”.6 In the past, putu piring steamers and moulds were custom-made and specially ordered from metal and copper shops.7


Variations
Putu piring is often mistakened for kueh tutuThe latter, which is of Chinese origin, has a peanut or sweetened coconut filling and is smaller than putu piring, which has only gula melaka as filling. Kueh tutu is eaten without grated coconut.8


Variations of putu piring can be found around the region, because of the long history of trade and migration between South Asia and Southeast Asia. In South India, in particular Kerala, puttu are steamed cakes made most often from rice and packed into metal cylinders or bowls, or traditionally in bamboo tubes or halved coconut shells. In Indonesia, putu bambu are made similarly with rice flour and gula melaka and steamed in a hollowed bamboo tube. There is also a plausible link between putu piring and traditional Bengali bhapa pitha, given the contact and trade between the Bengali and Malacca Sultanates in the 16th century. Bhapa pitha is made identically to putu piring – sieved rice crumbs, saucer mould, cloth, and pressured steam – except that is it slightly larger and stuffed with coconut mix.9



Author
Bonny Tan



References
1. Wiliam Gwee Thian Hock, A Baba Malay Dictionary: The First Comprehensive Compendium of Straits Chinese Terms and Expressions (Tokyo: Tuttle Pub., 2006),  115 (Call no. RSING 499.28321 GWE); May Ho, “A Tart of Multiracial Origins?Straits Times, 2 July 1987, 1. (From NewspaperSG)
2. Violet Oon, “Try a Perfect Telly Snack,” Singapore Monitor, 12 February 1984, 31. (From NewspaperSG)
3. Rosalind Mowe, ed., Southeast Asian Specialties: A Culinary Journey (Culinaria: Konemann, 1999), 138 (Call no. RSING 641.5959 SOU); Felix Chia, The Babas Revisited (Singapore: Heinemann Asia, 1994), 174. (Call no. RSING 309.895105957 CHI) ; Christopher Tan, The Way of Kueh: Savouring & Saving Singapore's Heritage Desserts (Singapore: National Heritage Board, 2019), 58. (Call no. RSING 641.595957 TAN); “Bagaimana Membuat Putu Piring…,” Berita Harian, 13 October 1975, 5. (From NewspaperSG)4. Douglas Foo, “Fast Food of the 1960s,” Straits Times, 5 October 2003, 41. (From NewspaperSG)
5. Chia, The Babas Revisited, 174.  
6. “Tutu, Kutu or Putu,” Straits Times, 23 July 1987, 3 (From NewspaperSG); Ho, “Tart of Multiracial Origins?”; Tan, The Way of Kueh, 58.
7. “Bagaimana Membuat Putu Piring….”
8. Ho, “Tart of Multiracial Origins?”; Violet Oon, “Local Snack Delight With a Difference,” Singapore Monitor, 3 February 1985, 15. (From NewspaperSG)
9. Tan, The Way of Kueh, 209; Khir Johari, Anton Mosimann and Faris Joraimi, The Food of Singapore Malays: Gastronomic Travels Through the Archipelago (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2021), 346 (Call no. 394.120899928 KHI); Katrina Karim, “Asian Delights,” Today, 5 October 2002, 23. (From NewspaperSG)



The information in this article is valid as of April 2023 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.

 


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