Cendol and Gula Melaka

Cendol is shaved ice heaped with coconut milk, soft green strands of rice flour coloured with pandan, and a generous pour of gula melaka, the dark palm sugar boiled down from the sap of coconut flower stalks. The sugar gives the dish its smoky, almost caramel depth and takes its name from the state, which has produced it for centuries. Melaka versions usually come with red beans, and sometimes with durian or sweetcorn, served in a bowl or a tall glass. Stalls cluster around Jonker Street and along the river in the old town, and queues at the better known ones run down the pavement on weekend afternoons. Cylinders of the sugar itself are sold in the same markets.

What you actually see

• The palm sugar - dark gula melaka poured over the ice, and sold in cylinders at markets.
• The pandan strands - soft green rice-flour worms pressed through a mould into iced water.
• The coconut milk - fresh santan poured cold over the shaved ice.
• The variations - red bean, sweetcorn and durian versions offered at the same stalls.

When to go

Afternoons, when the heat makes the point of the dish obvious and every stall is open. Weekends around Jonker Street bring long queues, so weekdays are easier. Durian cendol depends on the fruit season, roughly June to August with a shorter second run late in the year. A bowl costs only a few ringgit.

Honest expectations

Queues at the famous stalls can run half an hour for a dessert eaten in five minutes, and the difference between those and a quiet stall a street away is smaller than the queue suggests. Many places now use commercial syrup rather than real gula melaka, which tastes flat. It is very sweet and very cold, and seating is often standing room only.

Nearby

Jonker Street, the Melaka River walk and Dutch Square are all within a few minutes.