Food - PUTU

I'm going to start tying the world together through food.

PUTU
This is Indian origin. Which part of India? Not quite sure - might be south because the term permeates throughout southeast asia and features in Malay and Peranakan cuisines. Putu means a kind of steamed muffin or unleavened bread. But there are so many varieties - sweet and savoury, filled and fried. Some examples:
Putu Piring (steamed pancake height filled with chopped gula melaka); a variation in Singapore is Kueh Tutu (it's filled with coconut or chopped peanuts).
Putu Bamboo(Bambu) which is steamed in tall bamboo cylinders and accompanies curries.
Putu Tegar which is Peranakan cake with bananas, coconut, gula melaka.
Putu Mayam, used to be sold in the streets of Singapore. It's lacy in texture - looks like a bundle of vermicelli, steamed and pressed into a pancake and eaten cold with chopped brown sugar and fresh dessicated coconut.
Putu Ayu is a two coloured cake
Kueh Putu is the Indonesian way of calling the cylindrical putu that is stuffed with gula melaka inside.

Some interesting websites on Putu. Stay tuned.

Etymology
The term Puttu is Tamil in origin. It is a generic term that refers to a number of cakes. This site has detailed glossary of other word-borrowings from Tamil in the Malay language.
http://members.aol.com/wignesh/TAMILINFLUENCEMALAY.htm

This site shows that it's something from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and explains how it's eaten at breakfast.
http://www.ernakulam.com/html/ek000cu.htm

In South Africa, the term is a Zulu adaptation of the Dutch word Botjie which is a cast iron pot.
http://abw.netfirms.com/commando_cuisine.htm

Pondicherry comes from Putu (which means New in Tamil Nadu) and Ceri (village). http://geography.about.com/library/misc/ucpondicherry.htm
Do they have Putu in Pondicherry?

South Africa
Putu refers to a mealie meal porridge.
http://southafrica.narod.ru/engels/safoodterms.htm
has a good glossary of southafrican food terms

Philippines
Putu means rice cake. But according to these researchers, the term indicates Malaysian links in the island of Luzon.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/4059/K-Malay.htm

It's eaten with hot chocolate in the morning or accompanies hot stews.
http://www.ochef.com/r202.htm

Malaysia
The Chittys (Straits Indians) of Malacca have a rite of passage around the feast of Putu. The dish is made with coconut, gula melaka, cardamon, fried green peas (mung?).
http://202.186.86.35/kuali/recipes/04rnis0301.html
It has an interesting photo of Putu preparation

The Putu Bamboo recipe is given in this book written by Kunjamma Matthew. Here's a PDF of the contents page. The links will lead you to ordering the book.
http://www.anindianinexile.com/An%20Indian%20in%20Exile.pdf

Putu made the traditional way - as a kind of mealie meal.
http://www.kuali.com/news/story.asp?file=/2004/9/24/eatingout/8849144&sec=eatingout

Singapore
Apparently putu piring and kueh tutu are not the same thing. It's a matter of how big it is and what's inside. The bigger one and filled only with gula melaka is piring. The other is tutu.
http://pachome2.pacific.net.sg/~willows5/singlish_P.htm

The best putu mayam and putu piring outlets.
http://www.sbestfood.com/Food%20Choice/putumayam.htm

A beautiful picture of putu piring all steaming in a row. But I think this is more kueh tutu than putu piring
http://www.betelbox.com/gallery/pic.asp?iCat=31&iPic=67

Also shots of putu bamboo
http://www.betelbox.com/gallery/cat.asp?iCat=31

Words and pictures of putu piring man (and other vanishing trades)
http://www.the-inncrowd.com/joochiat.htm

Indonesia
This woman speaks of the Putu Man of Bali island, Indonesia
http://www.aiaa.org.au/news/news12/cynthia.html
Interesting. In Singapore the man who sells Putu Mayam is called the Otah Man because besides Putu Mayam, he sells a lot of nice sweets and snacks including Otah Otah. This was in the past. Nowadays you can only source Putu Mayam from sweet stalls, not street vendors. Most of the Putus are factory made.

Internet Forum
nice site to chat on kueh/kuih and putus
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=44433


Recipes
This site has a recipe for Putu Mayam
http://www.knp-housebrand.com/recipes_files/recipes.html#IDIYAPPAM%20(PUTU%20MAYAM)

The Putu Mayam is also known as Idliyappam. This makes sense because the Putu Mayam has a similar shape to an Apom/Appam.

Putu Ayu
http://www.mail-archive.com/milis-sedap@news.gramedia-majalah.com/msg00106.html
http://www.tabloidnova.com/articles.asp?id=5930
(both sites in Malay)
and nice photo
http://www.dwikarya.nl/images/wisma_hilda_putu_ayu.jpg

Gluten-free Putu
http://www.ochef.com/r202.htm

Putu Pap (South African)
http://www.bushveldonline.co.za/recipes/braai/braai1.htm