It’s always fun when the arrival of dessert is attended with whoops and gasps of childlike glee. At Med Salleh, a Malaysian café in London’s Bayswater, the whoops may well come from the staff. The iced kacang atas, the waiter tells us, was his favourite dessert when he was growing up in Penang. Looking at his broad grin as he delivers it, I think it might still be. Quite right, too. The version here is truly magnificent and deserves to be less served than unveiled. There should be trumpets and bunting, perhaps a Rockettes kick line.
At its heart is a veritable Devil’s Tower of shaved ice. It’s flavoured with fruity syrups. There are roasted peanuts on the outside and kernels of fresh sweetcorn that pop in your mouth. Hidden at the bottom are various nutty red beans and cubes of jelly. There’s a balanced waft of rose syrup, fat dribbles of evaporated milk and, finally, poured over the top from a height, a light caramel sauce. Did it need to be framed by a rushing cumulonimbus of dry ice, as if it was a stage set for a Bonnie Tyler performance on Top of the Pops circa 1983? Perhaps not. Then again with a dish like this we are far beyond any notion of need and nipple-deep into “want” territory.
