Indonesian street food: putu cakes

This is so clever, the way he makes his cakes.  Freshly baked as you wait.  Notice the whistle?  Every type of street vendor has his own sound, so if you’re alert, you can come out of the house when the one you want is walking past your door.

Pandan is a common flavour for cakes in Indonesia but few people realise that it’s also good for discouraging cockroaches.  I’ve seen taxi drivers in Singapore sweeping out their cabs with bunches of pandan leaves for that purpose.  So it’s a natural insect repellant.  Anyone know if it really works?