This 65-year-old home cook makes 100-year-old heritage Javanese kuih for Hari Raya

Rusli has been making heirloom Javanese kuih for his family for over 50 years now and uses recipes he inherited from his own grandmother. — Photos: SAMUEL ONG/The Star

In his daughter’s sparkling kitchen, Rusli Kamaruddin, 65, is hard at work, his face a rictus of concentration as he bends over a parcel of cooked glutinous rice. Flattening it carefully, he places spoonfuls of serunding ayam in the centre of the rice before rolling it up in banana leaves and tying the ends with string.

After completing one himself, he turns his attentions to his daughter Nurliyana Rusli’s concoction. Although Nurliyana is herself a trained chef who has worked in illustrious restaurants in Australia, it is her father who is clearly the boss in this kitchen.