One a hot day like this nothing would be better than a bowl of cendol (chen-dul). Cendol is shaved ice topped with creamy coconut milk, noodles brightly coloured by daun pandan (screwpine leaves), red beans and creamed corn. There is also a version of this with glutinous rice ( pulut). This is topped off with a drizzle of palm syrup...or in my case a puddle of palm syrup - it is the best part cendol !
The best cendol are the ones found in hawker stalls and food courts in Malaysia. This was my afternoon snack on most days ! All palm sugars are not created the same. There are several varieties of palm trees such as kitul, palmyra, sugar plan and coconut palm. The variety grown in Malaysia is sugar palm ( Arenga saccharifera). Palm trees have to be around 15 years of age to be able to produce sweet sap from which palm sugar is made. Palm sugar is also known as gula melaka .
9 comments:
I love this dessert by all its names: cendol, ice Kachang, che, and saleem. Mmmm. It varies a little from country to country, but it's always delicious :)
i definitely know korean paht-bing-soo and have tried the chinese (taiwanese?) shaved ice, but never heard of this! very cool that it has CREAMED CORN on it!
I love pandan. It goes so well with many southeast asian desserts and ingredients.
oh wow, this sounds interesting. i've never heard of anything like it before.
OOOH... saw it on RM, defenitely mouthwatered.... yummm..yumm... miss eating/drinking cendol ;)
the best cendol is still the one sold at the stall under the tree. lol. dang i miss home!
preyanka - I am totally with you on that one!
sarah - nothin beats CREAMED CORN :)
jude - I love the smell of pandan. There was a huge plant of it growing in my mother's house in Malaysia.
karen - if you ever get to asia you have to try it!!!
zita - especially this time of the year...
salt & turmeric - I agree!!!!
Fatman wonders if this wasn't perhaps the inspiration for the Korean patbingsu - which used to be shaved ice topped with sweet beans, sweet read beans in syrup, and cereal, candy, or small rice cakes as topping. Nowadays things have gotten much more elaborate with ice cream, frozen yogurt, fresh fruit . . . but now Fatman is longing for some pandan!
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