Sunday, October 13, 2013

a little 'chill' around here

Dear friends,
It's finally warm again here in the city. That means, I can save my poor plants after all. I'm all hopeful :). 



This week, I am the hostess at Our Beautiful World

The prompt I'd picked for us is;

' CHILL '

Every time I go to the flea market, I'll make a bee line to my favorite restaurant that sells some nice icy desserts. We have many versions of shaved ice, some times too colorful for words!:). 
This one is called Cendol.

Cendol is a popular dessert in Southeast Asia especially Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Brunei. Made of shaved ice or ice cubes, creamy coconut milk, palm sugar syrup (gula melaka), pandan leaves flavored 'noodles' or jelly and red bean toppings. You can enjoy Cendol at the end of a meal, with a meal or on its own.

A refreshing dessert on a hot afternoon.

Sometimes, the 'toppings' are (ironically) hidden underneath all the ice, which is fun digging through the 'snow'. My mom never made this at home, but my grandma had once taught me how to make it from scratch (except, for the store-bought palm sugar cubes). We even shred our own coconut to make fresh coconut milk, siting on a wooden bench shredder like one of these. How neat, that I also found a shredding coconut demo by Su-Mei Yu :).


My grandma made me stir the bubbling hot green pudding-like cendol on the stove. Wait, maybe I volunteered!. We filled a pot (full of holes at the bottom) with cendol dough, stirred while pressing it through the holes.

It was fun watching the green strands dropped into awaiting bowl of cold water. However, the stirring-on-the-stove-part was tricky as fencing for a petite, ten year old me :). If you have access to oriental market that sells Asian ingredients, you may try make some Cendol using this recipe. Good luck!.

No matter where you are in the world, share with us what 'Chill' means to you. Maybe 'chilling' out in the sun, or just enjoying the 'chilly' weather. We love to hear your stories!. Just link up your photos at Our Beautiful World this week :). See you soon!. Hugs.

9 comments:

  1. what an interesting treat this looks to be. i don't think I've had anything like it before as it sounds quite unique. it's always good to have a cold treat on a hot day. i'm glad to hear that you are getting warmer.

    my mind is already stirring with ideas for your "chill" prompt . . .

    :-)
    libbyQ

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  2. Wow this is unusual ... It always lovely to see things from your country ... Hope it stays warm for you and you can eat lots of these! Have a lovely day!

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  3. Hello Shahrul!! WOW, I've never head of this treat before, how fun to learn about it. I enjoyed reading the story behind it, grandmas are the best ! Thanks for sharing this with us and I'm curious to try one of these now.

    YAY for your warmer weather, hope it helps your garden. Will cross my fingers for you. Our weather has been so warm this fall, I LOVE IT!!

    No pumpkins in the garden this year, we did 2 things wrong so next year we will do it right. Only a couple mini pumpkins grew, sigh. We went out yesterday and bought pumpkins and fixing up the flower bed with spring bulbs, YAY!!

    Hope your Sunday is wonderful and see you again soon!!
    Thanks for the comments on my blog, HUG!!!

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  4. What an interesting desert. We too use shaved ice with syrups for desert coconut, tamarind, passion fruit, framboise. Never would have thought of putting beans though. And you can check it out we are a rice and beans culture it needs to be on every dinner menu. I can see you stirring the pot my grandma on my fathers side used to make the most delicious candied papaya and the pot was huge and she would stir and stir but she wouldn't let me near it...
    Always good to come and read your stories!

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  5. Ohhh... sweet memories of cendol! We know it as es tjendol. We get it at the pasar malam besar, which is held once a year in The Hague. It looks a little different though then yours here. And I have to admit that I prefer Es Selasih dan Kelapa Muda, so yummy with rose sirup...Wanna have one now! Lol. So nice to read your lovely post on this. Brings back fond memories of the pasar malam. Hugs

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  6. Great photos, Shahrul! That beverage looks so cool and refreshing. It reminds me a bit of the tricolor beverage that can be bought at Hmong markets here in Minnesota, although it's not quite the same. I never knew how those green "strings" were made before, so thanks for that information. It sounds like a lot of work to make it, but worthwhile in the end!

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  7. Yum. I love digging through the ice for stuff I love to eat!
    Hope you are doing well my friend!

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  8. I just love your take on this weeks word. That looks a bit different than the snow cones I see here in the states. I bet its yummy.. Great photos my friend.

    Hugs~

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  9. I told you before, this just make me drool!!! Living in the US for nearly 12 years, I learn how to make food that I miss from home, well, I haven't try chendol yet, I am so going to follow that recipe for make my own chendol! TFS!

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