Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine May 2019 | Page 76

Lifestyle / Flavours 1 1. The white thread-like jelly featured in Bukittinggi's es tebak. 2. Es pisang ijo served with a delicate sauce. condensed milk and a sauce made of rice flour and coconut milk. Tasty and delicious. Native Jakartan or Betawi people have their own traditional dessert known as es selendang mayang. Selendang is the Indonesian word for ‘shawl’, used to reflect the shape of the long colourful slices of the pudding. Mayang means tasty and chewy. This chewy pudding is made of rice flour and mung bean flour, coloured red and green. It is enjoyed with coconut milk, palm sugar and shaved ice. When talking about soft drinks in Indonesia, the name of the drink typically indicates the main ingredient. However, this is not always the case. Mocktails from Riau Province, on the central eastern coast of Sumatra, are memorably unique, including es air mata pengantin (bride’s tears), es laksamana mengamuk (a run-amok admiral) and es lancang kuning (lancang refers to the name of the king’s ship during the time of the ancient Riau Kingdom, which was yellow or kuning). Despite the gloomy name, bride’s tears (es air mata pengantin) is quite refreshing. It is the combination of three 74 2  hen talking about soft drinks in Indonesia, W the name of the drink typically indicates the main ingredient. coloured jellies (red, green and yellow), basil seeds, nata de coco, cocopandan syrup and shaved ice. Basil seeds are good for people suffering from anaemia or digestion problems. Es laksamana mengamuk is said to be inspired by an incident in which an admiral ran amok in a kuini mango orchard. The pungent smell of kuini mango is so good when transformed into a drink. The square cuts of kuini mango are served with coconut flesh, basil seeds, coconut milk cooked with pandanus leaves and sugar, topped with shaved ice. Es lancang kuning is also mango-based and quite simple to make. The mango is cut into squares and nata de coco is added with mango juice. It is easy to prepare these soft drinks and desserts for your loved ones at home. For those celebrating the blessed month of Ramadan, I’d like to say, “Enjoy your delicious iftar!”