Kolak, a Banana Sweet Soup in Coconut Milk and Its Story

TIMESINDONESIA, JAKARTA – Kolak is an  Indonesian  dessert  based  on  palm sugar or coconut sugar, coconut milk, and pandanus leaf. Indonesian where this dessert originally came from will put banana in to it.

Several people even add sweet potato, pumpkin and even cassava to it. It makes Kolak more rich in flavour. This dessert has become a mist served dessert for almost all muslim in Indonesia.

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According to Fadly Rahman in his book Jejak Rasa Nusantara: Sejarah Makanan Indonesia (The Trace of Archipelago: The History of Indonesian Foods), the word kolak deprived from Arabic word Khalik means God.

Still according to him, kolak was also used as a toll to introduce islam to the country. As all the ingredients such as local banana, sweet potato, pumpkin and cassava are easily found in this tropical country.

In another hand, Dwi cahyono, a professional archeologist said that the kepok banana (the local banana put in kolak) was deprived form Javanese language, "kapok" means "feel that".

It was aimed to remind people to feel enough of making sin especially during this sacred month, Ramadhan. And the cassava, sweet potato taken was dug from the farm initializing that people should let go of their bad attitude and start a new good one.

What do you think after hearing all these analyses about kolak, indonesian banana sweet soup in coconut milk? Interesting isn't it. (*)

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