es dawet...da what?

so on a recent trip to Yogyajakarta in Central Java, i simply had to try a local traditional drink...and here it is...it's called es dawet. it was absolutely delicious...a mixture of coconut milk (santen), palm sugar syrup (gula melaka or gula jawa) and rice flour. when it arrived it was all in it's layers...so you could see the dark brown of the palm sugar syrup, the white, creaminess of the coconut milk and the little bits of rice flour floating around...you give it a good stir and with a good serving of ice, this must be one of the most refreshing drinks i have had in a long time...slurp! very easy to make but with those delicious asian flavours...yummy!

have a Happy Valentine's with coconut milk cupcakes!

well, here's wishing everyone a happy V-day! for the occasion i tried a recipe that i have been wanting to taste for awhile - coconut milk cupcakes. the cupcake had both coconut milk and dessicated coconut in it. the final result was nice. the taste was subtle and light...very summery and tropical! the icing was a cream cheese coconut icing and i must admit that i was a little disappointed with it. first of all, it was impossible to ice nice designs with because it was a bit on the gooey side and also with the pieces of dessicated coconut in it, made it difficult to squeeze out evenly from the icing bag. also it looked lumpy and like the ingredients were not mixed in properly when really it was the bits of coconut...hmph! so i ended up just smearing it on the cupcakes and decorating with a foil-wrapped heart. not bad, but i would have preferred something a tad more spohisticated. also the pictures don't really do it justice - the icing was more pink but in the photos came out as looking salmon - hmph, again! overall not a bad result, but next time if i were to make these, i would make a buttercream icing, colour it so that it would be more delicately pink and use the icing bag to swirl it on with more finesse - leaving out the dessicated coconut from the actual icing and maybe sprinkling it on after. also a different flavour for the icing might have provided a better contrast to the end result...let's see what flavours might go nice with coconut - lime? chocolate? or just plain vanilla?