Chendol

When looking for a dessert, you normally hope to find something sticky, or doughy, or gooey, but all I could find was shaved ice. Normally I would jump at the chance for something a little healthier than a massive pastry, but the pictures on the board above the stall didn’t make their produce look very, ‘desserty’.

Each picture was of a mound of ice with what I would describe as ‘colourful bits of gloup’ sprinkled on top of them. I almost went for the Lemon Ice Jelly because it sounded like the safest option, but I’m not travelling to eat safe, I’m in SEA to try as much as I can. With this in mind, I went for the wackiest looking dessert on the board. Fortunately it was one of the cheapest at $2.10 (that’s roughly £1 to us Brits).

My choice was called Chendol (often spelt, Cendol) I asked the guy behind the counter if he could explain what it was. His first answer was, “it’s Chendol”, so I tried again. This time he said, “it’s sweet”. I must have looked very confused because he added, “it’s very popular. People come back. Buy more.”

I was sold.

I handed him my money and watched another man work the ice machine. Before the ice was ready, he filled the bottom of a bowl with green and red cubes of jelly. Once he was satisfied with the ice crystals, he piled it on top of the jellies. I’m sure it would have been enough for two people, but I was going to have a good go at it myself.

After the ice came the brown syrup, which turned out to be coconut milk. To top it off he added a generous helping of what looked like green beans.

When I sat down with my dessert, I put the green beans and some ice onto my spoon. Ignoring the fact that my head was telling me the food looked like vegetables on a bit of brown rice, I ate the entire spoonful in one. Of course the beans weren’t actually vegetables. I Googled it and found out that they’re jelly noodles made from rice flower with green food colouring, and they are delicious. I expected them to be rubbery and the ice to taste like coke, but the mixture of jelly and coconut milk was heavenly. And even though the portion was big, at the end of the day, it was just ice and jellies. Hardly calorific. As you can probably guess, I went back another day to try something different. I did eventually go back and try the Lemon Ice Jelly. It might not have been adventurous, but for Lauren the fan of lemons, it was worth it.

This however, is my blog’s very own picture of Chendol: