What will be in your mind when you heard
the word Dawet ?
I bet you will imagine a glass of green cendol served with santan, and palm sugar. Yeaaah, your mind will cross to Dawet Ayu Banjarnegara, a kind of Dawet you can find anywhere you go.
How if the cendol is not Green but Black? It is weird, isn’t it? yeaaah, but
this happens. That’s called DawetIreng.
It is weird, rare, yet unique. I find it in my hometown, Purworejo.
One day, My friend and I had a trip to
Jogja. It was two years ago, and that was the first time for me to taste the
delicious drink from my hometown. It was weird since Purworejo was my hometown,
yet I had never tasted Dawet ireng.
Well, back to the story. That was a shiny day, the sun was burning us, and we
felt so tired, and sweated. When we passed Jalan Jogja in Purworejo, we decided
to have a rest for a while just to get some drink. And yeaaaah, we saw a place
looked like a hut in the side of street. I could see the writing on the hut “Dawet IRENG”. Yeeah we went there to buy
Dawet Ireng, so that we could refresh
our energy. The seller, a woman aged around forty, welcomed us with nice smile
and greeting. Then, I felt welcomed and relaxed being there. I sat down while I
was looking at the beautiful sceneries there. It was surrounded by rice farms,
and I could see many hills and Sumbing
Mountain from there. It was great sceneries and I could feel the wind clapped
my back. Actually, the stall was not big. It was only a hut, simple hut in the
side of road with two long chairs and one long table. The place was made by
bamboo. Most of it was covered by bamboo. The floor and wall was made from
bamboo. And the roof was covered by coarse grass.
And finally, what we were waiting for
was coming.. A cup of Dawet Ireng. A
lot of Cendol Ireng kept silent in the bottom of the cup. I mixed it till the
ice, palm sugar, santan, and cendol ireng mixed in one. It became so unique. I wonder why the cendol is black. It made it looked like
horror. However, I was so excited to eat it, I meant to drink it. first, I felt
the coolness because of the ice and santan.
Then I could taste the pure sweetness of palm sugar. It was so delicious, and yummmmyyyy.
While we were drinking, the seller told
us that the blackness of cendol was
made of the ashes of merang (rice
straw). The ashes was blended to the water and it was filtered. Then it was
mixed to the sago flour-the main ingredient of cendol-. That’s why the cendol
color became black, so black. The coloring was natural, it was not from textile
coloring, or other synthetic color. It was pure from nature.
Actually there was no significance
difference taste of Dawet Ireng and
other Dawet. The only thing that made it different was the color and the flour.
Mostly dawet was made of rice flour,
yet this Dawet Ireng was made of Sago
flour. However, Dawet always tasted
delicious especially if we drink it near rice farms. We could feel the village
atmosphere.
And yeaaah,, last but not least.. if you
go to Purworejo or mostly known as Pordjo, Don’t forget to buy Dawet Ireng khas butuh Purworejo. You
can find it almost along the roadside of Jalan Jogja, and Butuh. And it only
cost for Rp. 2.500, 00 Yeeeaaaaahhhhh!
