Drinking in Indonesia: avocado-chocolate shake and sludge-bottomed coffee

Open many menus in Indonesia to the fruit juice page and you’ll see the expected offerings — banana, pineapple, mango — and also a few surprises.  Like avocado. Indonesians, it seems, look at avocado as a fruit as well as a vegetable, and therefore avocado appears on the fruit juice page.  They make it into  thick shake, often with an artistic addition of chocolate syrup to the bottom and sides of the glass (as pictured above).

I tried one for breakfast at the Bedhot Resto in the Sosrowijayan area of Yogyakarta (Bedhot is an old Javanese word for creative), along with a banana pancake (a standard breakfast item in the tropics).  It didn’t scream ‘avocado’ and the chocolate was not an ideal pairing for me, but I’d try one again.  But probably not at breakfast, as the shake felt like a brick in my stomach for the next few hours.

We also got many views of a popular Indonesian way of making coffee:  grind the beans as finely as possible, mix with boiling water and serve.  No filtering required.  Eventually, the heaviest grounds settle to the bottom of the cup or pot, leaving a thick, strong brew in the top of the cup or pot.  This method presents a problem for those who add sugar or cream to their coffee — when you stir after adding the sugar or cream, you’ll need to wait a few minutes for the grounds to settle, whereupon the coffee might be too cold for your liking.

 

5 comments

  1. A tall glass of avocado in a cold winter night is a heavenly drink. Not only it is rich in taste and flavor but also is very hot filling. I love this avocado-chocolate shake and sludge-bottomed coffee drink. thank you for shearing your post.

  2. Hi There,

    This post sounds DELISH! 🙂 And it definitely reminded me of something my friends are working on.

    I am currently spending my summer in SF and have some friends working on this innovative new rewards program. They're website is:www.mojofiend.com. I really do believe what they're working on can really become something big especially with the feedback and help of people like you who really know what SF residents love. With Mojofiend I can buy 4 coffees anywhere in the city (and they really do mean anywhere) and get the 5th one free at most major coffee shops (Blue Bottle, Ritual, etc.). Super convenient and one of the creators is a Harvard Business School grad, which to me is quite impressive and promising.

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  3. Regarding the addition of sugar or cream to sludge-bottomed coffee – if an empty cup were available, could the coffee, being first allowed to settle, then be carefully poured into the second cup in such a way as to leave the sludge behind? If this could be accomplished, the drinker could add cream and sugar to his new cup without fear of stirring in the thicker grounds. I would try this and report, but alas – no coffee on hand.

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