Remember White Rabbit Creamy Candy? The super creamy and milky candy with nougat-like texture and edible transparent wrapping? For your information, this Chinese delight was banned internationally on 2008 when tests in Singapore on September 2008 proven this product has melamine content, which followed by positive confirmation from similar tests in Hongkong, Australia and South Africa.

Though deemed not as fatal as the similar melamine contaminated infant milk formula case happened earlier, many countries including Indonesia prohibit the import and selling of White Rabbit cream candy afterward.

While the brand passes health inspection and was back on international market in April 2009, it's a rare treat to find in Indonesia nowadays.

White Rabbit Bakpia?

That question immediately jump into my mind upon tasting this neatly packaged bakpia "Bakpiaku", in a modern design style, immediately distancing it from the more traditional Yogyakarta's bakpia with their must-have-numbers attitude.

The pia itself tasted excellent: crusty layers on the outside, with thick crumbly sweet milky paste filling. At the first bite you can tell that it is a very good pia, but seconds later if you're familiar with the White Rabbit then you'll know what I mean.

Should you are interested, there are several ways you can contact them:

From their twitter account, Epicurina also discovers that Bakpiaku costs IDR 35K/box, delivery to Denpasar is 30K/4 boxes, while to Bandung is 28rb/4 boxes. 4 boxes is their minimum delivery quantity.

Should you are visiting Yogyakarta ("Jogja"), you can also visit Bakpiaku HQ at Jl. Gajah Mada

Simply saying, this one is among best tasted cookie I had in 2012 (byms).

Reference:
[01] "Scandal-hit White Rabbit candy back in overseas market", from http://www.china.org.cn/business/2009-04/16/content_17615066.htm

As I was browsing around for another good food in Garut, I came upon information from mryumi that there is now a modernized variant of Dodol Garut, with the name of "Chocodot"; a dodol filled chocolate! This is a fresh breath from the legendary but stagnant classic Dodol Garut that has been around since the middle of 20th century or perhaps even more older.

Dodol Garut is a sweet snack variety from Garut region, Jawa Barat. There are many varieties of dodol, but Dodol Garut is specifically made from sticky rice flour and palm sugar, cooked over slow fire over long time to create the chewy chunky consistency. The ready to eat dodol is solid, soft on the inside but having a smooth wax like surface. Originally, there are only three variants of Dodol Garut known to mankind; the original (dark brown), the milky (light brown), and the sesame seed infused (dotted). Though there are about 85 producers of Dodol Garut, the two most famous brand is Khadijah, and Sarinah; the first is considered the originator of this product, but the latter is the market leader with their brand "Picnic" that produces about 1 ton of dodol daily.

As I haven't tried the Chocodot myself, so the food note must be postponed until I visit my parents in Garut later this May 2010. In the mean time, here's a link to their blog: http://chocodotgarut.blogspot.com/ where you can get a glimpse of Chocodot product range, and the picture of Tama Coklat's owner, Chocodot producer. (bay)

Bandung is a capital city of Jawa Barat region (Western Java). At about 700 m above the sea level, this is one cool city that was planned by the Dutch colonial as a resort city. This is also the city where Indonesia's long standing chocolate factory exist, the Ceres - which is widely known as the largest and longest producer of chocolate rice (meses). But we won't discuss more about Ceres or chocolate rice here, as what I want to introduce you about, is the Bandung's original Coklat Suzanna*.

Though the birth of Suzanna can't be separated from Ceres, as the current producer, Ir. Sukandi, was the early Ceres's Direktur Utama (Head Director), before he then manage his own chocolate factory "Abadi", which produced this Coklat Suzanna**.

Coklat Suzanna is a trapezium shaped hard chocolate candy, with bitter sweet dark chocolate on the outing, and brown chewy nut nougat fillings. The combination of bitter sweet firm chocolate indeed goes very well with the sweet nutty creamy chewy fillings, a good balance; so while the chocolate is melt in your mouth, the nougat will still give you a good prolonged enjoyment.

With its composition, no chocolate locally or internationally (that available here in Indonesia), could match the sensation and eating experience Coklat Suzanna can deliver.

I know this beautiful chocolate from when I'm in my early teens, until now I'm in my middle threes. Along the way there's been some degradation in quality, but they seem to have fixed that, and come up with the new design also; the original ones has only simple paper belt on top of the silvery wrap, with the word "Suzanna" in mixed primary colors. Only recently its got some style and classy wrap.

 

Notice the nougat filling? Have I mentioned that it's chewy good? :)
At the downside though, this breed is rare to find. Though not as tough as some years ago, currently you can only find it around Bandung, and Jakarta at most. And in big supermarkets only. Price is dead cheap, as for this kind of goodness you need only spend about 3K (about 3 pcs for 1 US$).

Interested? Well at this moment international flight to Bandung is only served by Air Asia which left from Malaysia, but due to its close distance from Jakarta, it's one of the tourist favorite weekend destination; especially for its culinary richness, and the dead cheap branded clothes in the booming Factory Outlet stores. From Bali there's also regular flight served by Air Asia Indonesia and Merpati, with ticket ranged between 360K to 600K depends on the season. (bay)

*due to a confusing typography, some people calls this "Coklat Zuzanna" instead; though from the printed product name you can see that there's different facing among the first and the second "z", which makes the first "z" more closely resembles as "s"; not to mention that "Suzanna" refers to a common people name, while "Zuzanna" is considered faulty by most spell checker apps. Haven't ask the creator to find out which one is right though.

**data gathered by Sogi -- http://sisogi.multiply.com/photos/album/31, member of the most successful live sitcom show in Indonesia, Extravaganza, who used to be a radio DJ, which also happens to be a close friend of my sister from the high school.

Bayudita, tetangga depan cubicle, hari ini bawa oleh-oleh unik lagi. Setelah sebelumnya dapet kiriman amplang, kali ini dia bawa sesuatu yang lain; dodol rumput laut Lombok. Walaupun rada jengah sama manisnya dodol, namun keseriusan baca-baca email gw terusik juga waktu ngeliat tampilan dodolnya yang unik: bening dan kaku. Lebih mirip candy stick atau agar-agar bakar favorit gw itu, daripada mirip dodol yang rata-rata butek.

Kemasannya juga professional: bentuk dan potongan rapi yang dikemas dalam plastik individual berwarna bening.Bungkus luarnya katanya bagus juga, tapi berhubung dah dibuang sama yang punya maka gw cuma bisa nyari tau lewat Google dan berhasil; malah ternyata ada juga toko yang jualan produk ini online.

Kalau dipegang rasanya kaku, dan terlihat masih ada serpihan kertas-kertas tipis menempel di sekujur body nya; yang ternyata bukan kertas, jadi gw duga itu adalah sejenis lapisan tipis agar-agar kering yang melt in your mouth, seperti yang terdapat di permen susu china gambar kelinci itu.

Sewaktu dicoba, rasanya juga ternyata nggak terlalu manis! Berbeda dengan konvensi standar dodol yang tingkat manisnya itu antara tinggi, hingga amit-amit. Teksturnya keras kenyal, kekenyalannya mirip dengan kekenyalan Konyaku instant produksi dalam negeri, tapi dalam tingkat kadar air yang lebih kering lagi. Kalau dari segi rasa, selain manis dan sensasi kenyalnya ini, maka nggak ada rasa yang significant. Perasa tambahannya juga nggak terlalu kentara, dan cuma lewat sekilas saja di indera pengecap; jadi ini bener-bener dodol yang karakternya soft banget.

After taste nya yang rada kurang enak: asem di belakang mulut, mirip seperti after taste kalau abis minum teh manis anget pagi-pagi; hal ini rada mengherankan, soalnya tadi rasa manisnya nggak terlalu heboh untuk nimbulin after taste sedemikian.

Walau demikian, ini jenis dodol yang unik dan nggak seperti dodol-dodol lainnya yang sudah ada. Mungkin secara taksonomi memang bukan dodol juga tapi dinamai sedemikian supaya lebih mudah diterima publik? Ah ribet amat, yang pasti penganan yang satu ini layak buat dijajal, terlebih buat mereka yang kurang toleran sama dodol standar, yang biasanya terlalu manis. (bay)

Pernah denger penganan manis namanya Kalua? Jangan disamakan dengan Kahlua yang Coffee flavored liqueur itu ya, karena "Kalua" ini bukan dari jenis minuman keras. Makanan keras sih mungkin, dan bukan karena terkait kadar alkoholnya, tapi karena untuk menikmatinya memang harus dikunyah.

Kalua ini kalau di tatar Sunda, adalah nama dari sejenis manisan buah kering. Bahan bakunya beragam, tapi yang paling sering dipakai adalah labu, waluh, pepaya, dan kulit jeruk bali! Variant kulit jeruk inilah yang palng banyak dipakai untuk jenis Kalua komersil, yang banyak dijual di daerah Pangalengan, Bandung Selatan. Sedangkan untuk produksi rumahan, biasanya menggunakan bahan lainnya yang sudah disebutkan tersebut sebelumnya. Penampakan akhirnya rata-rata sama; potongan buah kering keriput dengan lapisan gula yang mengeras dipermukaannya. Jadi sensasi tekstur rasanya juga seru: keras di permukaan, tapi lembut pejal di bagian dalamnya.

Penggunaan jenis gulanya sendiri biasanya terbagi antara gula putih, dan gula merah. Jika jenis gula putih kemudian banyak dicampur dengan pewarna (merah, hijau, dll.) untuk membuat penampilan yang lebih meriah, maka variant gula merah biasanya tampil as it is; coklat keruh, mirip tampilan gula merah itu sendiri.

Antara satu jenis Kalua dengan lainnya, biasanya terdapat kesamaan tekstur dan rasa manis, hanya saja berbeda-beda sedikit dalam hal aroma aftertaste nya. Dari semua variant, maka variant kulit jeruk balilah yang biasanya paling harum, sedangkan variant labu atau waluh biasanya tidak memiliki karakter aroma yang cukup kuat. Pepaya? Karena tingginya kadar getah, maka biasanya yang paling "becek" diantara jenis-jenis lainnya.

Kalau dikategorikan dalam hal kesehatan, penganan yang satu ini dengan suksesnya termasuk dalam kategori "sinful pleasure", terutama karena kadar gulanya yang sangat tinggi itu. Tapi buat mereka yang rada-rada gilagula, perpaduan rasa manis, harum lembut aroma buah, dan tekstur yang keras di kulit tapi legit di dalemnya itu yang biasanya bikin nagih. Even setelah masa-masa gilagula penulis sudah jauh lewat, maka untuk penganan yang satu ini biasanya masih perlu kontrol ekstra, karena jika tidak maka niscaya satu keler Kalua bisa dihabiskan sendiri, dan ini berarti masalah besar untuk kesehatan...

Untungnya buat penulis (dan ruginya buat para penjual), penganan yang satu ini secara komersil masih sangat tidak berkembang karena sifatnya yang cenderung cepat berjamur, jadi ketemunya cuma setahun sekali atau dua kali, saat berkunjung ke rumah saudara yang juga membuat penganan ini pada saat-saat khusus saja. Sedangkan pasokannya di toko-toko oleh-oleh tradisionalpun, hanya banyak di daerah Pangalengan, bahkan di Bandung sekalipun masih sangat jarang. Semoga nggak bener-bener hilang total dari pasaran saja... soalnya sayang kalau potensi kuliner khas seperti ini sampai punah... (bay)