I prefer to prepare my own dessert, which is cendol. 

Cendol is a popular dessert among Malaysians to quench their thirst on sunny days.

One does not have to do much to make the drink as an ingredient to make cendol available in the market.

All I can say is, you only need to mix the ingredients. The only thing you cook is to make palm sugar syrup.

For cendol, we need coconut milk, cendol jelly, corn kernel, palm sugar syrup, salt and ice.

Why do I want to make my own cendol?

You see, there are many vendors selling cendol and I always buy from them.  

It doesn’t matter where I bought the cendol, the seller always using canned coconut milk for the cendol and never fresh coconut milk.

After so many times, I could not take it anymore to have a cendol from the seller.  

Coconut milk is the crucial part of the cendol but they are using canned coconut milk which does not taste similar to the classic cendol.

There is a question pop inside my head. “Why do I force myself to eat cendol from the vendors?” Their cendol is plain. 

Suddenly an idea clicked in my mind.  

I can buy all those ingredients and mix them with fresh coconut milk from Selayang Baru Market.

Why has this idea never crossed my mind before?

I keep asking myself this over and over again.   

Since I have the privilege of having all the ingredients the cendol needed. 

After all, I live in Selayang, famously known as Kuala Lumpur Kitchen.

Searching for the ingredients 

I went to a shop to buy sweet kernel corn and palm sugar. 

These two items are easy to find and available at any grocery store and supermarket. 

The price is not expensive. 

The items cost me RM2.10 each.

On the next day, early in the morning, I bought the cendol jelly and fresh coconut milk at the Selayang Baru Market. 

This is to make sure coconut milk is fresh. The cendol jelly itself I bought at the vegetable stall.

These two things are available in the market. They cost me RM3 each.

The next item is an ice cube. I do it myself at home and do not bother to buy. 

I already prepared the night before by using cold boiling water. It is more hygienic than the ice cube from the shop. 

The supplier is using tap water directly from the water pipe. They are not boiling it. So, it is not clean and hygienic.

Start mixing the ingredients 

Boil the palm sugar with ½ cup water and add three spoons of coarse sugar to make the palm sugar syrup. The sugar is always available in my kitchen.

Let the palm sugar syrup cool.

Pour three spoonfuls of palm sugar into the small bowl.

Scoop three spoon corn kernels and pit on top the palm sugar syrup, then add cendol jelly.

Pour in one cup of coconut fresh milk in the bowl. Bit of salt. 

Lastly, add crushed ice to it.

The cendol is ready to be enjoyed.

Do not forget to stir the ingredients in the bowl when you are ready to have it.

The good and yummy dessert by mixing ingredients easily available in the market.

By doing it ourselves we can put cendol jelly, sweet corn kernels and coconut milk as much as we want in the bowl. 

Whereas when we buy from the vendor, the items are very little and sometimes you could not see the corn and cendol jelly. 

Nostalgia regarding cendol

The cendol that I make is the same as the good old days’ cendol that I used to buy from the stall when I was a little kid. 

I want to have the same taste as the one I had during my younger days. They were using fresh coconut milk which tasted good and had a natural fragrant smell.

While for today the vendor is not using fresh coconut milk. They replace it with canned coconut milk as it is not my taste.

With so many entrepreneurs producing cendol jelly, fresh coconut milk, palm sugar and corn kernels, it is not difficult to make one.