Es Pisang Ijo

Es Pisang Ijo comes from Makassar in South Sulawesi, where bananas and pandan have long grown in abundance. Its precise origin is not documented — it appears in no old lontara manuscript — but it is generally placed in the early twentieth century, after imported and locally made ice reached the port city and let vendors turn a steamed-banana sweet into a chilled one. It became a fixture of Bugis-Makassar gatherings and, in time, a beloved Ramadan dessert sold across the city at dusk.

Cool and silky: tender banana inside a soft, faintly chewy green wrapper that tastes gently of pandan and coconut. The porridge underneath is creamy and mild, the red syrup gives a candy-sweet edge, condensed milk adds richness, and the shaved ice keeps it all bracingly cold. Each spoonful is soft on soft — banana, skin and porridge melting together under the crackle of ice.

The green skin is a rice-flour dough cooked with coconut milk and pandan-suji juice into a pliable paste, wrapped around the banana and steamed so the starch sets into a tender, slightly elastic sheath rather than a hard shell. The accompanying porridge is rice flour thickened in coconut milk to a smooth, pourable cream. Serving everything chilled over ice firms the wrapper and makes the contrast of soft fruit, creamy porridge and icy syrup the centre of the dish.