TARO CAKE FROM BOGOR

Do you know that Bogor , besides known as a rain city was also known as "TARO CITY"? I said "was" because now the nickname has been faded since the production of taro roots are getting less and less due to the growth of the city. It was used to be easy to find sellers of taro roots around Bogor but although we still can find them in several spots , the numbers have been less.

Bogor's Taro Plants or Colocasia Esculenta are known to be delicious and savory. It's edible even though it contains sap that can cause itching. All of its parts can be made into various type of foods. The stem can be cooked into "Sayur Lompong" (a soup with coconut oil and spice). The leaves can be made to be "Buntil" (a dish using taro leave as a wrapper for anchovy, cassava leaves and spices) . The last , the one represented by the picture is its root. It can be fried , steamed or boiled or to be made into chips.

Nowadays, Bogor has recovered its title as Taro City. It is not because of the increase of the number of the taro roots sellers . On contrary, the sellers are still decreasing day by day. This is mostly due to one young entrepreneur from Bogor, Ms Rizka Romadhona . She has found another way of using the carbohydrate rich root other than only steaming , boiling or frying. She has changed the traditional looks into more modern face of culinary. She makes the root into a cake.

It's been quite a leap considering the scratchy sap content and sticky texture of Taro Root but she can solve it by making the root into flour. The flour then is used to be a replacement for wheat flour as a cake ingredient. She further also improvises with the flour and makes several types of culinary stuffs using Taro Root Flour as the major ingredient.

Now, the cake called as "LAPIS BOGOR" or "LAPIS SANGKURIANG" (the stores have the same name too) has been a new trademark of Bogor. Visitors coming from Bogor will spare some of their time to buy this cake. They often have to queue before the stores open to get two or three boxes.  Lapis Bogor provides several flavors of the cakes i.e. Green Tea , Brownies, and also Original. You can find also pies and several others taro Root products available in the store. However the cake is the number one best seller.

The cake is yummy. It is not too sweet, soft and the grated cheese gives savory aspect to the cake. The price is not also expensive only around US$ 3.00 / 15 cm x 30 cm size.

It once made my city famous in its traditional form. Now once again in its modern face, taro can let this city proudly retain its title as Taro City.

Share on Google Plus

About Anton Ardyanto

Terima kasih untuk berkenan membaca tulisan ini. Saya berharap ada yang dapat diambil dan dimanfaatkan dari tulisan ini. Kalau anda berkenan mohon luangkan waktu berharga anda sedikit lagi untuk memberikan sesuatu. Saran, masukan atau kritik akan sangat berharga bagi saya. Apalagi kalau anda berkenan share tulisan dari blog ini kepada yang lain.

Thank you for your time to read my writings. It means a lot to me. I really hope that there is something that you, the reader can take from my writing. I would be honored if you can spare a bit more of your precious time to let me have your comments or even your critics. I would be more than grateful if you can share something from this blog to other people.