Thursday, October 15, 2009

Colek: An alienated yet harmonious snack

(Terjemahan bebas sebuah artikel "Colek: Juadah Lepas Terawih" oleh Zanazanzaly http://www.zanazanzaly09.blogspot.com/ dalam Qiadah, Ramadhan 1430 Hijrah, majalah korporat Perbadanan Menteri Besar Negeri Kelantan, PMBK)


Colek, a popular traditional Kelantanese cuisine, a craze to be exact, is the snack usually enjoyed by all after the terawih prayers. By the way, the terawih is the non-compulsory prayer performed after Isyak, practised only during the month of Ramadhan.

What exactly is a ‘colek’? The word may be seen to describe that deliberate action of dipping, soaking or coating your colek material with its sauce, gravy or paste. Please note that a colek is not one, unless accompanied with its sauce, gravy or paste. While the food items to be ‘coleked’ range from local fruits, the liver, intestines, baked or boiled cockles, squids, prawns, crabs to fish balls.

Different colek materials normally require different ingredients for it sauce. For instance, to prepare a fruit colek one needs salt, sugar, belacan (prawn paste), soya sauce/kicap, and of course chilly. However the sauce for internal-organs colek such as the liver, the intestines is prepared from tamarind paste, sugar, belacan, salt and dried chilly.

What then is the flavour and taste would one get out of a colek? All the flavours registered by your taste buds. Yes, almost all that your taste buds can sensitize: Sweet, salty, sour or bitter.

It is no coincidence that colek is chosen as a favourite dish for moreh, i.e. feast served after terawih prayers, for a host of reasons: It’s a snack rich in varieties, colour, taste and flavour. Ever remember the last time when you really tickle your taste buds? It has been ages? Try pampering them with a colek, especially during the Ramadhan in Kelantan.

While you are enjoying your colek, be it a fruit or an internal organ colek, just observe their ingredients: How diversified but yet harmonious they are in your plate.

Weren’t they alienated when they were in their original form?




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