Amid the growing wave of modern business innovation, six students from the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) UGM are working to enhance the richness of Indonesia’s traditional cuisine. They bring a unique and creative idea: developing an innovative Jenang ice cream.
The six students who make up the team Loca-Loca aim to transform the classic jenang into a modern dish that can be introduced to the younger generation in a new and refreshing way. The team consists of management students from the class of 2022: Syifa Nikita Amanda Siregar, Zalfa Safina Sutanto, Nadia Azzahra Ayuningtyas Prawirohardjo, Vittorio Valero Salim, Ahmad Zida Niam and Adrien Aisyah Adzana.
This innovation led them to win second place in the YES! X CSDU business pre-incubation program held at Gelanggang Inovasi dan Kreativitas (GIK) UGM on November 10, 2024. As a result of their performance, they were awarded a business development grant of IDR 10,000,000.
Syifa explained that Jenang, a traditional white and sticky rice dish, is now combined with ice cream and is usually served warm. The idea for this jenang ice cream innovation started with their desire to introduce jenang to a broader audience, especially young people.
“We combined jenang with ice cream to change the image of jenang from a hot dish to a cold, more modern treat. Since kids love ice cream, this jenang ice cream could be our way of reintroducing traditional food to today’s youth,” she said.
Loca-Loca’s journey in developing the Jenang ice cream was more challenging than it seemed. Syifa mentioned that they had to go through a long process to find the recipe formulation for the Jenang ice cream.
She explained that not all types of jenang can be combined with ice cream. Another challenge was that jenang from different stores would have different tastes. As a result, they went through a lot of trial and error in developing the recipe.
“We learned a lot from these trials and errors, including that jenang ice cream needs to be stored in the freezer longer than regular ice cream because of the jenang mixture,” she said.
Syifa hopes her Jenang ice cream innovation will help preserve this traditional dish. It also serves as an effort to reintroduce this traditional food to the younger generation in a more modern presentation and taste.
“We hope that all generations will accept our Jenang ice cream in the future,” she concluded.
Reportage: Najwah Ariella Puteri
Editor: Kurnia Ekaptiningrum
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