Kipo ( iki-opo), Kotagede Traditional Food

The availability of some traditional foods in yogyakarta plays an important role for attracting the tourism.Gudeg,geplak, yangko, bakpia are alredy well known  for the foreigners, but other traditional foods are available and one of them is kipo.Kipo is traditional food which comes from Kotagede-region in Yogyakarta.It is believe that kipo has alredy exist from the time of ancient Mataram kingdom until now. At that time kipo was served as snack foods for the king and His  family, so kipo was an exclusive food and could predict the level of family who consumed it.

The name itself comes from abbreviation "iki opo 'meaning' what is this?". Mrs. Djito is a woman domiciled in Kotagede who gives the name as well as the first maker of this food. In the 1960s she made food for sale on the stall. At that time the food was no name. When many buyers look at this unique food and then they ask "Iki opo? '(what is this). Next Mrs. Djito gave name this food with the name kipo. Her best-selling make a lot of people in Kotagede also make the same food and sell it around the Market Kotagede.

The kipo is such as semi-wet cake which is produced form sticky glutinous rice flour then filling with grated coconut mixed with javanese sugar as known as enten enten.The process is very simple,as follow ; weighing,mixing,cake forming,melting,roasting and packing. The cooking proces very quick under constant and low temperature using pottery wok with layer of banana leaves.Ussualy kipo is packed by banana leaves as primary packaging and paper as secondary packaging.The taste between sweet savory, yummy and delicious.The greenish color of kipo is not from dyes, but the nature of pandanus leaves.

 At the moment kipo is only produced in Kota Gede, because the consumers are limited only in certain areas and it is not well known if it compares with other Yogyakarta traditional foods.Problem concerning this situation were the information of kipo wasn't well delivered to the consumers and people who were doing bussines with kipo were very limited and only in kotagede the traditional process was still kept and the people could enjoy how it was produced.

Although delicious, unfortunately kipo is not durable food. Therefore, it is not easy to find kipo in the stores of souvenirs centre. The place that always sells authentic food of Kotagede are snacks and souvenirs stalls at the Taman Sari, the traditional markets, and at a snack stalls in Kotagede market itself,of course.

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