Kue Aiwon｜Papua

Part 19/38 in a series exploring one dish from each province of Indonesia.

I was originally looking for a recipe for bubur pokem, a foxtail millet porridge that was mentioned here and there as being a staple that, although found occasionally across the country, seems to be particularly prevalent on Numfor island. I found one, but in the process found something much more exciting. (For anyone wondering, you just boil up coconut milk, add pokem and sugar and milk, then cook until soft).

This recipe is for small cakes made from the ground up fruit (technically the hypocotyl) of a the large-leafed orange mangrove tree, Bruguiera gymnorhiza, or aiwon. It seems to be a staple on Numfor and some of the surrlunding islands in Cenderawasih Bay due to the high carbohydrate content, and is sometimes found in the cuisine of the Solomon Islands and Nauru.

The recipe is adapted from a blog post from 2015 that no longer exists, but I’ve tracked it down here. It’s credited to Ferdinand Mambraku and Karolina Rumasoeb, and their children Vince and Herman. Interestingly the author seems to have misheard the word as aibon, but in other articles it’s always called aiwon including the paper Biodiversitas Mangrove di Pulau Mansuar Kabupaten Raja Ampat Provinsi Papua Barat (2017) by Mayor, T. et al., which also lists its Latin name.

☒ UNTESTED

Ingredients

Main stuff

• __ g aiwon
• __ g palm sugar
• __ g grated coconut
• __ g salt

Prep

Shave the aiwon thinly

Boil the shavings for an hour

Soak for an hour, change the water, soak for another hour (this is to remove the sap which can cause itching, dizziness, or other allergy-like symptoms if ingested)

Cooking

Boil the aiwon again until soft

Drain and squeeze tightly in a cloth, thereby crushing into a coarse paste

Grind and mix with palm sugar, salt, and grated coconut

Form into ping-pong balls