Vietnamese crème caramel among world's 100 best Asian desserts

By Anh Minh February 19, 2024 | 12:52 am PT

Vietnamese crème caramel features a soft yellow cake topped with a layer of brown caramel sauce. Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Hoa

Made from a blend of eggs, milk, and caramel sugar, flan cake has secured the 87th spot on the list of the 100 best desserts in Asia, compiled by international food magazine TasteAtlas.

The "Top 100 Asian Desserts" list that was open for voting until Feb. 5, with 14,799 ratings were recorded. TasteAtlas described flan cake as "a beautiful and delicate dessert."

Inspired by the French crème caramel, renowned for its soft texture and sweet caramel, the Vietnamese version pays homage to the French influence on Vietnam's culinary heritage.

Crafted by blending milk and eggs with vanilla or coffee flavors, flan cake is poured into caramel-coated ramekins. After cooking, the dessert is flipped over to reveal a layer of caramel sauce that covers it in a brown color. In Vietnam, condensed milk is often added, giving it a richer taste and a thicker texture.

Meanwhile, leading the dessert lineup is Dondurma, a Turkish ice cream cherished for its chewy texture. Following closely behind are Gaziantep baklavası, a Turkish pastry comprising layers of dough, nuts, and syrup, and Klepon from Indonesia, featuring a palm sugar-filled rice flour dessert.

In addition to flan cake, Vietnam's dessert culinary scene is also renowned for banh da lon (steamed layer cake) and banh chuoi (banana cake), with both featuring on TasteAtlas' ranking of the world's top 100 cakes.