Vietnam's bean sweet soup named one of Asia's best desserts

By Tam Anh   October 20, 2024 | 04:55 pm PT
Che ba mau, a Vietnamese dessert with beans and coconut milk, has been named one of Asia’s top 100 desserts by international food magazine TasteAtlas, placing at 82nd.

The rankings are based on verified user ratings, with 12,460 legitimate ratings from 19,650 recorded as of mid-October.

Che ba mau is a multi-layered dessert made with ingredients like tapioca pearls, red beans, ground mung beans and jelly, all served with rich coconut milk. Known as the "three-colored" dessert, it gets its name from the vibrant layers: yellow mung beans, red azuki beans, and green pandan-flavored jelly.

Often topped with bananas and crushed peanuts for extra flavor, che ba mau can be enjoyed hot or cold, though it is especially popular as a refreshing cold treat on hot summer days.

Chè ba màu, món tráng miệng được Taste Atlas đánh giá cao. Ảnh: Authentic food quest

A cup of che ba mau often features three layers of red beans, mung beans, and pandan jelly. Photo courtesy of Authentic food quest

Many believe this treat has its origins in the Cantonese dessert soup tong sui - a variety of desserts made by boiling ingredients like beans, fruits, nuts, or seeds in water with sugar.

In addition to che ba mau, Taste Atlas also recommended other varieties of Vietnamese desserts, including che bap - sweet kernel dessert, che ba ba - a coconut soup base with sweet potato and cassava, and che dau den - black bean dessert.

At the top of the list was Turkey's Dondurma, an ice cream famous for its chewy texture and resistance to melting, made from milk, sugar, Arabic gum, and orchid root flour. It was followed by Gaziantep Baklavası, a Turkish dessert made of layered phyllo dough filled with pistachios and sweetened with syrup, and Klepon from Indonesia, sweet rice balls filled with palm sugar.

 
 
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