VietnaMenu

A Food Lover's Travel Guide to the Best of Vietnamese Food

Che

Vietnamese Sweet Soup

Chè isn't your typical dessert. At least not in the western world. It's a Vietnamese sweet drink, soup, or pudding that consists of a syrupy liquid poured over ice. There are many different versions, but the most common are served with a type of bean, fruit, jelly, or grain. At first, I was hesitant to try it. Beans in a dessert? That doesn't make any sense. But if you think about it, when the beans are mashed up they provide a consistentcy similar to icing. Add a bunch of sugar and it tastes a lot like icing. The jelly that is often floating around in it, looking like a creature from the Vietnamese swamps, has a texture that isn't typical in North America. It's chewy and slimey, but the taste isn't bad. The liquid sometimes contains coconut milk, which is a real treat for even the most westernized of taste buds. For less than a dollar you can buy a cup at a stand, so why not try it? It'll satisfy that sweet tooth, and cool you off on a hot Vietnamese day.

Types

  • Chè bà ba - sweet potato, taro, cassava
  • Chè bà cốt - glutinous rice
  • Chè ba màu - green mung beans, white black-eyed peas, and red azuki beans
  • Chè bách niên hảo hợp - red beans, lotus seed, and water lily bulb
  • Che Bach Qua - ginkgo nuts
  • Chè bánh lọt - made from bánh lọt, a sweet rice pasta from Hue
  • Chè bánh xếp - coconut milk with a tapioca green bean dumpling
  • Chè bắp or chè ngô - corn and tapioca rice pudding
  • Chè bột lọc - cassava and rice flour dumplings
  • Chè bưởi - grapefruit oil and rind
  • Chè chuối - bananas and tapioca
  • Chè cốm - rice
  • Chè con ong - glutinous rice, ginger root, honey, and molasses
  • Chè củ mài - Dioscorea persimilis
  • Chè củ sen - lotus tubers
  • Chè củ súng - water lily bulbs
  • Chè củ từ - Dioscorea esculenta
  • Chè đậu đãi - ground skinless mung beans
  • Chè đậu đen - black beans
  • Chè đậu đỏ - azuki beans
  • Chè đậu đỏ bánh lọt - red beans and bánh lọt
  • Chè đậu huyết - red beans
  • Chè đậu ngự - moon beans
  • Chè đậu phụng or chè lạc - peanuts
  • Chè đậu trắng - black-eyed peas
  • Chè đậu ván Huế - hyacinth beans
  • Chè đậu xanh - whole mung beans
  • Chè đậu xanh đánh - ground mung beans
  • Chè đậu xanh nha đam - mung beans and fresh aloe vera
  • Chè đậu xanh phổ tai - mung beans and kelp
  • Chè hạt sen - lotus seeds
  • Chè hoa cau - ground skinless mung beans with betel nut flower
  • Chè hoa quả - mixture of fruits including pineapple, watermelon, apple, pear, mango, lychee, dried banana, cherry, and dried coconut with milk, yogurt, and syrup
  • Chè kê - millet
  • Chè khoai lang - sweet potato
  • Chè khoai môn - taro
  • Chè khoai tây - potato
  • Chè lam - ground glutinous rice
  • Chè lô hội - Aloe vera
  • Chè mã thầy or chè củ năng - water chestnuts
  • Chè mè đen - black sesame seeds
  • Chè mít - jackfruit
  • Chè môn sáp vàng - a special taro grown in Huế
  • Chè nhãn - longan
  • Chè sắn lắt - sliced cassava
  • Chè sầu riêng - durian
  • Chè sen - thin vermicelli with jasmine flavoured syrup
  • Chè sen dừa - lotus seeds and coconut water
  • Chè thạch or chè rau câu - seaweed
  • Chè thạch sen - seaweed and lotus seeds
  • Chè thạch sen - thin jellies
  • Chè thập cẩm - mixed sweet soup
  • Chè thịt quay - roast pork
  • Chè thốt nốt - sugar palm seeds
  • Chè thưng - dried red jujubes, peanut, and dried Auricularia auricula-judae fungus or taro, cassava, green bean, sea weed, and water chestnuts
  • Chè trái cây - variety of fruits
  • Chè trái vải - lychee and jelly
  • Chè trôi nước - mung bean paste balls with a glutinous rice flour shell served in a liquid made of water, sugar, and grated ginger root
  • Chè trứng đỏ - egg
  • Chè xoài - mango
  • Cơm rượu - mildy alcoholic
  • Hột é - Sterculia lychnophora extract and basil seeds
  • Sâm bổ lượng - Job's tears, dried longans, red jujubes, lotus seeds, and thinly sliced seaweed
  • Sương sâm - jelly with Tiliacora triandra extract
  • Sương sáo - Grass jelly