August 19, 2007
Rainbow on ice
Posted by are you gonna eat that? under Eating / Food, The Strange | Tags: dessert, Vietnamese |
This is a che ba mau, made of red beans, green shreds of Vietnamese jello, yellow mung bean, coconut milk and ice. I suppose it’s a dessert and drink in one. It’s also known as a “three colour drink” or “rainbow on ice.”
I’ve never understood or enjoyed the Asian concept of beans in dessert. As a little kid, I watched my mom cheerfully dig into red bean slush with vanilla ice cream in the summers. Gross. The standard “dessert” at lots of Chinese (Cantonese mostly) restaurants is hot red bean soup. We can invent fireworks and build a Great Wall - but THAT’s what counts as dessert? Ugh.
Jason on the other hand is more than happy to try any bean dessert that looks interesting. So the che ba mau was entirely his idea.
To me, it was a weird mix of cold, sweet, crunchy, mushy and slimy. I suppose it’s moderately better than most bean desserts I’ve tried, if only because of the coconut milk.
You can get che ba mau at most Vietnamese restaurants.
September 2, 2007 at 9:06 am
I’ve tasted this one before…can’t say I liked it a lot though, but it was a diff experience. coconut milk is good, i agree…
September 17, 2007 at 1:11 am
[...] barbecued ribs, vegetable kabobs, pasta salad, chả giò, càng cua bọc tôm, gỏi đu đủ, chè ba màu and birthday cake by halfway through and didn’t even try the bún chả that Lan made or the [...]
November 9, 2007 at 2:49 am
Your missing out! Vietnamese have Che! Koreans have Bing-Su! and Malaysians have Chendol! sometimes you have to think outside the box and try new stuff!
December 8, 2007 at 6:22 pm
I like che ba mau a lot even though I don’t like beans in general. I grew up on it and I think it tastes perfect (although many places are using large red beans which don’t taste as good. I think it would be much more enjoyable to eat if you don’t think about the beans too much as you eat it.