30 Jul / 7 Asian Iced Desserts and Drinks
It’s summer–it’s hot, it’s humid. Let’s cool down with an iced dessert or drink. Here are some favorites:
1. Ice Kachang (Singapore, Malaysia)
Photo credit: Moshe Reuveni via Flickr cc
Beneath a mountain of shaved ice drizzled with red, green, and yellow syrups–plus condensed milk!–you might find agar-agar strips, red adzuki beans (kachang means beans in Malay), sweet corn, fruit cocktail and/or palm seeds.
2. Chendol (Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore)
Photo credit: Pawel Loj via Flickr cc
Tiny jade-green noodles made from mung bean flour and flavored with pandan extract swim in coconut milk sweetened with palm sugar syrup. Also spelled cendol or chendul.
Photo credit: Cameron Yee via Flickr cc
Regarded as Indonesia’s national beverage by some, es teler is a sweet, milky beverage comprising jackfruit slivers, avocado, grass jelly (cincau), young coconut meat and/or fruit.
Tagalog for “mix-mix,” halo-halo is an Asian parfait of sweetened red adzuki beans and any number of native Filipino delicacies: palm fruit, macapuno (coconut sport), gulaman (agar-agar), jackfruit, ube (purple yam) and more! Evaporated or condensed milk is drizzled over for a sugary finish. For the halo-halo special, add extra toppings of leche flan, pinipig (glutinous rice), and ice cream.
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A mountain of ice is topped with any permutation and combination of ingredients: tapioca pearls, red adzuki beans, green mung beans, herbal jellies, sweetened peanuts, taro, and fruit: mango strawberry, watermelon, etc. The popular preset combination, “Eight Treasure Ice” (ba boa bing) contains—you got it—eight toppings!
Photo credit: Jennifer Yin via Flickr cc
Chè ba màu, or three-coloured drink, usually includes green mung beans, white black-eyed peas, and red adzuki beans. But technically, you could use any ingredients you like–starchy agar-agar strips, glutinous rice, fruit–to make up the three colors.
photo credit: veryliciousness via photopin cc
Known more commonly by its English name, red rubies, this dessert features chewy-on-the-outside, crunchy-on-the-inside reddish-pink pomegranate-like “seeds” in sweetened coconut milk. The vibrant red “seeds” are actually chopped water chestnuts tinged with food coloring and coated with tapioca flour.
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Did I miss your favorite?