Sweet dessert soup (chè)

I actually don't like the words "sweet soup".
To me,  soup is always associated with something savoury!?
Sweet soup. Dessert soup. Or sweet dessert soup!
Anyway, chè is our traditional sweets!

Chè display at Bến Thành market! 

Very popular. One of the most "visible" street foods. Especially hawkers with sweet tofu.

Nowadays instead of traditional only two baskets hung at two ends of the long bamboo stick (i.e only two or three kinds of chè to carry, as maximum), street vendors have more "comfortable"vehicle.
The push cart with at least 4 or 5 shining stock pots with different chè!

We have chè for dessert! 
We prepare chè for special occasions! 
Lunar New Year. Death Anniversary. First Birthday for kids. Family gathering. Party!
Or whenever we wish our life sweeter! We need chè!

            Favorite for children's first birthday celebration - chè trôi nước 

Chè offers a big variety of tastes, recipes.
Most popular. Most simple. Sweet dessert soup with beans. Almost all kinds of beans!
Green bean. Red bean. Black bean. White bean (black eye pea). Moon bean (đậu ngự).
Soya bean (for tofu). Indian bean (đậu ván)...

Sweet soup dessert with moon beans (chè đậu ngự) 

Everyone can cook. But to make it perfect, we better leave it with pro!
I remember when I was kid, I tried to cook some beans sweet soup. Either too sweet.
Or adding sugar too early, the beans remain hard (bị sượng)!

By the way, before exams, students love to have chè made from beans.
Because "beans" in Vietnamese is homonym with word "pass the exam"(đậu)! Good luck!

My favorite ? Green mung bean with tapioca pearls and seaweed (kelp - khổ tai). Sweet tofu.
And no coconut milk cream added!

First favorite, sweet tofu with brown sugar sirup, ginger! Most visible sweet street food.

My second favorite - green mung bean with tapioca pearl, seaweeds. No added coconut cream!  

We still have sweet soup with fruits, grains, glutinous rice...
Banana sweet soup (chuối chưng) is all-time favorite! So popular, but here coconut sauce is required during cooking!
Pomelo (cooked with the pomelo's white inner skin - chè bưởi) 
Dried longan (chè nhãn nhục). Palmyra palm fruit (chè thốt nốt)

Sweet soup with dried longan and palmyra palm fruit vendor at Hòa Bình market! 

Lotus seed (chè hạt sen). Black sesame (chi ma fu), Peanut.
Sweet potato. Taro. Corn. Lotus tuber. Water chestnut. 

Pomelo sweet dessert soup - made of white inner skin of pomelo! Speciality from Huế! 

We have chè in Northern, Huế and Southern style.

Different recipes.
Some very unique (!) recipe in Central - sweet dessert soup with roasted pork! Never tried!
Or Cơm rượu, literally means rice alcohol. It's actually fermented cooked glutinous rice, served with green mung bean sticky rice (xôi vò). The sweet taste comes from rice during the fermentation process. Very special flavor, like sweet rice wine! Happened to me, I had a whole bowl, my face turned red and fell asleep! Don't eat too much, you can get drunk!

Cơm rượu - fermented glutinous rice!  

Different names.
Some names very strange. Chè táo sọn. Chè thưng. I don't know why we call like this!
Some names remind the image. Chè trôi nước (floating in water). Chè hoa cau (areca palm's flower)

For to go.
Sweet dessert soup with banana (right) and chè táo sọn - areca palm's flower sweet soup (left) 

Talking about the name, I remember when I've been to Singapore for first time.
I went to the food court near to my hotel and saw "Bo Bo Cha Cha" sweet dessert soup in the menu!
The name itself is quite appealing! The colorful picture, above the counter, looks also nice!
I ordered and to my great disappointment, it's just a sweet potato, taro cooked with coconut milk cream that we have exactly the same at home!
The only different thing is in Singapore it's served with ice!
Actually Chè can be served cold, with ice. Or hot!

We also have typical Chinese sweet dessert soup in Chinatown. I will have another post with more details about this sweets!