Chè

Plastic containers of chè đậu trắng, a variety of chè made from black-eyed peas, in an Asian grocery store

Chè (Vietnamese pronunciation: [cɛ̂]) is a Vietnamese term that refers to any traditional Vietnamese sweet dessert soup or pudding.

As such, it may, with the addition of qualifying adjectives, refer to a wide variety of distinct soups or puddings, which may be served either hot or cold. Some varieties, such as chè xôi nước, may also include dumplings.

Chè are often prepared with one of a number of varieties of beans and/or glutinous rice, cooked in water and sweetened with sugar. Other ingredients may include tapioca starch, salt, and pandan leaf extract. Each variety of chè is designated by a descriptive word or phrase that follows the word chè, such as chè đậu đỏ (literally "red bean chè").

In southern Vietnam, chè are often garnished with coconut creme.

Chè may be made at home, but are also commonly available freshly made in plastic containers, in Vietnamese grocery stores in Vietnam as well as overseas.

In northern Vietnam, chè is also the word for the tea plant. Tea is also known as nước chè in the North or more commonly trà in both regions.

The Chinese category of sweet soups called tong sui are very similar to chè.

Varieties

A bowl of chè xôi nước

There is a nearly endless variety of named dishes with the prefix chè, and thus it is impossible to produce a complete list. What follows is a list of the most typical traditional varieties of chè.

Beans and pulses

• Chè ba màu (literally "three colours chè") - usually including green mung beans, white black-eyed peas, and red azuki beans, although people can cook with any ingredients making any three colours they like.
• Chè đậu đen - made from black beans; one of the most popular varieties of chè, particularly for northern Vietnamese
• Chè đậu đỏ - made from azuki beans, usually using whole beans, rarely using ground beans.
• Chè đậu huyết - made from red beans.
• Chè đậu ngự - made from Phaseolus lunatus (or moon beans) - specialty in Huế, an imperial dish
• Chè đậu phụng (also called chè đậu phộng in southern Vietnam, or chè lạc in northern Vietnam) - made from peanuts
• Chè đậu trắng - made from black-eyed peas
• Chè đậu ván Huế - made from Dolichos lablab (hyacinth beans); a specialty in Huế
• Chè đậu xanh - made from whole mung beans
  • Chè đậu xanh phổ tai - made from mung beans and phổ tai (a kind of kelp)
  • Chè đậu xanh đánh - made from grounded mung beans
  • Chè đậu đãi - made from ground skinless mung beans (đãi means to remove the skin)
  • Chè hoa cau - a northern dish made from ground skinless mung beans with betel nut flower-shape (a similar dish called chè táo xọn, prepared in southern Vietnam, uses less mung beans)

Rice, grains, tubers and cereals

• Chè bánh lọt - made from bánh lọt - a cake from Huế (lọt means "to sift" or "to sigh").
• Chè bắp (the Southern name) or chè ngô (the Northern) - made from corn and other ingredients which people like.
• Chè bột sắn (or chè sắn bột) - made from cassava flour
• Chè sắn lắt - made from sliced cassava
• Chè cốm - made from young rice.
• Chè lam - made from ground glutinous rice
• Chè củ mài - made from Dioscorea persimilis
• Chè củ súng - made from water lily bulbs
• Chè củ từ (or chè khoai từ) - made from Dioscorea esculenta
• Chè hột lựu (called by this name in southern Vietnam; called chè hạt lựu in northern Vietnam) - in this dish, rice paste are cut into pomegranate seed-shaped pieces.
• Chè khoai lang - made from sweet potato
• Chè khoai môn - made from taro
• Chè môn sáp vàng - made from a variety of taro grown in Huế
• Chè kê - made from millet
• Chè khoai tây - made from potato
• Chè mè đen - made from black sesame seeds
• Chè hạt sen - made from lotus seeds
  • Chè sen trần
  • Chè sen dừa - made from lotus seeds and coconut water
  • Chè củ sen - made from lotus tubers
• Chè mã thầy (or chè củ năng) - made from water chestnuts
• Cơm rượu - mildy alcoholic chè.

Jellies

• Chè thạch or chè rau câu - made from seaweed
  • Chè thạch lựu - made from seaweed and other pomegranate seed-shaped tapioca pearls.
  • Chè thạch sen - made from seaweed and lotus seeds
• Sương sâm - jelly with Tiliacora triandra extract
• Sương sáo - Glass jelly
• Chè thạch sen - thin, vermicelli-like jellies.

Dumplings

• Chè bột lọc from small cassava and rice flour dumplings
• Chè con ong (literally "bee sweet soup"; so named because this dish is viscous and yellow, like honey) - made from glutinous rice, ginger root, honey, and molasses– this is a northern dish, usually cooked to offer to the ancestors at Tết.
• Chè xôi nước - balls made from mung bean paste in a shell made of glutinous rice flour; served in a thick clear or brown liquid made of water, sugar, and grated ginger root.

Fruits and plants

• Chè hoa quả mixture of different fruits including pineapple, watermelon, apple, pear, mango, lychee, dried banana, cherry, and dried coconut with milk, yogurt, and syrup
• Chè nhãn - made from longan
• Chè trái cây - made from fruits
• Chè xoài - made from mango
• Chè trái vải - lychee and jelly
• Chè bưởi - made from grapefruit oil and slivered rind
• Chè chuối - made from bananas and tapioca (Vietnamese: bột báng)
• Chè sầu riêng - made from durian
• Chè thốt nốt - made from sugar palm seeds
• Chè mít - made from jackfruit
• Chè lô hội - made from Aloe vera
• Hột é - made from Sterculia lychnophora extract and basil seeds

Mixed

• Chè đậu đỏ bánh lọt - red beans and bánh lọt.
• Chè thập cẩm (chè lẫn) meaning ten-ingredient sweet soup or mixed sweet soup is a mixture of various kinds of ingredients such as black-eyed peas, azuki beans, lotus seeds, mung beans, coconut, syrup, ice cream, milk and trân châu. This is one of the most popular forms of chè served in Vietnam.
• Chè bà ba (this dish's name may have two possible origins: 1) "Ms. Third's sweet soup": it is likely that this dish was first made by a person whose nickname was "Third" (Vietnamese: ba). However, it is also possible that this name is only symbolic; in Vietnam, customers typically call women who sell chè by their position in their families: i.e., "Ms. Third," "Ms. Fourth," "Ms. Fifth," etc.; or 2) "bà ba-wearing sellers' sweet soup"): made from taro, cassava and khoai lang bí, a kind of sweet potato that is long, with red skin and yellow flesh.
• Chè bà cốt - made from expanded glutinous rice
• Chè bách niên hảo hợp (literally: one hundred years of a good match/marriage) – made from red beans, lotus seed, water lily bulb, and others [1]
• Sâm bổ lượng - cold, sweet soup containing Job's tears, dried longans, red jujubes, lotus seeds, thinly sliced seaweed, and sometimes other ingredients, with water, sugar, and crushed ice
• Chè thưng - made from dried red jujube, peanut, and dried Auricularia auricula-judae fungus

Savoury chè

• Chè lạp xường or chè lạp xưởng - made from Chinese sausage
• Chè thịt quay - made from roast pork
• Chè trứng đỏ - made from egg and other ingredients

Foreign chè

• Bobochacha or Bocha - a Vietnamese interpretation of a popular sweet soup originating from Malaysia and Singapore, found in Hanoi.
• Chè Thái - a sweet fruit soup, which is believed to be a version of Thailand's tub tim grawb, but the Vietnamese version uses a variety of tropical fruits, while the Thai version uses strictly chestnuts.
• Tàu hũ or Tào phớ - Douhua chè.

See also

• Vietnamese cuisine