''Chè bà ba'' is a
Vietnamese dessert with a
coconut milk
Coconut milk is a plant milk extracted from the grated pulp of mature coconuts. The opacity and rich taste of the milky-white liquid are due to its high oil content, most of which is saturated fat. Coconut milk is a traditional food ingred ...
soup base and square pieces of
taro
Taro (; ''Colocasia esculenta'') is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, stems and Petiole (botany), petioles. Taro corms are a ...
,
cassava
''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...
and khoai lang bí, a kind of long
sweet potato
The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant in the morning glory family, Convolvulaceae. Its sizeable, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a root vegetable, which is a staple food in parts of ...
with red skin and yellow flesh. The dish commonly includes pieces of
tapioca
Tapioca (; ) is a starch extracted from the tubers of the cassava plant (''Manihot esculenta,'' also known as manioc), a species native to the North Region, Brazil, North and Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast regions of Brazil, but which has ...
, and the dish is typically eaten warm, but can also be eaten cold.
Origins
The dish has many possible origins. It is possible that the dish was first made by a person whose nickname was "Third", which the name of the dish would translate to "Ms. Third's sweet soup". One story states that the dessert was sold at
Bình Tây Market (in District 6, City Ho Chi Minh City ) around mid-century, and that it was originally made with coconut milk, mung bean, sweet potato, cassava, and other ingredients such as jujube and lotus seeds that totaled 9 to 10 ingredients in the dish.
[Exploring the Varieties of Chè – Vietnamese Sweet Soup – VLStudies]
/ref>
According to another narrative, the dish is the third popular dish made by an old lady.
Bà ba also translates to a certain causal type of clothing worn in Vietnam. Another possibility for the dessert's origins is that the name means "Bà ba-wearing sellers' sweet soup".
See also
*Vietnamese cuisine
Vietnamese cuisine encompasses the foods and beverages originated from Vietnam. Meals feature a combination of five fundamental tastes (): sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and Piquant, spicy. The distinctive nature of each dish reflects one or more ...
* Vietnamese dessert
References
Vietnamese soups
Foods containing coconut
{{vietnam-cuisine-stub