''Chè bà ba'' is a
Vietnamese
Vietnamese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia
** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam.
* Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam
** Overse ...
dessert with a
coconut milk 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, and petioles. Taro corms are a food staple in Afri ...
,
cassava
''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated ...
and khoai lang bí, a kind of long
sweet potato with red skin and yellow flesh. The dish commonly includes pieces of
tapioca
Tapioca (; ) is a starch extracted from the storage roots of the cassava plant (''Manihot esculenta,'' also known as manioc), a species native to the North and Northeast regions of Brazil, but whose use is now spread throughout South America ...
, 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Bình Tây Market (in District 6, City Ho Chi Minh City ) around mid-century, and that it was originally made with coconut milk, green bean, sweet potato, cassava, and other ingredients such as jujube and lotus seeds that totaled 9 to 10 ingredients in the dish.
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 of Vietnam. Meals feature a combination of five fundamental tastes ( vi, ngũ vị, links=no, label=none): sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and spicy. The distinctive nature of each dish refle ...
*
Vietnamese dessert
References
Vietnamese soups
Vietnamese words and phrases
Foods containing coconut
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