Chè, in Vietnamese, is any sweet dessert, almost more like a “soup” since you usually need a spoon to eat the contents, that can be consumed hot or cold. One of my favorite places if you’re in the SF Bay Area, Bambu, makes many of the chè in a way that you can drink it with a large boba straw, which is super convenient.
Growing up, some of my favorite types of che had bright colors and a range of jellies, tapioca, coconut juice or milk. One of the most unique che, is one that is brown-colored and uniquely herbal — one of my mom’s favorite types of chè, is a popular one called “Chè Sâm Bổ Lượng”, well-known for its herbal ingredients and health benefits. It may not look like your typical dessert, but it is a favorite at many of my Vietnamese family potluck gatherings. Check out my mom’s method of making it below!
Outline of steps to make “Chè Sâm Bổ Lượng”:
The hardest part is going to an asian grocery store and finding all the crazy ingredients! (see list below)
Prepare and cook individual ingredients[1] separately, by preparing 2 pots:
1 pot (medium, 3-4 quart) for boiling and rinsing the ingredient
1 pot of clean boiling water for boiling ingredient until cooked
Prepare a final pot of sweet broth, where you’ll toss in all cooked ingredients. This is done by boiling a medium pot of water, sweetening with rock sugar until fully dissolved to the sweetness level of your choice, and traditionally you’d add 2-3 pieces of the herb Dong Quai to give the che its foundational herbal taste. You can also interchange the Dong Quai for something else like Vanilla, for a more modern take.
Your che is ready to be served! You can serve hot, or refrigerate or serve cold over ice.
Preparing and cooking ingredients:
Lotus seed (dried)
??
White jelly fungus (dried)
Goji berries (dried)
Rinse berries in bowl 2-3x until red color mainly washes away
Bring water to a boil, toss in berries, and remove after a few minutes once cooked
Barley (dried)
Soak in bowl overnight
Bring water to a boil, toss in barley for 5 minutes, rinse
Put in pot 2 and boil again until cooked. Optionally, you can add sugar to this pot to allow the barley to sweeten
Seaweed / kelp (dried)
Longan (dried or fresh*)
For dry longan, wash
Bring water to a boil, then cook for a few minutes
Chinese Apple
Chinese yam
Make sure you wear gloves because this root can get sticky! (mom doesn’t like dry chinese yam because they take forever to cook, and frankly, fresh tastes way better - crispy and refreshing!)
??
Lily bulb
Soak in water for a few hours. Then use knife to scrape off any dark bits, and you can optionally cut into small pieces
Once pot 1 water boils, toss in lily bulb
[1] Ingredients (roughly equal proportions of each):
Lotus seed (dried)
White fungus (dried)
Chinese Apple (dried or fresh*)
Longan (dried or fresh*)
Goji berries (dried)
Barley (dried)
Seaweed / kelp (dried)
Chinese yam
Lily bulb (dried, optional)
2-3 pieces of Dong Quai (optional)