From available-prepared dishes to those made at home or in restaurants, desserts in Vietnam today are highly diverse,
In the past, Vietnam did not have any desserts because coming from a poor agricultural country, having a full meal was great. However, with economic and social development, people’s living standards are improved, so today desserts become more popular in family meals, especially at parties or weddings in Vietnam.
In this article, Vietnamdrive introduces the favorite Vietnamese desserts that you may find when you have a chance to enjoy a meal with a family.
1. Fresh fruits
Along with the relatively hot and humid climate all year round and lots of rain, cultivated land in Vietnam is suitable for many tropical fruits in Vietnam to grow. Many people like to choose fresh fruits as desserts after main meals. Fresh fruits like mango, banana, guava, rambutan, longan… are very popular.
A plate of fresh fruit not only helps to clean the food stuck on the teeth but also can provide a variety of vitamins, helping the body stay healthy.
2. Sweet soup
Across the country, from the North to the South, you can easily find sweet soups almost anywhere. Che – sweet soup – is not only a favorite snack of many people but also a famous dessert in Vietnam.
Cooked from many ingredients, but mainly beans along with sugar, it is very high in energy. It is because Che is sweet, so many people like to use ice to cool it down. Then, it will be an interesting dish to eat after a meal.
3. Various cakes
Cakes are also on the list of desserts that are chosen a lot in Vietnam because of their convenience, ease of eating, and added sweetness after a salty meal.
These pastries are usually prepared by family members. So, store-bought pastries are not an option in this case. The cakes that are often made for dessert include egg sponge cake, baked banana cake, cream cheese cake, fruit yogurt cake, etc.
4. Jelly
Made from seaweed, jelly is a delightful snack to be eaten after dinner or lunch. Jelly is cool, easy to clean the oral cavity, provides more nutrients, especially iron (100 grams of jelly is estimated to have about 21 mg of iron), rich in calcium, vitamins, and fiber to help laxative for the body.
Jelly is transformed into many attractive desserts such as simple jelly cooked with sugar, more sophisticated than jelly cooked with fruit, milo jelly, and panda jelly with cheese…
5. Yogurt dish
Yogurt is very familiar to most people, available from most groceries in Vietnam to big supermarkets. This dessert attracts not only children but also adults.
In addition to traditional yogurt consisting of fermented milk, many types of yogurt combined with other nutritious ingredients such as aloe vera, strawberry, and fruit yogurt… create a variety of flavors for consumers. For many Vietnamese, yogurt is a source of vitamins and helps the digestive system work well.
6. Mung bean fruit cakes
A very beautiful dessert from Hue city is mung bean fruit cakes. It is because the shapes of cakes are all fruit-shaped and beautifully crafted, with the main ingredients being mung bean, jelly, and sugar. So, they are called such names.
This dessert dish is not only enjoyed with the taste but also admires the attractive visual beauty. Perhaps, these cakes come from the Hue royal court, so they require sophisticated and careful processing.
Currently, there are a few establishments specializing in making mung bean fruit cakes in Hue for parties or Tet holidays. Many locals also buy them for dessert, and some people also make them at home, but only make cakes that have simple fruit-shapes.
7. Ice cream flan
Flan ice cream does not originate from Vietnam, but many people still like to use this dish as a snack or dessert. Perhaps, flan ice cream is both delicious and rich in vitamins because it is made from eggs, milk, and caramel, so it is suitable for many people.
Especially, the price of flan ice cream is quite cheap, only about 5,000 VND per small box, so almost anyone can buy it to taste. However, most ladies in Vietnam want to make this interesting ice cream with their own hands and store it in the refrigerator for children and family members to use gradually.
8. Chewing gum
A rather unexpected dessert that you can come across in Vietnam is chewing gum. This is an indispensable thing when you eat vermicelli with shrimp sauce in Hanoi or vermicelli with shrimp paste in Hue.
The reason is that these foods use very strong Vietnamese fish sauce; so, the gum will help you get rid of bad breath. If you eat at the restaurant, you will see chewing gums right on the plate of food that the owner brings out. Hopefully, you won’t be surprised to see these candies.
9. Banana ice cream
Like other ice creams, banana ice cream is used in hot weather, especially in summer in Vietnam. This ice cream not only cools the body but also contains many vitamins B6, and C, minerals Potassium, Magnesium… so it is very good to supplement energy and micro-nutrients for the body.
Banana ice cream is so easy to prepare, and it is almost made at home. Ingredients include ripe banana, condensed milk, water, and coconut milk. This food is stored in the family refrigerator and can be cut into slices or small pieces when eaten. This one is cold, so you need to be careful if you have just eaten hot dishes or just eaten Vietnamese hot pot.
This is a general introduction to desserts commonly used in Vietnam, so you won’t find recipes for them. But just suggestions come so that you can know what they are, creating a premise to learn deeper than Vietnamese culinary culture. And, the dishes featured here tend to be home-cooked rather than at-restaurants.
In the above article, there are several sections, you will see that it is a group of dishes, such as a fresh fruit dish that includes a variety of fruits, or cakes that include a variety of cakes, etc. We put them together for you to be easy to check because if we separate each by each dish, it would take several hundred pages to write all of these dishes.
So, we’d love to hear from you, or if you’d like to learn more about any of the popular Vietnamese desserts, please talk to Vietnamdrive. We will try to send you the most useful information. Thank you!