Nấu Chè Chuối ở Nhà Cô Bích

This is the tradition Chè Chuối found in Việt Nam.

Co Bich : " Aiyah! Very nice to eat lah!"

Chào các em! Hôm nay các em nấu ăn gì?
Chè Chuối ?!? Thế hả?
We caught Phuk secretly eating our bananas...

While waiting for our Che Chuoi to cool down, our friend Hien decides to try out our desert...and her comments are...

...and Hien said," Oh my! This is good! I shall have more!...Maybe Co Bich's Che Chuoi tastes nice too...!" . After her first mouthful of Che Chuoi, she continues to scoop more of it.

In the meantime, Phuk is having a fun time cooking his first banana-licious dish.

Empty coconut shells ... waiting to be filled :)

And we waited.... and waited..til...

Til Hai fell asleep...haha...

YES!!! OUR FIRST VIETNAMESE DISH IS DONE!!!
Rất đẹp, phải Không?

Here are some of our talented Vietnamese cooks :)

Hanh is doing an insepction ...

" I think it's not sweet enough, let's add more sugar!"

Tadaa!!!

Our group members:
Michaela Bygrave ( Hanh)
Toh Chun Hoe ( Phuk)

Wu Huimin( Minh)

Chu Yiu Tak ( Hai)

Deenise Yang (Hương)

Vật Liệu( Recipe)

Here are the ingredients we used for the famous delicious banana soup!

Serves 10
20 x Small Ripe Bananas (Chuối )
900ml x Water
400ml x Coconut milk
2 x stalks pandan leaves
100g x sugar (more if you like it sweeter)
100g x Tapioca Pearls (mini)

Crushed Peanuts



Step 1:
Peel off 15 bananas and cut the bananas into small chopped slices

Step 2:
Bring water to boil and put in all the pandan leaves.Pandan leaves are added to give it a stronger aroma and taste.

Step 3:
After 10 minutes when the water is brought to boil, add in the chopped bananas.

Step 4:
Once the bananas begin to soften,slowly stir in all the coconut milk and sugar. Stir constantly to mix evenly.

Step 5:
Lastly,Add in all the tapioca sago pearls. We used the mini ones so it cooks really quickly*.

Step 6:
Simmer for 10 minutes and remove from heat.

Step 7:
Place the cooked Chè Chuối in bowls. One more step and it's ready to be served!

Step 8:
Slice the remaining 5 bananas into bite-size and place on top of the served dessert. Sprinkle some crushed peanuts over.

Step 8:
Dessert may be serve warm or cold. Allow the dessert to be cooled before placing in the refrigerator.

Step 9:
Wash up and keep the kitchen clean and tidy! ( Especially so if its someone else's kitchen - e.g. your teachers ^^ )

Isn't it simple? You could try it at home!


Look at how much effort Hai is putting in...those sweat streaming over he's face ...

*Note: Do not soak the tapioca sago pearls prior to adding. This is because of the small size and can be cooked easily in the boiling soup. The pearls should be separated from one another. If your pearls end up something as shown in the following picture, it's wise to try again. Practice makes perfect. Of course, do not waste food. Offer the not so ideal ingredients to an enthusiastic friend who is willing to eat it all up.

Remember, no matter how dirty the job is, always keep the kitchen neat and dry :)

Thank you note:

We would also like to thank Co Bich for her tapioca pearls! When we first started out cooking the pearls, it didn't turn out the way we had expected.Luckily,Co Bich had some tapiocal pearls...without those pearls, our desert wouldn't have tasted that fantastic. We would also like to thank Co Le ,Co Quynh , Co Bich and Thay Minh for organizing such a wonderful Vietnamese cooking session for us!Besides learning Vietnamese, we get to understand the Vietnamese history and culture.It is truly and enriching experience!

On top of that, we would like to thank Co Bich's maid for assisting all of us.She must had lots of cleaning-up work to do!

Our Presentation


As for our presentation, this is IT! (above)

We came up of the idea of using coconuts instead of bowls for the presentation, to up the 'special exotica' feeling to it. In front are a row of orchids and at the back, (partially hidden) are lotus flowers. Lotus flower is the national flower of Vietnam so we thought we should include it in our presentation. Incidentally, the orchids represent Singapore as well though it's not the same variety (The Vanda Miss Joaquim is the right one). The flowers were bought from the wet market at Clementi. The Vietnamese flags (made by Deenise)are added to the coconuts to emulate the 'cocktail drink' image and the local tropical setting as well as a clear representation of Vietnam. The bananas and the leaf (plucked from the garden at Co Bich's Condominium)(underneath the coconuts and flowers) remind any observers the main part of our dish, namely the banana fruit, contributing to the overall tropical image as well.

After learning how to cook this dish, we had all decided that we should visit Vietnam and try the real traditional Che Chuoi. The desert served there actually uses charcoal to roast the bananas to that the bananas taste soft and nice inside.The coconut milk used is also much creamier and tastier.Are you salivating now? yum...yum...