Beans in Weird Places
- Leilani
- Sep 19, 2023
- 4 min read
Updated: Oct 2, 2023
If you haven’t had a taco by now, it’s time for you to come out of hiding and try a pinto bean. For centuries, people have been eating beans. And I don't have a survey for this, but I'll go right ahead and say it's a staple in every country in the world. You find it in India as a creamy dal over rice, in England alongside sausage and eggs, in Israel as a delectable dip with pita bread, and in Vietnam, as a sweet refreshing drink. What is that you say? Yes, you heard me right after that slight regurgitation, in Vietnam, among other places, beans can be found in desserts. Why the predisposition to savory beans? Beans are as tabula rasa as tofu to the palate, making it the perfect foil to any flavor you desire, including sweet.
Let’s look at a few examples of beans in desserts, starting with one of my favorites, three color drink. The first time I had this was with my Vietnamese-born friend Stephanie in Sacramento. She took me to her family’s go-to Vietnamese restaurant, the name of which I forgot, but the memory of the smells and the flavors, I have not. It was a dark, dingy, and glittery joint, the food mind-blowing to a twenty-two-year-old that has never had the opportunity to eat snails in soup (bún ốc), or dried shrimp on top of steamed rice cakes (bánh bèo), or beans as a dessert drink. The waitress asked Stephanie whether we wanted our dessert drink with our meal or after. What a treat it would be to eat dessert before the meal and gleaning the chance to break my dining norms, we ordered our three color drink to arrive as soon as possible. “It’s how it’s done,” Stephanie spoke as she swirled the tall glass of layered jellies and sweetened coconut milk. It is not a three color drink, it’s more like 5-7 colors, a liquid parfait of crunchy chestnuts covered in red jelly, red beans, mung beans, pandan jelly, coconut jelly, and pieces of fruit. It was so indiscernible; I was scared to say the least. But that first mouthful of cold, slippery, chewy, soft, crunchy, and sweet cemented my love of Vietnamese cuisine happily ever after. The end.
A three color drink or chè ba màu, like many dishes from Asian have a mysterious origin story because their history is ancient. What we can deduce is that the ingredients for this drink can be found in different dessert variations throughout Asia. In the Philippines we find halo-halo, a similarly crazy parfait medley that has sweet beans, a sweetened coconut base and pandan jelly. In China, tong sui, a dark bean soup made from sweet adzuki beans, tapioca and coconut milk is served warm. In Japan, anmitsu, a sundae made with sweet adzuki bean paste, mochi, canned fruit, and ice cream, is another mouth-watering dessert using beans. The Thai make a tapioca or sago pudding with sweetened beans and sweet potato, topped with a coconut cream. Koreans have a shave ice dessert topped with sweetened beans and fruit called Patbingsu. Honestly, this list goes on and on. If you’re Asian, using beans in desserts is nothing extraordinary – it’s as commonplace as chocolate. (Btw, if you’re about to say cacao beans are beans, they’re not. Rather they are seeds from the fruit of the cacao tree.)
And it doesn’t stop at sweet beans in liquid desserts, it’s found in breads, in mochi, and in pastries. In Hilo, Hawaii, the tradition of sweet bean mochi has been going strong for 27 years with a walk-up shop selling mochi filled with a variety of unusual fillings, including fresh strawberry and adzuki beans. On a recent trip to Los Angeles, I went to a Michelin rated Chinese restaurant, Bistro Na, where all the desserts on the menu featured beans, except for a cheese pudding. And to speak frank-ly, I wanted more beans.
All puns aside, the Western world’s sweet bean, in contrast, isn’t a dessert; it’s a side dish next to cornbread and brisket. America’s cuisine is relatively new, like a newborn baby, compared to Asia’s. But it's slipping into your brownies and cookies unawares as bean flour; garbanzo, soybean, and lupin bean flour are often added to increase protein and fiber and help lower cholesterol. It's only a matter of time before mainland American palates embrace beans as a go-to dessert ingredient.
Best bean supplier:
Rancho Gordo
Bean flour suppliers:
Anthony's Chickpea flour
Anthony's Lupin flour
Where to get Three Color Drink:
Pho K&A Local Vietnamese Cuisine in Honolulu
Other sweet bean desserts:
Bistro Na in Los Angeles
Two Ladies Kitchen on the Big Island
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