Banana as King of sweet street food

Quite some time ago I was wondering how many dishes we can make from banana! I asked my friends, and no one could give me a good answer!

Banana to Vietnamese is exactly the same as apple to Westerners, we have banana every day, banana everywhere in the city, every corner, every street: either on simple stall-cart or right on the sidewalk!

Image of banana is so familiar in our food culture and at the same time in our language the word "banana" is used as casual jargon to express some unreasonable character, behavior (!?)

Within this post, I want to share about banana as one of the most popular street foods! I may call banana as "King of sweet street food", because so many good things from this ordinary tropical fruit!

One of the most popular sweet dessert soups with banana (chè chuối chưng) 

Chè chuối chưng, this's a sweet desert with banana, coconut milk, tapioca pearl, cassava...very popular! Similar we have "chuối xào dừa" (cooked unripe banana with coconut milk) that I didn't see for long!

Steamed banana cake served with coconut sauce 

Bánh chuối hấp and chuối nướng always nearby. Bánh chuối hấp is a "steamed" banana cake, "steamed" to differentiate from another famous baked banana cake. Nice taste and chewy with strong banana flavor, served with coconut sauce (nước cốt dừa) and a bit of salted sesame or peanut!

Baked banana cake (my homemade!) 

Cooked semin-ripe banana served with coconut sauce (chuối xào dừa) 

Chuối nướng is banana wrapped with sticky rice, grated coconut and grilled! Both chuối nướng and bánh chuối hấp are served with coconut sauce! I like sticky rice outside, crispy, chewy and tasty! 

But there is one more grilled banana, and it's different. Without any wrapping just unripe banana - grilled and served with greased green onion (mở hành) and coconut sauce!

Grilled banana wrapped with sticky rice, served with coconut sauce

Grilled semi ripe banana 

Deep fried banana 

Deep fried banana (chuối chiên) - one of favorite snacks for kids, for school children, easy to find near to school, at some corner! We have "fried" and now "ice cream" kem chuối (banana ice cream), but for better understanding I better say "frozen banana covered by coconut milk and peanut", this is relatively newly created dish with banana, I said new but it's probably over 20-30 years already!

Banana ice cream

Some very simple, favourite for older generation - chuối luộc, cooked banana! Not every banana can be cooked! Only special chuối sáp (wax banana!), chewy, slightly hard, nice yellow color when cooked!

Cooked "wax" banana, a bit hard, chewy, nice texture and sweet! 

 Grilled banana paper (!) 

Another sweet street food from banana is banana paper (bánh tráng chuối), it require big skill to prepare this snack, very thin slice of banana with some other ingredient and probably has been dried for long. Quite chewy, nice banana flavor and favorite for every kid in school!

Banana candy (mixed with peanut, ginger and sesame)

The list can continue with many other items with banana!
Banana candy, dried banana, pumpkin soup with banana, banana cocktail, fried banana ice cream (!)...and don't forget my dream sweet banana spring roll (actually we have spring roll with banana mixed with pork! - never tried!)