taste, but it's healthy! I'm talking about sương sâm, sương sa and sương sáo! Like three sisters having a nice family name "Sương"! "Sương" literally means the tiny drops of water that form on cool surfaces at night!
These names sound nice and good enough to impress us with their ability to cool down any thirst in the heat of summer days!
Sương sáo (black glass jelly)
There was a time that I confused... sương sâm is dark green color jelly, but sương sa is white or black jelly? Now it's clear to me! Sương sa is white jelly and most expensive, sương sáo is black and a bit cheaper. Sương sâm is the cheapest and most popular!
Sương sâm made from the leaves of flowering plant named "Tiliacora triandra", and to my surprise, it's very simple to make this green jelly. We just crush, mash or crumple the leaves in a bowl of water, until the water becomes green, then it takes probably few hours for the green liquid to coagulate! Then we have soft as jelly-like consistency, ready for us to make a cool refreshment!
Cut sương sâm into small cubes, add some sugar, ice cubes and we have an excellent cool drink! Compared to the sương sa or sương sáo, sương sâm seems more popular as it's cheaper and it smells like fresh green leaves!
Easy to find this jelly drink at many markets or street stalls selling traditional drink or sweet soups (chè). Probably in Sài Gòn at some schools we still can find a stall selling this simple drink to school children...despite the severe invasion of US giant Coke or Taiwanese Milky Tea!
Sương sa and sương sáo or white and black glass jelly, it's more solid compared with sương sâm, the smell of white glass jelly is nice, a bit sweet but black glass jelly - stronger smell!
Sương sa hột lựu, coconut milk, flavorful with banana extract...popular sweets!
If sương sâm requires only sugar, ice to make a good drink, the white glass jelly (sương sa) requires many things: from unusual pomegranate seeds (hạt lựu), coconut sauce (nước cốt dừa), to strong banana extract (dầu chuối), sirup and ice...but this one - sương sa hạt lựu is one of most favorite sweets not only for teens but also for many others...
Sương sáo with honey and coconut milk...
When I was kid at home by the advise from someone I simply add sugar to sương sa, squeeze some drops of fresh lime juice, ice cubes...that's good enough to cool off any thirst!
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