What it is
Mung bean soup (綠豆湯, lǜdòu tāng) is whole green mung beans boiled until soft in sugared water. It belongs to the southern Chinese family of tong sui, or dessert soups, and comes warm or chilled. In Taiwan it is a summer standby, and dessert shops often add tapioca pearls.
How it is made
The beans are soaked for about two hours, drained, rinsed and boiled. Cooks keep the water level low and top it up as needed, so the beans do not break up. One trick is to crush about a tenth of the beans, toast them gently and add them halfway for a richer, toasty broth. Sugar goes in near the end, sometimes with a pinch of salt too faint to taste. Some shops boil the syrup from several sugars, including brown sugar.
How to eat it
Order it chilled or warm, as a snack or after a meal. Tapioca pearls are a common add-on: ask for 珍珠綠豆湯. In traditional Chinese medicine mung beans are said to clear heat, and a bowl in summer is drunk to cool down (退火).
Around Taiwan
- Tainan
- Tainan calls the hulled mung bean dessert 綠豆饌. A Ching (阿卿) on Bao'an Road serves a deluxe bowl with dried longan and honeyed taro.
- Kaohsiung
- Tung Mei (東美) in Yancheng began in 1947 selling imported Japanese fruit on Daren Road, and its name takes a character from each founder. It now serves traditional desserts such as mung bean soup with tapioca pearls. Chung's Mung Bean Soup King (鍾家高雄綠豆湯大王) dates from 1973.
- South
- In Hengchun, Pingtung, the related lüdou suan (綠豆蒜) uses hulled mung beans steamed until they look like crushed garlic. It began as a warm winter sweet, thickened with starch and brown sugar. In Checheng and Hengchun it is now also served cold with shaved ice.
