Chè: The 15,000-dong Dessert That Da Nang People Enjoy All Year Long

Chè" is a very broad, all-encompassing term: it covers any sweet dish, whether liquid or thick in consistency, eaten with a spoon, served hot or cold. There is no dish in the West that is a complete equivalent.

Something worth noting for foreign visitors: Vietnamese sweet soup (chè) isn't as sweet as it looks. Most Vietnamese chè gets its sweetness from beans and coconut milk rather than from syrup, so it doesn't leave a cloying, sugary feeling in your throat after eating.

A few easy types to get started:

• Black Bean Drink — softly cooked black beans, sugar syrup, ice. The simplest, most refreshing. • Green Bean Drink — richer taste, usually with coconut milk • Banana chè — bananas cooked with tapioca pearls and coconut milk, rich and creamy • Mixed chè — many different ingredients blended together in one glass, colorful and perfect for photos • Corn chè — made from sticky corn, a very Central Vietnamese specialty

How to order: at chè shops, the different pots of chè are usually displayed in a glass cabinet. Just point at whatever you want — you don't need to know its name. If you want less ice, say "less ice," and if you want it less sweet, say "less sugar.

Price: 12,000–25,000 per cup. You can eat at the shop or take it to go; if you take it to go, they pack it in a plastic bag with a big straw stuck in.

Typical time for drinking tea is in the late afternoon, around 3 to 6 PM — when the harsh sun starts to fade. Tea shops are also the best place to observe local life: students coming out of school, workers heading home, and shoppers taking a break to rest their feet.