Bubur Cha-Cha is probably one of the more well-known Nyonya desserts, so much so that they are commonly found in Hong Kong/Cantonese-style cafes. Even here in the United States, I can find it on the menu of some Asian cafes as Nanyang Bubur Cha-Cha or 南洋摩摩喳喳. Nanyang means “south of sea,” generally known as Southeast Asia in Chinese.
Each country in Southeast Asia has its own variation of this dessert—a medley of sweet potatoes (in yellow, orange, and purple color), yam (taro), black-eye peas, etc., cooked in a sweet coconut milk base. Bubur cha cha is a colorful and sweet dessert, and is generally prepared during festive seasons in Penang, and a must have on Chap Goh Meh (the 15th and last day of Chinese New Year). My aunt loves making Bubur Cha-Cha; she is immaculate when it comes to the balance of colors and its presentation. She would make a pink color tapioca jelly to complement the yellow, orange, and purple color in her bubur cha-cha. To me, the tapioca jelly—chewy and stretchy in its texture—is the best part of it all, I love it more than the sweet potatoes and yam…(get Bubur Cha Cha recipe after the jump)
View the gallery above for colorful pictures of bubur cha-cha, a staple Nyonya dessert loved by many in Malaysia.
Ingredients:
80g Purple Sweet Potato
80g Orange Sweet Potato
80g Yellow Sweet Potato
150g Yam (Taro)
10g Sago (Tapioca pearls)
50g Black-eye beans (soaked for 1 hour)
Tapioca flour jelly
100g Tapioca Flour
½ cup Boiling Water
Red coloring
Coconut Milk Base
3 liter water
1 cup Thick coconut milk
120g Sugar
3 Banana (peeled and cut half inches thick)
2 Pandan leaves
Salt to taste
Method:
1) In boiling water, boil black-eye peas until soft. Boil sago separately, until translucent and cooked.
2) Peel and cut all potatoes and taro into cubes or desired shapes. Steam, separately, until cooked.
3) To make tapioca flour jelly, place the flour in mixing bowl. Pour in boiling water. Mix the flour and water until well
incorporated. When the dough is cool, roll it out evenly on a well floured surface and cut into cube or desired shapes.
4) Bring a pot of water, add in 1 table spoon sugar, pour in banana and boil for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.
5) In boiling water (3 liters), add in thick coconut milk, sugar, salt, pandan leaves and cook over low heat about 10–20 minutes.
5) Pour in all the ingredients, together with the sago, tapioca jelly into coconut milk base and mix well. Serve hot or cold, as you like.
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I love all the colors in this dessert and have ready access to sago – so I have no excuse not to try this yummy sounding dish.
That’s great. I hope you get to try bubur cha-cha soon.
Bee,
What’s the pink stuff in the center? They look awfully comforting.
Tuty – those are tapioca jelly. They are great. Check out the recipe.
Was the tapioca jelly supposed to have red food coloring? I didn’t see the coloring in the recipe, so I thought the tapioca jelly was white or clear….
Yes, missed it in the recipe. Will update. :)
I so love this dessert. Thanks for the wonderful recipe.
Thanks Divina.
What’s black eye beans? What’s the best type of banana to use? In asia, there’s a varities…
Black-eye peas / beans are a type of beans. Well, for bananas, use those bigger ones and ripe ones.
Yay! The pink stuff is the tapioca jelly! Love it more than anything else!
Yes, me too. I would only pick those out to eat most of the time!
how long does it take to usually make this?
It takes a good hour or more because of the cutting, etc.
I love any dessert with coconut and sago/ tapioca… esp with Taro… really makes me miss home (HK). Gorgeous photos, Bee.
Thanks Mel. I love taro with anything. :)
How do you keep the sweet potato colors so vibrant after being cooked? The outcome is simply beautiful.
Steam them first and then add the sauce. That’s the secret. :)
Filipinos have EXACTLY the same recipe, but with the addition of one ingredient: Ripe, sweet plantains, and much more sugar. We also add more purple potato, to give it a very purple hue–not something Westerners would understand :p Here, we call it “Ginataang bola-bola” (Ginataan means “cooked with coconut milk,” and bola means ball, because all the ingredients are cut/shaped similar to balls :p). This really is a very comforting dish, and we eat it piping hot :-)
Again, thank you for an interesting recipe :-)
That’s great to know A. The Filipino name sounds so much more fun!
But the Nyonya version seems more refreshing, because it can be served cold, and is lighter. :-p
BTW, I forgot to say: instead of making tapioca jelly, we form the tapioca (sometimes we use rice flour like for mochi) and form them into marble-sized pieces, hahahaha. And reading your recipe again, you DO have bananas after all… sorry for that glitch! ^_^
A – thanks again for letting me know about the Filipino version of this dish.
damn…got me all worked up looking at a proper bowl of real bubur cha-cha. loads of crappy renditions of this dessert and it breaks my heart even looking at all these poor attempts of this great dish. for the bubur cha-cha connoisseur, one look at the cooked product and you can draw an almost definite conclusion.
as for the banana…me think the ”pisang raja” still the best. same genus as those used for goring pisang. an alternative would be the pisang nipah, a plaintain, also popularly made into goring pisang by the Malay folks.
i’m gonna be whipping up a storm this weekend, now that you’ve really got my salivary glands on overdrive.
Teng – I agree with you because some Hong Kong cafes totally butchered this dish but still sell it as Bubur Cha Cha. Yes you are right, our preferred banana is pisang raja but sometimes they are hard to find.
That’s the prettiest bowl of bubur chacha I’ve ever seen. No doubt it tastes as wonderful as it looks.
Yes, tasted great. This bubur cha cha is awesome.
That bowl of bubur cha cha looks lovely! It’s definitely one of my favorite desserts of all time!
Do Melaka Nyonya eat lots of bubur cha cha, too?
Hi,
It a lovely look bubur chacha. Just to check after boiling the banana in the water and set aside, do we use it back again or throw away?
Thank you.
You add the banana into the bubur cha cha, don’t throw them away! Hehe.
I absolutely love your site. Homesick malaysian up here in Calgary and our 1 and only Malaysian restaurant has closed shop!! How awful was that. I love cooking and have to have curry at least 3 time a week….much to the delight of my family & friends who are often on the receiving end of the ginormous portions I end up making.
I love bubur cha cha – I think our name for it is just as fun if you think of when it was invented way back when, 40s or 50s when the cha cha was a popular joget dance.
Coming into winter here and loads of sweet potato around. Simply love steaming taro or the red version and eating it plain with shredded coconut and brown sugar – remember that?
Making rendang this weekend….whenever you come up here to Calgary – you are more than welcome to come by for some proper Malaysian makan.
Maureen – thanks for your sweet note. Yeah, I love the name. Thanks for welcoming me to Calgary, you never know, one day I might be there. ;)
Hi, I have a question. How do you make the tapioca flour jelly to be crunchy texture? Pleae advice! thank you.
That is a filling and delicious bowl of bubur cha cha. You did a lot of buying to get all those colorful ingredients. It does out beat those served back home.
CK – thanks for your comment. Hehe, my sister-in-law makes this not me. ;)
I love this dessert !
But how can you get this flashy pink color ? The green is made from Pandanus leaf, I guess… but the pink …
Thank ’s
It’s red coloring. ;)
oh… of course … . Thank’s.
If I remember correctly we had pengat every Chap Goh Meh (why I don’t know) in Penang. This is the hot version. The cold version where the santan is not cooked is referred to as bubor chacha.
Correct me if I’m wrong.
SD
SD, you’re right. We (my mum was from Pg) called it pengat, only available during CGMeh. Seems the bananas are cut diagonally, they’re sweet but so good. Don’t think we can get those anymore, it’s more like a handing down in the family thingee. Thanks Nonya Food, this site is great – it brings back so many memories, just looking at all those food and reading about it, makes up for not being able to taste it!!
Ahhh! Love this. One of my all-time favorite dessert although the versions i had aren’t probably nearly as good as yours. *Huge cravings.*
The most beautiful looking bubur cha-cha i’ve ever seen. I’m so insipired to make it trow!
Thanks Liza.
ayo……. can not tahan when look at this photo!! My favourite bubur cha cha!!! This picture really killed me le…. :)
Hi, I just found your website and find it very inspiring.
Wondered if you could let me have a recipe for a Singaporean/Malay pudding called “gula malaka”. I am Indonesian but live in UK. My husband used to live in Singapore and loved this pudding whilst he was there. I have attempted to make it for him a few times, but he still isn’t convinced with any of my versions. Any idea?
nice…. recipe
Thank you.
Hi!
For step #4 and 5, does that mean that I boil a “banana water”, drain it and then use this same water for the coconut milk base?
No, step 4 said drain the water and set aside the bananas basically.
I love this; in the Philippines we add sweet plaintains (saba bananas), jackfruit and stick rice balls simiar to tangyuan
Jackfruit, sounds great for bubur cha cha. :)
Hi I’ve tried but seems but it turn out to be very diluted taste…could be it step 5) “3 litres of water” is too much?