Tau suan ($2)!
Hawker stall tau suan dessert at $2 — the Teochew split-mung-bean sweet soup with crispy you tiao on the side. Old-school Singapore dessert.
Friday afternoon dessert with BB — picked up a takeaway cup of tau suan from a hawker for $2. The Teochew sweet soup is one of those old-school desserts that keeps showing up on our weekend rotation because we keep wanting it.
We ordered:
- Tau suan with you tiao — $2
Tau suan (or 豆爽) is the Teochew dessert of split mung beans simmered in a sweet pandan-scented broth thickened with sweet potato starch into a glossy, suspended consistency. The mung beans are the husk-removed yellow-tinted variety, properly cooked through but still holding their shape rather than dissolving into the soup.
This cup was the proper version. The broth had the right viscosity — thickened enough that the mung beans suspended in the liquid rather than sinking, but not gluey or pasty. Sweetness was restrained, faintly pandan-perfumed (which means the stall actually used pandan leaves rather than just sugar water).
You tiao (the fried dough fritter) came in a separate small bag, kept dry until you’re ready to eat. The whole point of the eating ritual is that you break the you tiao into the soup right before eating — the dough soaks up the sweet broth and turns from crisp to plush in about 30 seconds.
That texture contrast is the dessert’s entire personality. Crisp warm fritter against soft-set sweet soup, ground-mung-bean nuttiness against the pandan sweetness.
At $2 a cup this is honest hawker pricing for an old-school dessert.
We took the cup back home and ate it standing at the kitchen counter. Some desserts taste better that way.
Overall: 4 / 5. 😋👍🏼 Solid hawker tau suan — would re-order weekly.
