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Best Bánh da lợn in San Francisco

“Thin colored layers alternate with mung bean, durian, or taro filling—a sweet, gelatinously soft cake with no pork despite its name.”

Bánh da lợn

What the real thing tastes like

Bánh da lợn (or bánh da lợp, bánh da lợt) is a Vietnamese steamed layer cake, mostly popular in Southern Vietnam, made from tapioca starch, rice flour, mashed mung beans, taro, or durian, coconut milk and/or water, and sugar. Despite its name, pork is not included in the ingredients. It is sweet and gelatinously soft in texture, with thin (approximately 1 cm) colored layers alternating with layers of mung bean, durian, or taro filling. A similar type of cake in Northern Vietnam is bánh chín tầng mây (lit. 'nine-layer cloud cake'). Typical versions of bánh da lợn may feature the following ingredients: Pandan leaf (for green color) with mung bean paste filling Pandan leaf (for green color) with durian filling Lá cẩm (leaf of the magenta plant, Dicliptera tinctoria; imparts a purple color when boiled) with mashed taro filling In modern cooking, artificial food coloring is sometimes used in place of the vegetable coloring. Kuih lapis, which is made in Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as th

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Bánh da lợn is a Southern Vietnamese steamed cake where thin, translucent layers of tapioca and rice flour alternate with fillings of mung bean paste, taro, or durian—each layer colored naturally with pandan leaf or the deep purple of lá cẩm. Despite the name that suggests pork, there's none here; instead you get a glossy, gelatinous softness that melts on the tongue, built layer by patient layer into something almost jewel-like. It's a cake designed for slow eating, where each spoonful shows the architecture of its making.

Order it here when it has

  • delicate alternating layers
  • soft gelatinous texture
  • natural vegetable coloring
  • regional specialty

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