Shwe Yin Aye
A coconut milk dessert, its name meaning something close to 'golden coolness,' genuinely tied to Thingyan, the Burmese New Year water festival in April, the hottest stretch of the year, making it a real seasonal comfort dessert rather than an everyday one. Real shwe yin aye layers sweetened coconut milk over sticky rice, sago pearls, pandan jelly strands, and cubes of agar jelly, with agar rather than gelatin the more traditional, vegetarian-safe base. Its most distinctive, genuinely authentic element is a slice of plain white bread soaked in the coconut milk, an unusual-sounding but real and well-documented part of the dish, not a modern simplification.
⚠ Contains: Gluten. Always check your own ingredients — this isn't a guarantee for severe allergies.
Ingredients
- 2 cups coconut milk
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 cup cooked sticky rice
- 1/2 cup sago pearls, cooked
- 1/2 cup pandan agar jelly, cubed
- 2 slices white bread, cubed
- Ice, to serve
Steps
- Sweeten the coconut milk with sugar, stirring until dissolved.
- In serving bowls, layer the sticky rice, sago pearls, and agar jelly cubes.
- Add the cubed bread on top.
- Pour the sweetened coconut milk generously over everything.
- Add ice and serve immediately.