What is this green cake with plastic-y texture, found at an Asian store?

Question

While shopping at the local Asian store, I found a funny, green cake that looked interesting, so I bought a piece. It looks like this:

I discovered that it has a very strange texture (as seen in this video). Can anyone help identifying it? The store advertised itself as "Thai", though I'm not convinced that that actually means anything, since I'm living in Germany.

Without an idea of how it tastes, I could only speculate, but a two traditional Asian cakes that are often green would be made with Mung Beans, Green Tea. Mooncake also, but that is normally filled. It is also just not unusual to simply use heavy food coloring. — dlb, Aug 11 '16 at 23:32
It looks very much like some kind of steamed bread/cake made with sticky rice flour, but I don't know anything specific. Things like that are usually much softer and stretchier fresh, then get harder and more crumbly over time. Might be the plastic-like texture you mentioned in chat? — Cascabel, Aug 12 '16 at 00:32

score 10 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 12 '16 at 15:47

10

Looks like Vietnamese Honeycomb Cake made with pandan and tapioca:

http://danangcuisine.com/recipes/recipe-28-banh-bo-nuong-vietnamese-honeycomb-cake/

answered Aug 12 '16 at 15:47

saracha

176
4

That's *exactly* it. I immediately recognized the picture in your link. – Danu Aug 12 '16 at 15:48

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 12 '16 at 08:09

That looks like a steamed corn bun/bread coloured green. I think the corn flour has been mixed with tapioca starch giving it a sticky elastic texture.

What is this green cake with plastic-y texture, found at an Asian store?

2 Answers2