Sweet Soup: Sai Mai Lo

Okay, I admit that it's not actually soup, but it is a delicious soup like dessert. And the other reason I call it sweet soup is because for the longest time I had zero clue as to what is was actually called. So yesterday, after having learned its name a on Monday, I made it!! (yes, yes, late post but I was quite busy)

Sai Mai Lo, good to eat while watching favorite TV show ;)

Before I get into how it all boiled down, I'd like to give credit to Kirk who writes Chinese Homemade Cooking for his Sai Mai Lo recipe and instructions; I adapted his recipe and used his instructions (more or less, probably less since my laziness makes me improvise xP).


I used...

• 4 medium sized small taro
• 1 cup tapioca
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk

First off, I have a confession. I never bought taro before. I'm not sure if taro type matters, but I used little taro. I'm not sure if I made a good selection buying it, and can't really give advice on how to buy taro; I just asked one of the store people how to pick good taro and he just gave me a few~~so I don't really have much to say on buying taro (I'm so new to taro :/ ). What I can tell you (er--at least a few New Yorkers), is that the taro from New World Mall in Flushing tastes fine so if you want to replicate this to a tee, that's the place to go.

Taro. They're hairy like coconut.

The first thing that you must do, as with all your fruits and veggies...or roots...is wash them!! And so I did.

Afterwards, I peeled them...my hands felt sticky and gooey from the white stuff that oozed from the taro. My mom said they smelled earthy (note: when people say earthy, it usually means it smells like wet grass and dirt).

Peeled taro, slightly sticky

Taro looks a bit like potatoes

Next I went about cutting the taro into medium sized cube-ish pieces.

The inside appears a good deal lighter then the outside, even with the skin peeled

All done!!

Now that I've cut the taro, it's time to cook the tapioca. Mine is green. Making this little tapioca is the same process as when I made the big tapioca for bubble tea in this post, however you must watch it more carefully and stir more often because it will become stuck together really fast if you aren't keeping an eye on it.

I wonder what color it will turn out to be?

Close up of tapioca, this is my favorite color!!

 I suggest you stir frequently the first 5-15 minutes and keep a constant eye one it. After that you should be able to stir it every 5-10 minutes without worrying about it clumpling, but if you're really concerned about clumping then you should stir it and check every other minute or so. Also, I added 1 cup of water when the water got really starchy and hard to see through.

Don't forget to stir or else it will start to clump like mine did (not good)

 I cooked my tapioca until there were only little white dots left in it. Then I spooned the tapioca into a mesh strainer and put the strainer in cold water, to stop the cooking, then dump it into a bowl.

My bowl of tapioca, looks like fish eggs :O...or maybe frog eggs since they're green?

Close look at tapioca, now it really looks like eggs!! @_@

I then boiled my taro. I boiled it until it was firm, but easy enough that I could poke a fork through it. It was not so soft that it crumbled when I poked it with the fork. 

Note: I used the water from the tapioca to boil the taro in because I want to keep the starchy water. I think it helps to make the end result thicker. You could dump it and use new water if you want though. The water that boiled my tapioca and taro also became the water for the sai mai lo (my sweet soup, as I call it).


After the taro is cooked, I mashed it until I had pieces that are about 1cm or smaller.

Mashed tapica, like mashing potatoes but smells a little different. I used a fork to mash it.

I kept me tapioca/taro water and brought it to a boil and prepared to add my condensed milk, tapioca and taro.

All lined up and ready to go!! Having it by the stove top makes preparation time less.

 While I added the condensed milk I was stirring constantly so that it wouldn't burn to the bottom. I kept stirring constantly until the condensed milk was completely dissolved and the color looked smooth and uniform. I then added the taro and stirred until the mashed up parts were mostly dissolved and the chunks were broken up (they kind of stuck together after I mashed some of the taro).
Note: I kept the fire on medium to medium-low since there is a good deal of sugar in the sweetened condensed milk--aka significant risk of burning something.

So far, water, milk, and taro is in the pot.

Then I start to add the tapioca, I felt so excited because my sai mai lo is nearly done :)
Also, if your tapioca is sticking in a big glob, don't worry, mine did and it breaks up in the sweet soup while you stir.

Nearing completion ;]

Once it is done, simply turn off the heat, give it a stir, and have a bowl of sai mai lo!!

My hard work tastes delicious :D

Sweet things taste best when shared, give a friend a small jar of sai mai lo and they will be happy!!


Until the next recipe,
Sweet Pea