Pandan Makes Waves in NYC: What's all the Rage?

A couple months back, the restaurant where I work added a new drink item to our menu: pandan tea. During a lull period on one of my shifts, I decided to brew a cup of this new drink so I would be able to accurately respond to the inevitably inquiries of, "so what does pandan taste like?" Ever since trying the tea, I now respond to customer's by saying: "the best way I've been able to describe it is to think about if grass and marshmallow had a baby, sweet and soft but also very earthy: that would be pandan." Of course, this oversimplified version doesn't fully reflect the complexity of pandan's flavor. But, it does give customer's a sense of what to expect when they order a cup of tea, and has helped me understand this taste when consuming pandan cakes, cocktails, and tea: a simply delightful flavor.

A plant native to South and Southeast Asia, pandan is a tropical leafy shrub that's incorporated into recipes by chefs and bakers in cakes, drinks, rice dishes, among others and also used for its natural bright green coloring. Used for centuries in Malaysia, Vietnam, and other southeast Asian countries, pandan has recently (in the past five or ten years) made waves in the mainstream United States culinary scene. If you're interested in learning more about pandan's history, please refer to the first link included in this post that will direct you to a recent Eater publication.

In NYC, I can only imagine the myriad of restaurants and bake shops that are selling pandan goodies, so the list I've curated here is just a start - hopefully it will inspire you to get into this pandan craze!

Kam Hing Coffee Shop off of Canal Street in Manhattan's Chinatown was the first spot where I tried pandan. They're famous for their sponge cakes and for $1.25 you can try their pandan sponge cake (for only $1 you can grab an original sponge cake too). At this price, you might as well grab a few because these cakes have to be the fluffiest, most melt-in-your mouth treats I've had in NYC.

I had the pleasure of trying some desserts from Bánh by Lauren, a pop-up pastry shop run by Lauren Tran. One of her most acclaimed desserts is her pandan coconut chiffon cake that layers the green cake and white frosting. You can follow her instagram account for the updates on when and where her other pop-ups will be!

Maybe more surprisingly, Mace, one of the top rated cocktail bars in the country (which let's be honest, just means it's super expensive and hard to get in) serves a pandan cocktail which was delicious. If you're like me and try to mask the taste of liquor with other sweeter, fruitier tastes I highly recommend this drink. I have to say, it's not something I would have tried on my own, but when my friend proposed we split two drinks I thought why not. It's safe to say there were no regrets whatsoever, and I will certainly be heading back to Mace for this cocktail alone. I'd also recommend an order of the cassava fries!

And to wrap up, as was already aforementioned, you can head up to Bánh, a Vietnamese restaurant located on the Upper West Side in Manhattan where pandan tea accompanies a menu of other Vietnamese delicacies. The tea served at Bánh was bought in Vietnam by one of the shop's owners and can only be bought in the U.S. on E-Bay for about $43. While the price is more expensive than what you might normally pay for tea, they sell in bulk quantity so the tea will last you some time. On one of my most recent shifts, pandan tea was a hot conversation topic amongst a two top table. When I showed them the bag of tea we were using in our tea bags, they promptly found a seller online and bought themselves a bag. I suppose the price didn't deter them!