Ais kacang

Ais kacang (Malay pronunciation: [aɪs ˈkatʃaŋ]; Jawi: ‏اءيس كاچڠ "bean ice", also anglicized as ice kachang) or air batu campur ([air ˈbatu tʃamˈpʊr]), Jawi: ‏اءير باتو چمڤور "mixed ice", often abbr. ABC) is a dessert common in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.

Traditionally, an ice shaving machine is used to churn out the shaved ice used in the dessert, originally hand cranked but now more often motorised. Many coffee shops, hawker centres and food courts sell this dessert.

History

Early versions of ice kacang was first known to have been prepared around the time before and after the First World War, where costs of manufacturing ice (in Malay: air batu or ais) became more affordable. An earlier variant of the Singaporean dish was described as green, made from shaved ice, paired with syrups, "soaked seeds" and seaweed jelly and was sold mainly by street vendors. The dish underwent many different alterations and variants throughout the history of Singapore, where during the 1920s, one version of it was described as shaved ice topped with rose water, lime or liquorice. A version of the dish, known as kachang mera using canned adzuki (in Malay: kacang merah "red bean", hence named such) was also sold during the 1930s. By the 1940s, the version of the dish described as having "shaved ice heaped into a little mountain", topped with red/adzuki beans, "a Chinese grape-like fruit", syrup, and condensed or evaporated milk, similar to how it is being prepared today, began to appear. Some earlier variants of ais kacang are no longer sold, such as the ice ball version of the dessert, which was popular during the 1950s and 1960s.