Our Vietnamese neighbor’s son was having a birthday party, and we were invited to come over and join in the celebration. Even after stuffing ourselves with all the amazing salads, rolls, noodles, and fried chicken, we couldn’t say no to dessert – a lovely bowl of hearts, eyes, and frog eggs.
No, there aren’t really animal parts in this dessert. It’s actually made up of hearts of palm, dragon eyes (longan fruit), and what Annie calls “frog eggs” or biji selasih, (otherwise known as the seed of Holy Basil), swimming in a cold, sweet syrup.
It was so good, I had seconds, and thirds, and took home a container full to enjoy the day after. 🙂
I wish I knew where they got the Holy Basil seeds. I’ve only seen them sold in the Asian grocery as a drink. I wonder if the Indian store has them.
Aloha, Nate
Hi , I´m a Malaysien resident in Germany, After I saw your web site, I want to try many Asia´s recipes which missed the tase for years, As to that holly basil seed , guess you have got it , as this actical was from 2007, but still just to let you know as well … I got it from my Vietnamese friend once , it looks like a nut in brown , about 2cm size , first you have to put into cold water for around 10~20 min. then it becomes bigger and then you will see those seeds . in Germany we can get in Asia food store,as the store sales all in one shop. but in Asia, I think you can find it in dry store..(乾貨零售店) shop sell shitake,蝦米, etc..
Hope it help you,
Hi CCL, thanks for the comment. I’ve seen the holy basil seed sold in Asian groceries, in bottles. And I think I’ve seen them available here in dried form as well.
Holy basil, is chia. Whole Foods sells them.
I would love the recipe to this.
Hi Nate,
The holy basil seeds can be found packaged in small bags at Asian grocery store.