After the wild hurricane-like winds we had this week, this Thursday, I’m thirsty for something tropical. I want a bubble tea slushie at Xinh Xinh Café. The Vietnamese restaurant’s delicious blended bubble tea ($5.95) comes in fourteen flavor options, but I love the papaya. The papaya’s sweet fruity flavor tastes delicious in slush form with some boba. It has a smooth, easy-drinking texture and a lot of boba at the bottom, so every other sip slurps a surprise of chewy tapioca bubbles. I like the boba here because the pearls have a nice gummy texture beneath the soft, silken outer layer — clearly fresh. Probably any flavor would be good with boba, but the bright tropical flavor of papaya tastes especially like summer to me.
Xinh Xinh Café’s bubble tea comes in other flavors, too: vanilla, strawberry, taro, coconut, mango, honeydew, watermelon, passion fruit, almond, green tea, milk tea, Thai tea, and lavender — all available blended as a slushie or over ice. Xinh Xinh also has other tasty drinks like an avocado shake, fresh young coconut, Thai iced tea, café sua nuong (Vietnamese-style dark roast drip coffee) salted-plum soda (crushed salted preserved plums mixed with sugar and club soda over ice), egg cream soda, and more.
Since opening in 2009, Xinh Xinh has long been a favorite spot for delicious Vietnamese food. I love the banh mi. Jess loves the restaurant’s lunch. Anthony loves the bun thit nuong. And we all love the pho (here, here, here, here). For more about the food, check out my review of the excellent restaurant published last October and peep the menu online.
Xinh Xinh Cafe
114 N Vine St
Urbana
M-Sa 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
