Skip to content

Recipe

Asia →
Singapore → Singapore
🥤 DRINK

Bandung

A bright pink rose-syrup milk drink, sweet and floral over ice, a hawker-centre and wedding favorite in Singapore.
Singaporean · easy · serves 4
prep 5 min · cook 0 min
~186 cal · 4g protein · 32g carbs · 5g fat · 0g fiber · 31g sugars · 3g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Bandung is the cheerful, unmistakably pink drink of Singapore and Malaysia, and its glow is the whole point. Rose syrup is stirred into evaporated or condensed milk until the mixture turns a vivid, sunset pink, then poured over ice into a tall glass. Despite the name it has nothing to do with the Indonesian city; it comes from an old Malay word for something paired or mixed.
Its flavour is exactly what its colour promises: sweet, milky, and perfumed with rose, floral and nostalgic in a way that transports many who grew up with it. It is cheap, festive, and easy to love.
It turns up wherever celebration and everyday life meet, at hawker centres, weddings, and the bustling Ramadan bazaars, sometimes jazzed up with chewy grass jelly or a fizz of soda for a version called bandung soda. Sweet, floral, and gloriously pink, bandung is a small, happy fixture of the region's drinks.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and gluten-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
Serves 4
1/2 cup rose syrup (sirap bandung)
Hard to find? sugar syrup with rosewater and a drop of pink food colouring - the same rose in the glass; bottled sirap bandung is sweeter and pinker than you will dare to make it
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup cold water
to serve ice
Instructions
1
Dilute the rose syrup with the cold water, then stir in the evaporated milk until it turns an even blush pink.
✎ Chef’s note
Work to roughly one part rose syrup, two parts water and one part evaporated milk. Evaporated milk rather than condensed: condensed makes it cloying, and evaporated gives the creaminess without the extra sugar.
2
Taste and adjust, adding more syrup for sweetness or more water to lighten it.
3
Fill glasses with ice.
4
Pour over the pink bandung, stir, and serve at once.
✎ Chef’s note
Bandung is Malay for pairs or a mixture, and it refers to the pairing of rose and milk, not to the Indonesian city. It is drunk year-round but is especially associated with Ramadan in Singapore and Malaysia. At a hawker centre, ask for bandung kurang manis if you want it less sweet, or bandung cincau for the version with grass jelly cubes in it.
Singaporean hawker-centre tradition.
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Singapore. Hawker culture in Singapore was inscribed on UNESCO's representative list on 16 December 2020, the country's first inscription. What was listed is the whole arrangement rather than any dish: the centres themselves, the stall licences, the shared tables and the habit of eating most meals out of them.
🗺️
Singapore. Hawker culture was inscribed by UNESCO on 16 December 2020, Singapore's first inscription, and what was listed was the hawker centre as a community dining room rather than any dish in it. That framing is the point: the centres were built from the 1970s to move street vendors indoors, and they remain where the whole country eats.
🌍
Asia. Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, and its food spans the delicate seasonality of Japanese washoku, the chili-fired curries of India and Thailand, and the wheat-and-lamb traditions of Central Asia. Rice, noodles, soy, and fermentation recur across its regions, while ancient spice routes and religious traditions shaped distinct grammars of flavor. Whether from a street-cart wok or a monastery kitchen, eating is deeply communal and ritual-rich.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Singapore
Hainanese Chicken RiceSilken poached chicken over rice cooked in its broth, with chili-ginger sauce, Singapore’s national obsession.
Kaya ToastToasted bread spread with coconut-egg kaya jam and butter, with soft-cooked eggs and kopi.
Bak Kut TehPork ribs simmered in a peppery, garlicky broth, Singapore's restorative bowl eaten with rice and dough fritters.
Browse all Singapore recipes →

Good to know

Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.

Make it a Singapore meal

Chilli CrabDinner
Pulut HitamDessert

Similar dishes from around the world

Air KatiraBrunei
AloudaMauritius
Qymaq ChaiAfghanistan
KissanguaAngola
Zoom KoomBurkina Faso
Burmese Milk Tea (Lahpet Yay No Hsat)Myanmar
Drinks
Drinks of the World

Frequently asked questions

What is Bandung?

A bright pink rose-syrup milk drink, sweet and floral over ice, a hawker-centre and wedding favorite in Singapore.

Where does Bandung come from?

Bandung is a Singaporean dish from Singapore, Singapore.

Can Bandung be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?

This Bandung recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.

Is Bandung safe for people with food allergies?

Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.

How long does Bandung take to make?

About 5 minutes total (5 minutes prep, 0 minutes cooking), serving 4.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.