Non Nuoc Beach - One of the World's Beautiful Beaches

Nuoc Beach gently slopes towards the calm, clear, blue sea; the clarity of the water attracts visitors who come to bathe and enjoy the seafood. This fine sandy beach with sunshine all the year round makes it suitable for tourism in all four seasons.

Da Nang has a coastline of 30 kilometres long, famous for many beautiful seashores stretching from the north to the south such as My Khe, Thanh Binh, Tien Sa, Son Tra and so on. Non Nuoc Beach also pertains to Da Nang Sea and has been voted as one of the most beautiful and attracting beaches of the planet, 2005, according to Forbes, the leading magazine of America. This beach has gentle slope, mild waves, and purely blue sea water during the four seasons. The unpolluted water source here has attracted a number of tourists coming to bathe, enjoy local special sea foods and take a rest for weekends. The beach Non Nước is also a place that exist precious and rare seaweeds such as gracilarias "yellow thread" and glacilaria "screw" that have high value of exporting.

With green water and white sand, Non Nuoc Beach stretches five kilometers along the shore of Hoa Hai Ward at the foot of Ngu Hanh Son (The Marble Mountains). The beach is 

famous for its seaweed, which reaches exportation standards. Many five-star hotels were built in Non Nuoc to accommodate the domestic and foreign tourists in the area. Together with its feature of wave degree, climate, weather and salinity, Non Nuoc Beach is suitable for water sports, especially surfing. In 1993, there took place an international champion with the participation of nearly 40 athletes from many countries around the world.

Along the beach, on the white sand is a forest of age-old casuarinas which is shady, green and is waving in the whistling wind. This is an ideal place for resting and camping. When the darkness falls and the moon rises, you can set yourself free on smooth benches along the beach to listen to melodious sounds of the waves and enjoy the occult space. 

The beach is managed by the Non Nuoc Tourism Company that has  three hotels with more than 100 rooms on the beach. They provide entertainment services including photographs for souvenir, handicraft shops, massage, restaurant, tennis and some gymnastics. A chain of tourism resorts is planned to cater for international tourists including seaside hotels and restaurants, especially an international standard golf court.

Besides convalescence and bathing, tourists to Non Nuoc Beach can also combine their journeys with traveling the relic Marble Mountains, which boast some ancient pagodas and sacred  monumental caves, go around fine art stone handicraft villages right at the foot of the Mountains or go boating on Co Co River (Stork Neck River) to enjoy peacefulness of the Marble Mountains.

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Cu Lao Cau - island paradise!

The typical characteristics of Cu Lao Cau island are smooth sloping sandy beach, blue seawater, endlessly hills and mountains that create charming landscape...

Binh Thuan Province is rich in human and natural potentialities that are good advantages for developing tourism and service sector. The province has the coastal line of nearly 200 km with many beautiful beaches such as Mui Ne, Ca Na, Cu Lao Cau and so on. Cu Lao Cau is a small and young island rising in the middle of the sea, located in Tuy Phong District, Binh Thuan, about 9 km away from the seashore. Tourists can spend 30 or 40 minutes to get there by boat. This island stays about 119 km away from Phan Thiet City to the Northeast.

Cu Lao Cau island is characterised by rocky outcrops, with sandy beaches on the north and south sides. The highest point on the island is 27m. It covers a long distance of over 1.500m with the widest area of nearly 700m and the highest one of 7m above sea level. The entire island is surrounded by tens of thousands of cliff blocks of different colors and shapes. From the main land, it looks like a big warship. It is really interesting when having a condition to observe the whole island carefully. Around this isle, the water is always clean and blue. When the tide goes down, on the seashore we can see numerous beautiful shells and corals pleasing the tourists’eyes.

Quite many kinds of sea creatures living around this island. It would be very great if tourists bring a fishing rod and some preys to fish. On the island, there is also a fresh water well, which is called a Fairy Well from an old book. Although the water amount is small, the well is the sort of permanent leaking water.

Fringing coral reefs can be found around Cu Lao Cau island and platform reefs on submerged banks. The reefs are pristine, with an average cover of 43%. This site supports the highest diversity of hermatypic corals known in Vietnam. There are more than 65 genera of coral known here, including Acropora, Goniopora, Montipora, Porites, and Favia. There is also a small area of seagrass beds. Sea currents from the north and south converge near Hon Cau-Vinh Hao, with strong upwelling. The area has high productivity, with 175 phytoplankton species, 163 seaweed species, 147 coral species, 80 mollusc species, 46 crustacean species, 26 echinoderm species and 211 fish species so far recorded here.

Cu Lao Cau island is one of the places that has Vietnam’s best ecological environment. With beautiful neglected beach, presently, it is has been planned to be a marine life preservation zone and an eco tourist site. The island will promisingly become an ideal ecological tourist attraction.

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Cat Co Beach

Visiting the large beach of Cat Co, which is separated by a small range of mountain, you can swim in the blue and warm water, so clear that you can see the golden sand bneath.

The white-sand Cat Co beach make a great place to lounge around for the day. They are about 1 km southeast from Cat Ba town over a steep headland; and can be reached on foot or by motorbike.

Cat Ba is the biggest island (100 sq. km) out of the 366 islands on the Lan Ha Bay. It is a tourist spot, attractive for its natural beauty and wonders endowed by nature. Right from the moment you set foot on Cat Ba gangway, looking afar to contemplate the enchanting scenery of immense sky and magnificent mountains and breathing the fresh air from the sea, you will feel comfortable and your tiredness after a long trip will disappear. Surely, you want to go on with your journey at once.

Cat Co Beach is separated by a small hillock that can be climbed over in about 20 minutes. However, you can take the easier route along a new wooden seaside walkway around the mountain. The beach offers simple accommodation and camping.

The mountain adjacent to Cat Co Beach has a tunnel and fascinating caves and grottoes, such as Hang Luon, Khe Sau, Trung Trang, Gia Luan and Kim Cuong. Visiting these caves and grottoes you will get the feeling of the explorers, discovering the wonders and mysteries endowed by nature. The fauna living on the Cat Ba National Park is diverse: 20 kinds of animals, 69 kinds of birds, 20 kinds of  reptiles, rare wild white - headed langurs. Coming out of the caves and grottoes you should spend a little time to contemplate the sunset over Lan Ha Bay. On the golden background of the horizon and the dark blue of the sea, the heaving islets become multiform, the white sea-gulls hover and sea-eagles make circles in the sky, all beautifying the immense and fascinating space, and enchanting the visitors.

Cat Co Beach is a tourist spot, attractive for its natural beauty and wonders endowed by nature.

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Hue, Imperial City

Still remaining its form of City underMiddle Age and the constructions of monarchic, a invaluable museum of Vietnam, this is Imperial City - the last remaining section of 19th-century Hue, and it is now a modern experiment in recreating traditional Vietnam. The Imperial City was recognized as a World Cultural Heritage Site by UNESCO on December 1993. Let’s take a trip through the most  important historical and cultural monument of Vietnam.

Dominating the skyline is the 37m (120ft) high Cot Co or Flag Tower, first erected in 1809. Cot Co achieved international renown on the morning of 31 January 1968, when communist forces seized the Citadel and ran their yellow-starred banner up its tall mast.

The lower part of the gate is stone, while on top is the "Belvedere of the Five Phoenixes" where the emperor appeared on important occasions, and where the last emperor abdicated to Ho Chi Minh's Revolutionary Government in 1945.

Just inside the gate is a lotus pond with a bridge once reserved for the emperor's private use. Across the bridge is the Thai Hoa Palace used for official receptions and other important court ceremonies. The columns supporting the roof are lacquered and inlaid with gold.

Thai Hoa Palace

 Behind the Thai Hoa Palace are a pair of smaller halls used by mandarins to prepare for court ceremonies. The halls form a courtyard, the fourth side of which was once a wall dividing the more public area of the citadel from the emperor's private residence, the "Forbidden Purple City." The name conjures up images of grand palaces like Beijing. Unfortunately, it takes quite a bit of imagination to picture the buildings that once occupied what is now a grassy expanse. What wasn't destroyed by a fire in 1947 was bombed in the 1968 Tet Offensive. The picture at above left was taken from the upper-most level looking back at the Thai Hoa palace and the Flag tower.

Off to one side of the central axis of the forbidden city, about midway, is the Thai Binh Lau or Royal Library. This small building stands in a garden and is fronted by small pond mostly taken up by a mountain-island well-grown with moss and bonsai. You will find similar ponds, fountains or even large bowls of water in many structures all over Vietnam.

Although you must enter the citadel through the main gate, you can exit it at several other points. Between the Thai Hoa palace and the halls of the mandarins, a path leads to the Hien Nhon gate (left). Leaving by this gate is the shortest route to get from the forbidden city to the museum at Long An palace. Along the path are a couple of buildings worth a look. 

A visit to Hue might be considered incomplete without a boat trip on the outstandingly lovely Perfume River. Boats are readily available for hire, either for an exploratory trip in the vicinity of Hue, or for a longer journey upstream to the tombs of Minh Mang and Gia Long.

Perfume River

It's hard to explain the uncanny beauty of the river, though doubtless the irridescent, aquamarine waters, together with the profusion of colourful craft and boat women sporting non la--the ubiquitous cream-coloured conical hat of Vietnam--all contribute to the effect. On a clear, sunny day the Perfume River can indeed be magical.

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My Son sites

My Son Sanctuary is a large complex of religious relics that comprises more than 70 architectural works.

Located in a narrow valley in Duy Tan Commune, Duy Xuyen District, Quang Nam Province. 70km southwest of Danang City, 20km away from the Tra Kieu Citadel, and 40km away from the Ancient Town of Hoi An. My Son site is a group of temple-towers of Cham people, an imperial city during the Champa kingdom, an example displaying the evolution and change in culture, a foremost evidence of Asian civilisation which is now extinct. With its great value, in December 1999, the complex of My Son Cham Towers has been recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

My Son site was an imperial city during the Cham kingdom, between the 4th and 12th century. The construction of My Son was likely to have been started in the 4th century. During many centuries, the temple complex had more buildings and stupas constructed of varying sizes and became the main cultural vestige of the Champa civilization in Vietnam. Aside from religious celebrations, which allowed the dynastic royals to spiritually connect with the gods, My Son was also a cultural and religious centre and was the burial place of kings and religious leaders.

My Son has been selected by UNESCO as a world heritage listed site, at its 23rd meeting, under the criteria C (II) and criteria C (III):

Criterion (II): The My Son Sanctuary is an exceptional example of cultural interchange, with the introduction the Hindu architecture of the Indian sub-continent into South-East Asia.

Criterion (III):The Champa Kingdom was an important phenomenon in the political and cultural history of South-East Asia, vividly illustrated by the ruins of My Son.

My Son Sanctuary is a large complex of religious relics that comprises more than 70 architectural works. They include temples and towers that connect to each other with complicated red brick designs. The main component of the Cham architectural design is the tower, built to reflect the divinity of the king.

According to records on the stone stele, the prime foundation of the ancient My Son architectural complex was a wooden temple to worship the Siva Bhadresvera genie. In the late 16th century, a big fire destroyed the temple. Step by step, historical mysteries were unveiled by scientists.

HISTORY

Through stone stele and royal dynasties, they proved My Son to be the most important Holy Land of the Cham people from the late 4th to the 15th centuries. For many centuries, the Cham built Lip, a mutually linked architectural complex, with baked bricks and sandstone. The main temple worships the Linga-Yoni, who represents the capability of invention. Beside the main tower (Kalan) are several sub-towers worshipping Genies or deceased kings. Although time and the wars have destroyed some towers, the remaining sculptural and architectural remnants still reflect the style and history of the art of the Cham people. Their masterpieces mark a glorious time for the architecture and culture of the Cham, as well as of Southeast Asia.

Each historical period has its own identity, so that each temple worshipping a genie or a king of a different dynasty has its own architectural style full of different impression. All of the Cham towers were built on a quadrate foundations and each comprises three parts: a solid tower base, representing the world of human beings, the mysterious and sacred tower body, representing the world of spirits, and the tower top built in the shape of a man offering flowers and fruits or of trees, birds, animals, etc., representing things that are close to the spirits and human beings.

ARCHITECTURE

According to many researchers of the ancient Cham towers, the architectural art of the Cham towers at My Son Sanctuary is the convergence of different styles, including the continuity of the ancient style in the 7th-8th centuries, the Hoa Lai style of the 8th-9th centuries, the Dong Duong style from the mid-9th century, the My Son and My Son-Binh Dinh styles, etc.

Among the remnants of many architectural sites excavated in 1898, a 24 metres high tower was found in the Thap Chua area and coded A I by archaeologists and researchers on My Son. This tower is a masterpiece of ancient Cham architecture. It has two doors, one in the east and the other in the west. The tower body is high and delicate with a system of paved pillars; six sub-towers surround the tower. This two storey tower looks like a lotus flower. The top of the upper layer is made of sandstone and carved with elephant and I ion designs. In the lower layer, the walls are carved with fairies and water evils and men riding elephants. Unfortunately, the tower was destroyed by US bombs in 1969.

After the My Son ancient tower complex was discovered, many of its artifacts, especially statues of female dancers and genies worshipped by the Cham people, worship animals and artifacts of the daily communal activities, were collected and displayed at the Cham Architecture Museum in Danang city. Although there are not many remnants left, those that remain display the typical sculptural works of cultural value of the Cham nationality. Furthermore, they are vivid proof, confirming the history of a nationality living within the Vietnamese community boasting of a rich cultural tradition.

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Hoi An ancient town

From the moment you enter the city, the mystique of an secluded ancient town isolated from the modern world will take your feeling back to old countryside society of Vietnam.

Lying on the banks of the Thu Bon River, Quảng Nam province ( in the South Central Coast of Vietnam), Hoi An Ancient Town is an exceptionally well-preserved example of a South-East Asian trading port dating from the 15th to the 19th century.

Over the last few years, Hoi An has become a very popular tourist destination in Vietnam. Its buildings and its street plan reflect the influences, both indigenous and foreign, that have combined to produce this unique heritage site. In 1999, the old town was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO under the criteria C (II) and criteria C (V):

Criterion (II): Hoi An is an outstanding material manifestation of the fusion of cultures over time in an international commercial port.

Criterion (V): Hoi An is an exceptionally well preserved example of a traditional Asian trading port.

Occupied by early western traders, Hoi An was one of the major trading centers of Southeast Asia in the 16th century and 17^th centuries, where Chinese from various provinces as well as Japanese, Dutch and Indians settled down.

Light Bright

No fluorescent lights, no motorcycles, no television, on the 15^th day of each lunar month, the riverside town of Hoi An gives modern life the night off.

In a wood-fronted shops a woman in traditional dress sits at a desk, bathed in the light of a lantern made from a simple bamboo fish-trap. Outside, two old men are absorbed in a candlelit game of Chinese checkers. Hoi An, a sleepy riverside town in the central province of Quang Nam. In the air of legendary, just experience the existence by tasting and feeling.

Hoi An has long been a cultural crossroad. More than five centuries ago the Vietnamese nation of Dai Viet expanded its territory southwards, encroaching on the Indianized Kingdom of Champa, which covered much of what is now central Vietnam. Hoi An, located on the Hoai River, emerged when Japanese and Chinese traders built a commercial district there in the 16th century.

These diverse cultural influences remain visible today. Visitors will find Hoi An's Old Quarter lined with two-storey Chinese shops, their elaborately carved wooden facades and moss-covered tile roofs having withstood the ravages of more than 300 years of weather and warfare. These proud old buildings, which back onto the river, remind visitors of another era, when Hoi An's market was filled with wares from as far afield as India and Europe. Colourful guildhalls, founded by ethnic Chinese from Guangdong and Fujian provinces, stand quietly, a testament to the town's trading roots.

While Hoi An's old-fashioned charm is always visible, on the 15th of every lunar month modernity takes another step back. On these evenings the town turns off its street lamps and fluorescent lights, leaving the Old Quarter bathed in the warm glow of coloured silk, glass and paper lanterns. In ancient times, Vietnamese people made lamps out of shallow bowls filled with oil. Later, foreign traders introduced lanterns, ranging from round and hexagonal designs from China to diamond and star shaped ones from Japan.

Let Hoi An be light

When developing plans to preserve their town's ancient character, Hoi An residents decided to revive the practice of using coloured lanterns. Starting in the fall of 1998, one night each month is declared a "lantern festival". On the 15th day of each lunar month, residents on Tran Phu, Nguyen Thai Hoc, Le Loi and Bach Dang streets switch off their lights and hang cloth and paper lanterns on their porches and windows. Television sets, radios, street lights and neon lights are turned off.

In the ensuing quiet the streets of Hoi An are at their most romantic, the darkness broken only by jeweltoned lanterns in all manner of shapes and sizes.

Strolling through the lantern-lit streets is like walking into a fairytale. It is all the more picturesque since motor vehicles are banned from Hoi An's Old Quarter. On Trai Phu Street, stop at the beautifully preserved Faifo Restaurant to sample some traditional Chinese-style pastries. Or walk on to the Treated Caf6, where bamboo baskets, commonly used to wash rice, have been transformed into unique lanterns. These basket lamps are but one example of people's creativity as they experiment with new shapes and materials, including lights made from hollow bamboo tubes.

A Warm Glow

The 15th day of the lunar month is a Buddhist day of worship. Residents place offerings of food and incense on their ancestral altars and visit one of Hoi An's many pagodas. The scent of incense and the sounds of people singing add to the town's enchanted atmosphere. On these evenings, visitors will get a rare glimpse into another era. These nights are a welcome reminder of life's unexpected beauty

Tourists can visit the relics of the Sa Huynh and Cham cultures. They can also enjoy the beautiful scenery of the romantic Hoi An River, Cua Dai Beach, and Cham Island.

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Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park

The Park is considered a paradise for researchers and explorers of grottoes and caves and is the home to 140 families, 427 branches, and 751 species of precious plants

Phong Nha - Ke Bang is a national park in the center of Quang Binh province in north-central Vietnam. It protects one of the world's two largest karst regions with several hundred caves and grottoes. Its name derives from Phong Nha cave, the most beautiful one, with numerous fascinating rock formations, and Ke Bang forest. The plateau is probably one of the finest and most distinctive examples of a complex karst landform in Southeast Asia.

Location:

Geographically, the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park (PNKBNP) is located in central Vietnam, about 500km south of the capital, Hanoi, within the Quang Binh Province.

The western boundary of the Park partially forms Laos-Vietnamese border, which is only 42km from the sea. The Park is found within the geographical co-ordinates of 170 20'-170 48' N and 1050 46-1060 24' E in Bo Trach and Minh Hoa Districts.

Recognition by UNESCO in 2003

Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park was first nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998. The dossier submited to UNESCO was for the recognition of Phong Nha nature reserve as a world natural heritage under the name “Phong Nha Nature Reserve”. The reason given for the nomination was that this nature reserve satisfied the criteria of biodiversity, unique beauty and geodiversity (criteria I and iv).

It was recognized as a world natural heritage site at the UNESCO's 27^th general assembly session being held in Paris in June 30^th – July 5^th,2003. At the session, delegates from over 160 member countries of UNESCO World Heritage Convention agreed to include Phong Nha-Ke Bang park and 30 others worldwide in the list of world heritage sites. Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park meets with criteria viiii in accordance with UNESCO’s appraisal scale since it displays an impressive amount of evidence of earth’s history and is a site of importance for increasing human understanding of the geologic, geomorphic and geo-chronological history of the region.

Physical features:

Criterion (viii): Phong Nha is part of a larger dissected plateau, which also encompasses the Ke Bang and Hin Namno karsts. The limestone incontinuously demonstrates the complexity interbedding with shales and sandstones. This, together with the capping of schists and apparent granites has led to a particularly distinctive topography.

Looking into the caves, you may recognize discrete episodic sequences of events, leaving behind various levels of fossil passages, formerly buried and now uncovered palaeokarst (karst from previous, perhaps very ancient, periods of solution); evidence of major changes in the routes of underground rivers; changes in the solutional regime; deposition and later re-solution of giant speleothems and unusual features such as sub-aerial stromatolites. The location and form of the caves suggest that they might owe much of their size and morphology to some as yet undetermined implications of the schists and granites which overlay the limestone. On the surface, there is a striking series of landscapes, ranging from deeply dissected ranges and plateaux to an immense polje. There is evidence of at least one period of hydrothermal activity in the evolution of this ancient mature karst system. The plateau is probably one of the finest and most distinctive examples of a complex karst landform in SE Asia.

Cultural heritage:

The oldest evidence of human occupation of the area are Neolithic axe heads and similar artefacts found in some of the caves. There are some relics of Ham Nghi King, a final King of the Nguyen dynasty before the French colonial period, at the Maria Mountain in the north of the Park. Currently the Arem, Ma Coong and Ruc ethnic groups live in two villages in the core zone of Phong Nha Ke - Bang National Park. Until 1962 these indigenous people lived in the forest in houses made of bamboo and leaves or in the caves, living from forest products and hunting. They used simple tools and their clothes were made from the bark of a toxic forest tree (Antiaris toxicaria) and lianas.

Since 1992 the Government of Vietnam has set up two new settlements for these 475 people, who are the two smallest ethnic groups in Vietnam. These people are familiar with a number of economically valuable species, especially precious timber such as Mun and Hue (Diospyros spp., Dalbergia rimosa), and oil-extraction from species such as Tau (Hopea hainanensis) and many medicinal plants. The Phong Nha Cave has long been a site of religious and touristic importance, with an old Cham Temple discovered in the cave and it was a site of worship in the ninth and tenth centuries. During the war with the USA the Phong Nha - Ke Bang forest and caves were a garrison and weapons store for the Vietnamese army.

Conservation value:

Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park is of high conservation value as one of the largest areas of intact forest habitat remaining in Vietnam. As part of a continuous forest block with the neighbouring Him Namno Biodiversity Conservation Area in Laos it forms one of the largest areas of forest on limestone karst in Indochina. The presence of tall lowland forest, which is regionally threatened as a habitat type, in the National Park increases the area's conservation value.

Tourist activities

The number of tourists has increased dramatically since the park was listed in UNESCO's World Heritage Sites. Tourism activities in the area are the responsibility of the Trading and Tourism Department of Quang Binh province, with 280 international standard rooms in the province and 8 vehicles with capacities of 4 to 15 seats for tourist transportation. The forest guards of Son Trach commune in Bo Trach district are placed on tourist security duty.

Quang Binh Province has invested into upgrading the Phong Nha-Ke Bang visitor site to turn it into one of Vietnam's major tourist destinations.

Multiple eco-tourist projects have been licensed for development and the area is being heavily developed by the province to turn it into a major tourist site in Vietnam. Phong Nha Ke Bang is part of a tourism promotion program called: "Middle World Heritage Road" which includes the ancient capital of Hue, the Champa relics of My Son, the city of Hoi An, nha nhac and the Space of Gong Culture in the Central Highlands of Vietnam.

Tourist activities in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park are organized by local travel agencies and vary in form:

• Tour for expedition of caves and grottos in boats and with professional cave expedtion means.

• Ecotourism, discovering the florae and fauna in this national park in the Ke Bang Forest.
• Mountain climbing: There are extreme sloping mountains here with a height of over 1,000 m, which is a real challenge for adventurous climbers

In order to facilitate the increasing flow of tourists to the site, the Dong Hoi Airport was constructed and is due to be operational at the end of 2008.

Phong Nha-Ke Bang, together with Ha Long Bay and Fanxipan of Vietnam, is listed as a candidate for 7 new world natural wonders vote. As of February 12, 2008 it ranked 10th in the voting list

In summary, Phong Nha displays an impressive amount of evidence of earth’s history. It is a site of very great importance for increasing our understanding of the geologic, geomorphic and geo-chronological history of the region.

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“Banh Phu The”

In Vietnam,“Banh Phu The” is a special cake, which symbolises the loyalty of a husband and wife...

The conjugal cake is normally served at Vietnamese weddings and used as a wedding invitation or taken by the man’s family to the woman’s family on engagement day. The stickiness of the cake is said to signify the stickiness of the marriage ties. Traditionally, a guy would offer these to the girl he wants to marry. Now these cakes are still an essential part of a wedding banquet, or the gift packages that the groom's family send over to the bride's.

“Banh Phu The”  is a Vietnamese sweet with a jelly-like texture made of tapioca flour, pandan, mung bean paste, sugar, sesame seeds and coconut milk. It is very unique with a leaf covering that looks like a tiny square box, made from coconut leaves. The reason it is called Banh “Phu The” is because of how it is wrapped: a box on the top fits perfectly with the box on the bottom. If you would like ton know how to make this special cake, you can visit Dinh Bang - a famous Vietnamese village in Bac Ninh Province, then you can view the method to prepare this husband and wife cake, as follows:

Ingredients:

- 1kg kudzu powder, refined - 800g refined sugar - 200g coconut flesh, scraped in thin threads

- 300g green beans  - 50 coconut leaves  - 15 pineapple leaves

To prepare:

Filling

Cut green beans in halves, soak in warm water for five hours. Strain and remove skin of green beans. Rinse.

Steam green beans and grind into a paste.

Mix green bean paste with 200g sugar, then cook over a low flame and stir until the mixture loses its sticky texture.

Spread the mixture 3cm thick on a large tray, cool and cut into 6x6cm square pieces.

Cover

Wash and clean pineapple leaves and cut into 60cm strips so that only the middle remains.

Arrange the coconut leaves into a square or hexagonal shape to form a box roughly 25x30cm wide and place a pineapple leaf on top.

Dissolve the kudzu powder and remaining sugar in water. Use two and a half times as much water to the amount of powder.

Cook over a low flame, stirring until the mixture becomes a paste. Extinguish flame, add threads of coconut flesh and mix well.

Fill the coconut leaf boxes with the coconut flesh mixture and place the green bean filling in the centre.

Put the boxes in the steamer and cook for 20 minutes, until the cake becomes clear. 

“Banh phu the”  is a lot more interesting in texture and flavor. In the real one, the cake has it green color and flavor by being steamed inside its box...

 

 

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