“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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“Bun goi da”

“Bun goi da” is a special noodle soup which is one of the most appreciated by visitors to Soc Trang Province.

The strange dish is originated in My Xuyen Town, Soc Trang Province. Leaving the city of Soc Trang some 5 km to My Xuyen Town, you can see a board "bun goi da" suspended before the small stall. While waiting for the dilicious dish moved out, you can view the cool green trees, smelling the fragrance of delicious dishes.

The best “bun goi da” is served at a small and shady stall in a quiet street at old Bai Xau, a site which used to be buoyant port serving the 6 Southern provinces. The shop-owner Trinh Thi Nu, is a retired school teacher in Can Tho City. She takes a very good care to ensure the best quality of the dish which requires a number of ingredients including rice noodles, pork, prawns, soybean paste, sliced red chilli and some herbs. Having put these things into a decoratively presented bowl, a flavoured hot broth, the most important thing to decide the taste of the dish, is added to the mixture.

“Bun goi da” is even more appealing with some fresh vegetables. It has been one of the favourite dishes for both locals and visitors in Soc Trang Province. Each bowl is a mere 12,000 to 15,000 VND. For many years, “bun goi da” have made the journey to Ninh Kieu District, Can Tho City, help to improve people’s living standard. Moreover, “bun goi da” is also served in Hoang Cung Restaurant of Saigon - Can Tho Hotel. Although the price is 20,000 to 25,000 VND for a bowl of “bun goi da”, the luxurious seat will help you delight in watching the street and the bowl of “bun goi da” is much more delicious.

Not only the favourite for many visitors, “bun goi da” is one of traditional dishes in Soc Trang Province. Once enjoying and you can feel the typical fragrance of the dish.

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“Cơm Việt” – a different taste!

If you have ever tried “Cơm Việt” (Vietnamese plain boiled rice), you will find the difference from the boiled rice in other countries! 

In an ordinary meal of Vietnamese people, together with a variety of different dishes, Com or plain boiled rice is an indespensable one, the most popular food at the main meals of the day (lunch and dinner).

Different cooking method makes “Cơm Việt” different!

In Vietnam, Com is made from different kinds of rice, typically fragrant rice is used, such as Tam Thom and Nang Huong. The main ingredients of Vietnamese plain boiled rice are commonly as follows:

Vietnamese plain boiled rice

- 1 cup of rice.

- 2 cups of boiling water.

- 1 teaspoonful of salt.

So, how can you make the boiled rice really delicious? If you have chance to see how Vietnamese people make a good pot of boiled rice, you will notice that its process is not so difficult. Firstly, pick the rice over, taking out all the bits of brown husk; fill the outside of the double boiler with hot water, ans put in the rice, salt and water, and cook forty minutes, but do not stir it. Then take off the cover from the boiler, and very gently, without stirring, turn over the rice with a fork; put the disk in the oven without the cover, and let it stand and dry for ten minutes. Then turn it from the boiler into a hot dish, and cover.

Other rice–made foods...

Beside the above-mentioned recipe of “Cơm Việt”, the Vietnamese people created many other rice-made foods, such as: rice ball, fried rice, rice gruel, steamed glutinous rice. Among them, making a rice ball (“Cơm nắm” in Vietnamese) is so interesting! “Cơm nắm” is a Vietnamese rice dish pressed into cylinder or sphere shape, which is sold in small alleys in Hanoi by vendors. This dish is very familiar with Vietnamese people. “Cơm nắm” has become a cheap but delicious rustic gift. When being fed up with nutritious food like vermicelli or “phở”, people often look for a frugal dish like “Cơm nắm” served with roasted sesame and ground nut.

Rice balls

Do you think it is easy to make a rice ball? A lot of people may say “Yes”, and you can obey the following simple process to make perfect a rice ball. To begin with, you boil the rice in a rice cooker. Please bear in mind that you have to make rice balls while the rice is hot or else it will not stick together. Next, you wet your hands and put a pinch of salt on your palms. Then, you put rice on your hand and wad up the rice and shape like cylinder or sphere. “Cơm nắm” is served with not o­nly sesame but also other things, such as stewed fish, simmered pork or salted shredded meat. However, salted roasted sesame (and ground nut) is still the first choice. The dish is so delicious that you surely would like to taste more than once... The rice is white clear, soft and used to be wrapped in a green banana leaf, which is so attractive. However, its cover is replaced with a plastic bag or paper. The salted sesame is roasted light brown and grated, which has an appealing fragrance. “Cơm nắm” is cut into slices and served with this sesame or/and ground nut. The sweetness of rice combining with the buttery taste of sesame is so unique that can not be found anywhere in the world.

Being in Vietnam, you are strongly recommended to give you the chance for enjoying “Cơm Việt” with dishes of pork, fish, shrimp and vegetable cooked in oil, as well as vegetables, pickles, etc. Have good appetite!

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“Giò” – Vietnamese dainty morsel in Spring

On the Tet traditional tray of food according to Vietnamese culture, with traditional dishes such as Chung cake, chicken meat, spring rolls and so on, “giò” is one of the dainty morsels. Today, when “giò” almost become daily food and there are more various and attractive dishes on the tray, delicious dish of “giò” cannot be missed...

Fried pie

There are many types of “giò” such as: giò lụa (pork-pie), giò bò (beep dumpling), giò bì (pork and skin paste), giò mỡ (lean and fat pork paste), giò xào (fried pie), etc. Each type has a particular taste but the most important thing to make “giò” dish really attractive is that the fragrance of banana leaves and fish sauce combined in the piece of “giò”.

Giò xào (fried pie)

In all kinds of “giò”, fried pie is the easiest one to prepare, so families often make it themselves when Tet is coming. The main materials are parts of pork such as: ear, nose tongue, pork cheeks and “mộc nhĩ” (cat’s ear). The materials must be subjected to premilitary treatment, boiled through hot water, sliced, mixed with spices, pepper and fried.

After wrapping the fried pie, keep it in the refrigerator so that all the materials link together. The pie that is delicious must be wrapped carefully, raw materials must not be too dry and the dish will stir fragrance of the spices.

Giò bò (beep dumpling)

Beep dumpling

Also processed as fried pie, beep dumpling is often added for more fat so that it is not too dry. When cutting a piece of beep dumpling, it is slightly pink as the color of the beef. Especially, pungency and fragrance of pepper feature the typical characteristic of beep dumpling.

Giò lụa (pork-pie)

Pork is chosen to make pork-pie must be lean, delicious and fresh meat. It is continuously ground until the meat is fine. These days, the meat is ground by machine, which makes the process more quickly and helps to save the maker’s strength.

However, the pork-pie is make in the traditional way remains the delicious flavor that is different from the one ground by 

Pork-pie

machine, since the makers must use more strength so they take proper care of their product. Fish sauce for making pork-pie must also be tasty and fragrant. When being cut, the pie must has the color of ivory-white and the surface has some small holes, surely that the pie is so delicious!

Giò bì (pork and skin paste)

Pork and skin paste is a local specialty of Pho Xuoi (Hung Yen Province). It is also made from uncooked pork-pie and pork skin that are sliced, then wrapped into small ones like fingers. Pork and skin paste is delicious, it means that pieces of pork skin must be white, clean, boiled, cut into small ones and mixed with uncooked pork-pie. The piece of pork and skin paste is so crispy and crunchy.

In Vietnam, once try to taste these kinds of “giò”, it is certaintly that you cannot forget the tasty flavor and fragrance of the dainty morsels...

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