To make the giant banh chung to offer to the Hung Kings, Dam Sen Park had to mobilize 50 people with many unusual steps of wrapping and cooking the cake.
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| On April 13, Dam Sen Cultural Park (District 11, Ho Chi Minh City) wrapped a giant banh chung weighing 2.5 tons to offer to the nation on the occasion of Hung King's death anniversary 2016. |
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| 1.2 tons of sticky rice were prepared before wrapping. Mr. Nguyen Huu Trung, Deputy Director of Dam Sen Cultural Park, said that the work was to show the hearts of the park's staff towards the National Ancestor. Departments participated in many different stages, from preparing ingredients, wrapping, building the oven... In previous years, this unit also made large Chung cakes weighing from 100 kg to 1.5 tons. |
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| A total of 300 kg of green beans are used to make the filling. |
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| This mung bean is cooked with sticky rice to form a filling along with 200 kg of pork. |
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| The banana leaves used to wrap the cake alone weighed 300kg. Because the mold was so large, two people had to climb inside to arrange the leaves. According to the organizers, the most difficult part was to make sure the water still seeped in to ensure the cake was cooked. |
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| After lining the leaves, four walls were built around the mold, about 10 cm away. Next, the workers poured the first layer of sticky rice, about 5 cm thick. |
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| About 40 blocks of filling 30x30 cm wide, 10 cm high are spread evenly to form the first layer of filling. |
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| During the process of arranging the filling layers, a space of about 10 cm around the cake is left open to pour in the sticky rice and pack it tightly. This is the cake crust. |
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| Next, the workers add two new layers of filling to the inside of the cake. |
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| A layer of sticky rice nearly 10 cm thick is covered on top. |
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| Thick layers of banana leaves overlap to cover the surface of the cake. |
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| The cake is 2.16 m in size and 60 cm in height. The total weight including the mold and cake is approximately 3 tons. |
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| The cake is tied tightly with plastic string... |
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| ... and brought to the furnace by crane. |
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| A pre-built oven was filled with boiling water to prepare the cakes. |
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| The crane operator carefully lowered the oversized cake into the cooker. |
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| Workers drop bundles of pandan leaves into the cake pot to create a fragrant flavor. |
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| The cake will be cooked for 70 hours. At 10pm on April 15, workers will take it out to offer to the National Ancestor at 8am the next morning (10th day of the third lunar month). Then, at 10am on April 17, the cake will be cut and invited to about 1,000 people to enjoy. |
| In addition to offering Chung cake, the Organizing Committee of the Hung King Commemoration Festival at Dam Sen Cultural Park also performed many rituals such as: human chess performance, lantern offering ceremony, literary and martial arts worship, incense offering. In addition, there were many traditional playgrounds towards the homeland such as lion and dragon dance performances, music and dance, folk cake making contest with the participation of 50 schools in the city. |
According to Zing.vn
