Quy Chinh wet rice cake

(Baonghean) - On the last day of the year, when I returned to my husband's hometown, my aunt took me to Sa Nam market to enjoy Quy Chinh village's wet rice cakes. I wondered: "Why don't we go straight to the village? It'll be hotter if we buy the cakes at home?". "Just follow me to the market and you'll know. It's so much fun...".

My aunt told me that when she was little, every time she saw her grandmother or mother coming back from Sa Nam market, she would run to the gate, look around in the baskets and baskets to see if there was any banh muot. When she saw a package of banh muot hidden in a green banana leaf, her eyes lit up with delight, she quickly grabbed one and ran to the end of the alley to show it off to her friends and then eat it together. How naive she was back then! At the New Year's Eve dinner, she got to enjoy a comfortable meal of banh muot with chicken soup. The aroma of the cake, the chicken, and the fragrant lemon leaves, the whole family sat around the counter by the charcoal stove...

The round, white, green-scented cakes that the seller took out of the basket were still hot, the cakes were as long as an adult's arm. Mrs. Nguyen Thi Dau, who sells beef at Sa Nam market, ate the cakes and praised them: "I sell beef all year round, I rarely cook beef stew with the cakes. I just like holding each hot cake like this and dipping it in the fish sauce mixed with lemon, chili, and garlic, it's delicious. The aroma of rice flour, dried onions, and fish sauce... creates a familiar taste, today I'm full and tomorrow I'll crave it again!" And Mrs. Nguyen Thi Lien in block 4, Nam Dan town kept praising: "My family has been eating Quy Chinh village's cakes for decades now, even though the cakes have been made by many hands, the flavor of the cakes and the dipping sauce are still rich, typical of Quy Chinh village's cakes. Every time my children come home for Tet, when they return to Saigon, they can't help but bring back a few dozen cakes as gifts for the Nam Dan people there."

Mrs. Tran Thi Van (70 years old), who makes Banh Muot in Quy Chinh village, sells Banh Muot to customers with her hands. She is used to receiving compliments from customers for her family's Banh Muot, but that doesn't make her easy on the batches. She has to try to make her family's Banh Muot more delicious. Every time she makes Banh Muot, she can't forget the batch of Banh Muot that her mother used to make that year when customers criticized her: "The day before yesterday, the Banh Muot was praised for being delicious, but today it's worse." Mrs. Tam couldn't figure out why her Banh Muot was sour and bland. Until one day, Van confessed to her mother: "Mom, it's my fault. I poured a few ladles of rice water into the bowl of flour that day." Mrs. Tam saw her daughter's tears streaming down her pillow, and her child's sobbing voice made her cry too.

She hugged her child tighter: "It's over, don't be so naughty next time". "But people have criticized my cake, what if they don't come to eat it anymore?". "Don't worry, many people will tell each other about it, my child". Just like her mother said, the guests who came to eat the cake kept praising Mrs. Tam's sticky rice cake, which was chewy, fragrant, and hot. That was the story that happened when Mrs. Van turned 5 years old... Mrs. Van said that the cake was delicious thanks to the choice of rice and onions, whether fresh or dried onions, they had to be fresh. And also the way to mix the fish sauce. The way to soak the flour, spread the cake, roll the cake, and follow the correct process is the secret of the profession, it cannot be told. The person making sticky rice cake always has to choose Khang Dan rice, sticky rice cannot be made. The flour for the sticky rice cake is finely ground, just enough water. When the flour has met the requirements, it is then spread. The cake must be spread evenly, skillfully and evenly over the fire. When the cake is done, use a bamboo tube to remove the cake and spread it on the grill next to it, which has been lined with a clean cloth, and skillfully roll the cake so that the cake is both tight and beautiful. Mrs. Van is the second generation to make banh muot, which brings in a good income. After deducting expenses, each person earns 100,000 VND per day. Families that make more will earn more. At around 5am, Quy Chinh villagers wake up to make banh muot to sell in the morning, and at 2-3pm, they prepare the afternoon batch.

Quy Chinh villagers have brought banh muot to Sa Nam market for decades now, the cake is famous throughout the district, both cheap and delicious. Back then, people just sold out the cake and went home, no one said the cake was made in Quy Chinh village. People who went to the market and found the cake delicious told each other to go to Sa Nam to buy banh muot. There is a song:

Who is going to Sa Nam district market?

Remember to eat wet cake, the swinging girl

Eat five cakes to be full.

Eat ten cakes for fullness at noon and afternoon

After eating, he proposed.

She carried a basket and followed him home...

Chatting happily, Mrs. Van said: In those days, making banh muot was very hard, especially in the summer, when rolling a basket of banh muot, sweat was pouring down, the baker always wrapped a towel on his head and one on his shoulder to wipe his sweat. At night, with only a small American lamp, each family sat grinding a whole basket of rice. Back then, we mainly grinded by stone mills, grinding a few kilos of rice until our ears were exhausted, our hands were calloused, we worked hard until almost 12 o'clock at night, sometimes we went to bed at 1 or 2 in the morning, and woke up at 5 in the morning to make banh muot. Then we called each other to go to Sa Nam market, by 8 o'clock the banh muot was gone. The sisters went to the back of the market to buy fish sauce, fresh onions, to prepare for the next batch of banh muot...". This beauty is still preserved today, my dear".

Mrs. Van also told a story of the past, every early morning, the sisters carrying the banh muot (rice cake) were passing Nam Dan bridge, and they heard a loud call from the boat: "Pretty cake vendors, would you like to hire someone to carry your cakes to the market?". The sisters, while carrying their baskets, replied: "If you want to eat banh muot, please come up here, because I don't have money to hire a cake vendor." They joked, then bought a few kilos of banh muot. On days when the boat was not available, Mrs. Van's sisters' cake stall always felt like something was missing, and they looked forward to it. Quy Chinh village has 5 couples who got married and lived happily ever after because of those jokes, including Mrs. Van and her husband.

"When will we have a day off from making banh chung, grandma?". "We'll be off work until noon on the 29th, my child." In Quy Chinh village, although on the afternoon of the 29th, the restaurants in Nam Dan and Vinh called to order banh chung, they temporarily put their work aside and instead started to light a fire to boil banh chung and prepare for Tet. On the 4th day of Tet, the work of making banh chung returned. Knowing that taking a day off from making banh chung would lose a significant amount of income, it had become a tradition since ancient times, every family gathered together to prepare for Tet, and Mrs. Van's family was no exception.

Arriving at Quy Chinh village at the time when the fragrant rice cakes are being made, the village is bustling with people coming and going. People buy the cakes to sell at restaurants, put the cakes in baskets and carry them around on motorbikes. Local people buy a few kilos for their family, put the cakes in a basket covered with green banana leaves, looking very rustic.

Banh muot is no longer a rustic dish but is now available in large and small restaurants. Further, the cake follows the children of Nghe An to all corners of the world. Many children far from their homeland, every time they return to visit their hometown, will definitely buy banh muot as a gift for relatives and friends. For the children of Quy Chinh village who work far away, working in Europe and cannot return home for Tet, they miss banh muot in the cold weather, gathering with their family for a New Year's Eve meal, just thinking about banh muot dipped in fish sauce makes them crave it.

Banh muot can be eaten in many ways: Banh muot dipped in fish sauce with garlic and chili, Banh muot with beef, chicken, duck, especially Banh muot with offal. In Nghe An, Banh muot is famous in Quy Chinh village, So market (Dien Chau)...

Quy Chinh people live a sincere, simple life with a warm sense of neighborhood. On normal days, they gather around a pot of green tea, chat about the village and neighborhood, and exchange tips on how to make Quy Chinh village's banh muot more delicious and attractive, then return home to start making banh muot. This beauty has existed since ancient times. On the occasion of Tet, when the last batch of banh muot is completed, this countryside is very crowded. They gather together to wrap banh chung, several families in a group, some splitting bamboo strips, some wiping leaves, some wrapping the banh muot, the sound of laughter and chatter in the beginning of spring, mixed with the fragrant incense...

Article and photos:Thu Huong