Long distance rice balls

I remember when I was still at home, sometimes at the end of a meal, looking at the pot of burnt rice, sometimes just white rice, my mother would take it out, pinch it into a small ball that fit in the palm of her hand. If there was sesame salt available, she would dip it in it, if not, she would eat it plain. She said: "Eat it to make your mouth smell good." Until now, I still clearly remember her happy and calm face every time she ate that simple dessert.

When I had a child, my daughter was still young, sometimes she showed signs of not eating well, my wife would take rice balls and roll them into little balls. Then the little girl would slowly eat all the rice balls that her mother arranged on the tray.

It's strange, the same grains of rice, when clenched, suddenly transform into a gift with some kind of appeal.

I remember one spring, six or seven years ago, a few close friends and families went out together. We all went by motorbike, roamed along the Duong River dike, visited But Thap Pagoda, then took a ferry to Phat Tich Pagoda. We arrived at Phat Tich Pagoda just in time for noon.

After visiting the temple to worship Buddha, everyone climbed halfway up the mountain, chose a flat stone between the pine and eucalyptus roots, and took out the rice balls with sesame salt to eat. Everyone agreed that there was nothing better than bringing the rice balls with sesame salt along on a trip like this.

From then on, every year, in the spring, our close family group organized an outing, and each year one family took turns taking care of the rice balls. One year, the rice was spread out to eat under the bell tower of Tram Gian Pagoda, another year it was in front of a cave in Chua Thay, and another year it was next to a stream in Hoa Binh province... Families seemed to secretly compete with each other in showing off their rice-making skills. Last year, this family made rice balls with Bac Huong rice, the next year another family used Tam Xoan rice, the year after that another family used sticky rice... There were also families who begged and saved a few areca leaves to make rice balls and wrapped them in them to take away. When eating, people tried to find the flavor of the areca leaves that still lingered somewhere.

Nowadays, people work a lot, do a lot of activities, and their mouths and stomachs are also damaged; when traveling far away, they cannot stand having only rice and sesame salt. The most convenient and enjoyable way to eat rice balls is to eat them with pork roll. Find a shop that sells really good pork roll and buy them, and remember to bring a small bottle of really good fish sauce. Cut the pork roll into slices and then cut them into pencil shapes. Cut the rice into even slices. Dip the pork roll into the fish sauce, take a bite of the pork roll, and then take a bite of the rice ball. These two things blend together into something incredibly delicious. For a change, people can substitute braised meat, braised fish, or fried chicken. Boiled chicken is not very suitable with rice balls, and smoked pork, salami, or sausage are even worse. The most enjoyable way to eat rice balls is to eat plump, dried goby fish, but like sesame salt, people cannot "snack" on much food.

But whatever you eat, rice balls without sesame salt are like dog meat without shrimp paste, chicken without lemon leaves, the séance song played in the green forest seems to lack the main melody. Sesame salt can be salt mixed with sesame, can be crushed peanuts, or can also be mixed with peanuts and sesame. Adults often like to eat more sesame because it is more fragrant, children like more peanuts because it is rich and fatty. Children often have a game of shaking the sesame package to let the peanuts jump up and then dip their rice into it. I don't know why rice balls and sesame salt go together so well. The rice balls dipped in sesame seem to take us from the high mountains to a plain, opening before our eyes vast fields, gently flowing rivers.

The big rice balls were gone in a flash. People shared the last pieces of rice, dipping them in the tiny sesame seeds and peanuts left in the plastic bags.

There are two ways to eat rice balls. Men like the way fishermen and foresters used to eat, which is to grab a rice ball and break it open to eat. Wives don't like that, they gently use a knife to peel off a hard outer layer, just like peeling a grapefruit, taking only the soft, smooth core inside, then cut it into even slices. The more carefully and skillfully the rice ball is made, the smoother the rice will look when cut.

I remember when I was a student, once the whole class organized a camping trip at Cua Lo beach. That time, I was given delicious rice by the girl I had secretly loved for a long time. How could I forget the shape of her ivory fingers. But that was all her grace to me. Going out with my wife and children and still thinking about such things was probably not right. But life is like that, what can I do?

Dang Hong Nam