Famous Vinh Hoa green banh chung

(Baonghean.vn) - Vinh Hoa village, Hop Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district, Nghe An has long been famous for making banh chung as a profession passed down from father to son. The village's products have long become a brand favored by consumers.

Mr. Nguyen Nhan's family in Vinh Hoa wraps 200-300 banh chung and banh tet every day. Photo: Van Truong.

Vinh Hoa is a poor rural area, flooded before rain, drought before sun, during flood season, this is the water center, villages and houses are submerged, rice cultivation land is only 41 hectares, not enough to feed 215 households. Thanks to the job of making banh chung, people's lives have changed.

To make delicious banh chung, the ingredients must also be delicious. Photo: Van Truong.

Now, all the people of Vinh Hoa village, from the old to the young, know how to wrap banh chung. Many old ladies are now blind and weak, but their grandchildren prepare the ingredients with their hands as nimble as when they were young. The grandchildren stand and watch their grandmothers wrap, and without realizing it, the craft has seeped into their blood.

People mainly use good quality Thai and Lao sticky rice to wrap banh chung. Photo: Van Truong.

The work of the villagers of Vinh Hoa starts at around 3pm every afternoon, from the beginning of the village to the end of the village, old, young, men and women... are all assigned tasks; some soak rice, others wrap cakes, split bamboo strips, peel leaves... laughter and chatter resound throughout the alleys.

After preparing the necessary items, each family begins the work of wrapping and cooking the cakes, then at around 4-5 am the next morning, the women and men in the village go to deliver the cakes to the markets and neighboring districts.

Every morning, Vinh Hoa people go buy banana leaves to wrap cakes. Photo: Van Truong.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Khuyen is wrapping the cake and shares: Vinh Hoa Chung cake is famous everywhere. Whether the cake is delicious or not depends on the type of sticky rice chosen, the filling, and the way the cake is cooked... usually, it takes us 6 - 7 hours to cook a pot of cooked cake.

According to Ms. Khuyen, she wraps 400-500 pairs of cakes every day, creating continuous work for 4 workers. After deducting expenses, my family earns 8-10 million VND/month.

Ms. Tran Thi Thanh's family is putting the cake in the oven to cook. Photo: Van Truong.

To prepare for the demand for banh chung for the Lunar New Year 2018, people in Vinh Hoa village have been busy preparing hundreds of tons of delicious sticky rice imported from Laos and Thailand; banana leaves, dong leaves, fatty meat, pickled onions, etc. to wrap the cakes along with other ingredients.

Mr. Tran Quoc Khanh, a craftsman in the village, said: “Our family has been making cakes for a long time. The demand for cakes near Tet is very high. Many agencies, units, businesses, etc. come to order cakes to organize year-end parties, give as gifts, and at the end of the year.

Vinh Hoa parish church is always sparkling in electric lights at night. Photo: Van Truong.

"On average, in the month before Tet, the family makes 1.5 - 2 tons of sticky rice, earning about 40 - 50 million VND, and in normal months of the year, the income is about 10 - 12 million VND/month" - Mr. Khanh added.

According to some people who make banh chung, once they have kept their reputation with customers, they don't have to worry about output; customers from far and near can rest assured to come and buy. In addition to some who order for Tet, there are also some who import to resell.

In general, making banh chung is quite easy, does not require much calculation of profit and loss, does not require hard work in the rain and sun, and still has time to raise livestock, grow crops, and take care of children's education.

Every early morning, people in Vinh Hoa village sell banh chung everywhere. Photo: Van Truong

Mr. Luu Duc Bang - Head of Vinh Hoa hamlet said that out of the 300 households in the hamlet, 80% are involved in traditional occupations such as making banh chung. Thanks to this occupation, many households have changed their lives and become rich.

Thanks to the hard work and perseverance of many generations of people, Vinh Hoa Chung cake has become a brand that is present everywhere, from the markets in the countryside to the bustling trading areas in Hanoi and Saigon.

Thanks to the cake wrapping profession, Vinh Hoa village is increasingly prosperous. Photo: Van Truong.

From the rice grains of the lowland plains, under the meticulous, skillful hands and hard work of the people here, Vinh Hoa banh chung and banh tet have appeared, infiltrating many families, bringing the breath of spring, the traditional Tet flavor and the sincere feelings of the people of the rice fields.

“Tet comes with pickled onions and red parallel sentences” - Vinh Hoa green Chung cake is bringing spring to every home, it is also the soul of the homeland and the identity of Vietnamese national culture, the fields stretch as far as the eye can see, the rice plants are full of grain, there is still green Chung cake for those who have left to remember.

Van Truong