Countryside gift 'for fun' becomes a specialty in Do Luong

Mr. Nguyen Sy Lam's family in hamlet 3, Dong Son commune, Do Luong has been making sticky rice cakes for nearly 40 years, and he is the third generation. "I don't remember exactly where the sticky rice cake profession started. I only remember that since I was a child, when I was five years old, I saw my grandparents making sticky rice cakes on occasions when the family had engagements, festivals, and Tet. When my parents were in their time, they made sticky rice cakes not only to eat but also to sell at the market. Every month, there were five or seven dozen cakes, each of which was enough to earn extra income to support the family. Now, the sticky rice cake profession has been passed down to seven sons, daughters, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren in the family."

Made according to a family secret, Dong Son gai cake also has a unique flavor compared to gai cakes from other regions such as gai cakes from Dua village (Tuong Son, Anh Son); gai cakes from Tu Tru (Thanh Hoa), gai cakes from Khong village (Ha Tinh)... The process of making the cake from selecting the ingredients to the cake is very elaborate, requiring perseverance, meticulousness and skilled experience of the baker. Gai leaves are grown in home gardens or on alluvial land along the Lam River, the soil is good and fertile, so the gai leaves here are large and green. After harvesting, the leaves are removed from pests, washed, the veins are stripped, and dried until the leaves turn black, then put in a pot to boil thoroughly. After that, the water is squeezed out, the leaves are crushed into a fine powder.

Choose firm, plump fragrant sticky rice and grind it into flour. Mix the ramie leaf flour with the sticky rice and molasses and beat the dough into a smooth, sticky mixture. The filling includes molasses, mung beans, and grated coconut. The beans are broken, the shells are removed, cooked, and mixed with molasses. The coconut meat is thinly grated into strands. Take this dough and shape it into round balls, then spread it thinly on the palm of your hand, put the filling in the middle, and roll it so that the filling fits neatly in the center of the cake. Finally, the cake is steamed.

For experienced bakers, they only need to smell the aroma of the cake to know whether it is done or not. After taking the cake out, let it cool and drain completely, then use red-dyed string, tie each one tightly and bundle 5 pieces together so that they are square. A qualified cake must be both soft and smooth, with the characteristic aroma of banana leaves, mixed with the cool taste of ramie leaves, sticky rice and molasses, the sweetness of bean paste, the richness of coconut meat...

To create a stable raw material area for cake production, in addition to the land area that households in the group use to grow ramie leaves (2 hectares), the cooperative also cooperates with households in the commune to grow green beans (1 hectare), sticky rice (2 hectares) and banana trees for leaves. In addition, they contribute capital and buy machinery to gradually switch from manual to automatic in some stages: milling flour, kneading dough, packaging... Thanks to that, it not only saves labor but also increases productivity and cake output.

“In the past, if we did it all by hand, 5-7 workers could only make a few hundred finished cakes a day. Now, with the help of machines, we can produce about 1,000 gai cakes a day to supply the market,” said Mr. Nguyen Sy Lam.

In particular, instead of selling through traditional channels, now the members of the team are assigned clear tasks, some put the products on e-commerce platforms, others directly produce... Thanks to that, up to now, Dong Son sticky rice cake products have been available at agents in the province, outside the province and on the shelves of some supermarkets and modern retail systems.

In addition to creating jobs and stable income for dozens of local workers, developing the traditional profession of our ancestors, the gai cake making profession also helps consume local ingredients such as: sticky rice, molasses, green beans, banana leaves, gai leaves... In 2022, Dong Son gai cake was recognized as 3-star OCOP, opening up a new opportunity for the gai cake making profession to develop, creating sustainable livelihoods for local people.

Mr. Dau Tiep, an agricultural official of Dong Son commune, said: “Overcoming a “father-to-son” profession, the households producing gai cakes have established a cooperative group, invested in packaging and designs; and know how to build a business strategy and approach the market. In the near future, the members of the group plan to expand the factory and production scale associated with experiential tourism; creating jobs and stable income for 50 local workers.”