Cuisine

'Variations' of banh chung

PV January 27, 2025 07:55

From traditional banh chung with sticky rice, green bean, pork, onion filling, in recent years, some restaurants and people have processed banh chung from many different types of rice and fillings.

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In addition to the usual green banh chung with meat and bean filling, some restaurants have created many different types to meet the diverse needs of customers.

Diversity

This is the second year that Vien Minh Vegetarian Restaurant (Hai Duong City) has made vegetarian banh chung with 3 types including mushroom, brown rice and special.

The mushroom cake has the outer filling of yellow sticky rice, the inside filling is made from oyster mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, lotus seeds, cashews, pink salt, vegetarian fish sauce, and pepper. As for the brown rice cake, instead of being made from sticky rice, the restaurant uses brown rice with a characteristic purple color, the cake filling has added beans and chickpeas. The special type has many similarities to the mushroom cake but the filling has additional ingredients such as cordyceps, notaky mushrooms, namiko... The price of each type of cake is from 60,000 - 80,000 VND/piece, the special cake costs 120,000 VND/piece.

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Brown rice banh chung is popular with many people because of its attractive color.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong Hien, owner of Vien Minh Vegetarian Restaurant, said that recently many people choose vegetarian food to change their taste, especially during Tet.

To wrap vegetarian banh chung, Vien Minh Vegetarian Restaurant also has its own secrets. With yellow sticky rice, before wrapping the cake, you need to add a little ground galangal water to the rice to make it fragrant and when cooked, the cake crust will be greener. With brown rice, you have to soak it for 8 hours, 2 hours longer than yellow sticky rice, so that the rice is soft when cooked. The dong leaves used to wrap the cake must be sticky dong leaves, not too old, not too young, so that when the cake is cooked, it will have a fragrant smell and be evenly green.

Ms. Pham Thi Hien, a banh chung wrapper at Vien Minh Vegetarian Restaurant, said: "To make a banh chung, the restaurant also has to try many times, especially creating the filling. We hope that when enjoying it, customers will feel the overall flavor of the cake but still have the unique flavor of each ingredient in the filling. The filling and crust are made according to the recipe to avoid the situation of the cake crust being thick and the filling being small and vice versa."

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This year, Vien Minh Vegetarian Restaurant (Hai Duong City) wrapped about 200 vegetarian cakes.

Not only restaurants, many families instead of wrapping only one traditional type, have varied the ingredients to have a richer pot of banh chung. Every year, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Hanh's family in Tat Thuong village (Lac Phuong commune, Tu Ky) wraps about 20 cakes. Of these, ten are traditional cakes, 5 are sugar-filled cakes, and the rest are gac cakes.

For the sugar-filled cakes, instead of using meat and onions, Mrs. Hanh uses brown sugar mixed with beans, mashed to make the filling. For the gac cake, she mixes gac into the rice to make the cake golden when cooked, making it look beautiful.

"Each person in the family has different preferences, so I pack many types. Even though it's done like that, it's not too complicated or difficult," said Ms. Hanh.

Favorite

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Vegetarian banh chung costs from 60,000 - 120,000 VND/piece, depending on the type.

In recent years, people's demand for Tet shopping and culinary enjoyment has changed. Many families shop and prepare for Tet early. According to Ms. Phuong Hien, since December 20, the restaurant has organized cake wrapping. As soon as the cakes are baked, people order them. Many people order a few to eat and give to relatives and friends. This year, the restaurant wrapped 200 vegetarian cakes to meet customer demand.

After enjoying vegetarian banh chung, Ms. Pham Thi Tam in Tat Thuong village, Lac Phuong commune (Tu Ky) said that the cake has a mild aroma, the mushroom filling is unique and not boring.

"Last year my family got to try it, so this year we bought a pair. My kids love it because of the delicious taste," said Ms. Tam.

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In addition to banh chay, some families also wrap banh chung with sugar and banh chung with gac fruit.

Although new, vegetarian banh chung still cannot replace traditional banh chung. Therefore, many families still combine these two types of cakes on the same tray.

Every time she receives cakes sent by her mother, Ms. Thanh Hien (Viet Hoa ward, Hai Duong city) really likes them. Ms. Hien shared: "In addition to satisfying my love for sugar cakes, I also feel my parents' love in each cake. Because of that love, every year my parents spend time preparing and painstakingly wrapping each cake for their children and grandchildren."

Banh chung is a traditional dish, indispensable during the traditional Tet holiday of Vietnamese people. With diverse variations, the Tet tray will have more delicious flavors.

PV
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'Variations' of banh chung