Beside the lush green bamboo grove and the ripening banana trees, a pot of sticky rice dumplings simmers over a fire, emitting a fragrant aroma. The dumplings are cooked, still steaming, and as I gently peel back the bamboo leaf wrapper, I reveal a translucent yellow dumpling with finely ground glutinous rice grains forming a solid mass. The wrapper is both chewy and slightly crunchy, with a unique flavor from the glutinous rice soaked in ash water, blended with the fragrant bamboo leaves, the sweet and nutty taste of beans, and the richness of coconut, creating the distinctive flavor of "Ba Hai's sticky rice dumplings."

Mrs. Hai (Pham Le Thuy, 62 years old, Ho Thi Ky commune) inherited the craft from her mother at the age of 11. With over 50 years of family tradition in making sticky rice cakes (banh u), she and her sisters have created the "Cai Tau Vam sticky rice cake" brand. Mrs. Hai says that making sticky rice cakes wrapped in bamboo leaves seems easy, but it's actually not. The cakes look simple, but making a delicious one requires many steps. Everyone has their own recipe, but for her family, soaking the sticky rice is crucial because it determines the success of the batch. The sticky rice must be soaked in lime-infused ash water for 24 hours, then rinsed several times with clean water. The person soaking the rice must be experienced, mixing the ash water in the correct proportions; if it's too thick, the cake will be bitter and difficult to eat, if it's too thin, the rice won't be smooth, and the cake won't be chewy or delicious.

Her hometown is in Cái Tàu estuary (Tắc Thủ hamlet, Hồ Thị Kỷ commune, Thới Bình district). When her family moved to Hồ Thị Kỷ commune, although it was only a different hamlet, almost no one there knew how to make this cake. Whenever there was a memorial service in the hamlet, she would prepare by soaking the glutinous rice and mung beans, then instruct the women in the hamlet on how to make the cakes. The mung beans are washed clean of their husks, cooked until soft, then simmered with sugar and grated coconut milk over low heat until the beans dry out. The heat is then turned off, the mixture is left to cool, and then rolled into balls.

The bamboo leaves are soaked in water and washed clean. She takes a handful of finely split, dried reeds, ties them to a nail in the corner of the house, and lets them hang down. She stacks two or three bamboo leaves, depending on their size, overlapping them slightly, then wraps them into a ring. She places the sticky rice and filling inside, positioning the filling between two portions of rice. She then covers the filling completely with more sticky rice. Finally, she folds the corners of the bamboo leaves into a triangle and ties it with reeds so that all three sides of the cake are equal, forming a triangle.

The process of cooking the cakes is also very elaborate. The water must be boiling before the cakes are added, and the fire must be kept burning steadily; if the fire goes out, the cakes will be undercooked. Water must be added continuously to prevent the pot from drying up, ensuring even cooking. Only then will the cakes retain the delicate sweetness of the sugar, the chewiness of the glutinous rice, and the aroma of the bamboo leaves, allowing them to last for 3-4 days without spoiling. According to Mrs. Hai, bamboo leaf cakes can be cooked in about 2 hours, but to make the glutinous rice soft and prevent spoilage, the fire must be kept burning steadily for about 3 hours before removing the cakes.

"At first, when I learned to wrap bánh chưng (Vietnamese rice cakes) from my mother, there were times I wanted to give up. From wrapping the leaves to tying the strings, everything was very difficult for a 10-year-old girl. The cakes I made were uneven, misshapen, and sometimes the strings broke or the folds came undone. But thanks to my mother's patient guidance, I gradually became proficient," Mrs. Hai confided.

With nimble hands still wrapping each rice cake, Mrs. Hai continued her story: “Back then, my sisters and I loved watching plays. When we heard in the neighborhood that a ‘playing troupe’ was coming to Thoi Binh market, we eagerly begged Mom to let us go see it. Mom told the three of us to wrap 1,000 rice cakes from noon until evening before we could go see the play. Although we were new to wrapping, the three of us, because we wanted to see the play, all made beautiful cakes. With the pot of cakes simmering over the fire, the three of us put on our new clothes and walked with the other women in the neighborhood from Cai Tau estuary to the district market to watch the play.”

That was in the past, but now it's normal for her to wrap over 1,000 rice dumplings a day. With the leaves, string, sticky rice, and filling prepared in advance, she wraps over 250 dumplings per hour. This year, for the Dragon Boat Festival, she wrapped over 9,000 rice dumplings. From the morning of the 2nd to the 4th day of the lunar month, her kitchen was always bustling with activity, ensuring she could deliver the dumplings to her regular customers on time.

Every day, Mrs. Hai can bake 1,500 sticky rice dumplings.

In her free time, Mrs. Hai would weave plastic baskets for factories or contribute to competitions showcasing handcrafted plastic baskets, always helping out. When the provincial traditional cake competition was held, the women's association invited her to participate, but she declined. Mr. Hai was getting old, often ill, and his legs were weak. Their children and grandchildren lived far away, so Mrs. Hai always wanted to be by his side, sharing his joys and sorrows.

Every day, she would chop bananas, slice them into rounds, and Mr. Hai would mince them and mix them with bran and rice to feed the nearly 100 ducks and chickens behind the house. Initially, she intended to raise a few ducks and chickens for her grandchildren to visit or to entertain guests from afar. But when the ducks and chickens reached maturity and laid eggs, she couldn't eat them all, so she busied herself making nests and hatching chicks. She had a knack for it and took good care of the flock; all the chickens and ducks grew plump and quickly. "Her three children kept nagging her, saying, 'Now that you're getting old, and you're all successful, and we have land to rent out, we have a decent monthly income, so we can retire and enjoy our old age.'" Both she and her husband refused, saying they would be sad if they didn't work, especially with the rice dumpling making business; she felt sad if she didn't make them for a while.

Mr. Hai was also a constant companion; when his wife was preparing to make cakes, he would take a basket to the garden to pick bamboo leaves, tie them into bundles with reeds, and while she was wrapping the cakes, he would gather firewood to light the fire and boil water. When she was slicing bananas, he would also take a knife and cutting board to chop them finely. The two of them were there for each other from morning till night.

Despite a relatively stable family economy and successful children, Mrs. Hai still doesn't want to "turn her back" on the traditional craft passed down from her mother. Each profession has its own unique characteristics, and each person has different passions, but for Mrs. Hai, she always wants to contribute her small effort to keep the flame of traditional bamboo leaf rice cake making burning brightly.

Bao Han

Source: https://baocamau.vn/ba-hai-banh-u-a1622.html