Rice cake - rich flavor of rustic cake

STO - In addition to food and food for daily main meals, Soc Trang people also prepare many types of traditional cakes for entertainment, gifts, to entertain guests or during holidays and Tet.

After a long time living, working, and exchanging cultures together, with their open-mindedness, liberal spirit, diligence, and ingenuity, the three ethnic groups Kinh, Khmer, and Hoa in Soc Trang have transformed traditional cakes into diverse designs, rich in recipes, and forms of preparation.

Hundreds of types of cakes in the kitchens of housewives today are often present in holidays, fairs, regional, national and international culinary festivals. Typical examples include gold medals for tube cakes at the Southern Traditional Cake Festival in 2017 by artisans Thach Thi Thanh Sang and Trieu Sa Da; silver medals for flat rice cakes and gold medals for gourd cakes in 2018, silver medals for turnip cakes in 2019 by artisan Huynh Ngoc Lan.

Soc Trang rice cake - Silver medal at the 9th Southern Traditional Cake Festival in Can Tho in 2022.

In 2022, at the 9th Southern Traditional Cake Competition held in Can Tho, artisan Ly My Khanh's rice cake (Soc Trang) was honored to receive a silver medal from the organizing committee.

Soc Trang rice cake is usually made on the occasion of Ha Nguyen festival or also known as New Rice Festival, held on October 15 (lunar calendar) every year to offer to Than Nong. At that time, farming work is temporarily stopped, the fields are full of straw, the barns are full of rice, farmers happily thank Buddha, the sky, and their ancestors for favorable weather and wind for a bountiful harvest, at the same time praying for peace for the family and praying for the deceased.

Banh bong lua is usually made from rice flour that is ground and molded into long, soft, smooth, white cakes, rolled up with green beans dotted inside, and served with a bowl of coconut milk and fragrant onion oil, as if challenging and inviting diners.

Rice flour, tapioca starch, sugar, salt, coconut milk in appropriate proportions, dissolved in water, let stand for 30 minutes for the dough to expand. After steaming the mung beans, mix them into the expanded dough mixture, put the pan on high heat, stir well until the dough in the pan begins to thicken, then turn down the heat and continue stirring well. When the dough in the pan clumps into a mass and no longer sticks to the pan, turn off the heat and let cool.

Take a little oil and rub it on your hands. Then, take a sufficient amount of dough and shape it into long sticks of your desired length. Continue to shape it like that until you run out of dough. Put the pot on the stove, apply a thin layer of oil on the steamer tray. Arrange all the shaped banh duc sticks in the steamer and steam for 12-15 minutes over medium heat. Then, take the cakes out and put them on a plate. Mix the coconut milk and rice flour until thick, add a little salt, sugar, and vanilla. The scallion oil mixture includes salt, scallions, sesame oil and is used with the cake.

Although it is a vegetarian cake, it is very delicious. When enjoying it, people will be fascinated by the aroma of sesame oil, onion oil, the sweet and fatty taste of mung beans, the richness of salt and sugar, and the richness of coconut milk.

The rice cake is processed with both traditional and rustic characteristics suitable for the geographical area and what nature has to offer, and also shows the creativity, effort and heart of the maker.

In some places, people also have ways to make rice cake with many flavors, with different names such as taro cake, peanut cake, corn cake, coconut cake, or green bean cake, also known as rice cake, rice grandmother cake, rice leaf cake. "Reflecting the rustic flavor/Unforgettable rice cake with coconut milk".

The rice cake has all the elements of color, aroma, and taste, adding more color to the lives of workers. It can be said that Soc Trang folk cakes are increasingly appearing with a more refined and luxurious appearance, paired with many delicious cakes of the province in a completely new environment, leaving a unique and interesting impression in the hearts of diners near and far.

GEM

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