Humpback Chung cake, a specialty of Ha Giang

CTTĐT – Ha Giang is a place where the culinary quintessence of 19 ethnic groups living together converge. In addition to famous dishes such as au tau porridge, men men, thang co... Ha Giang is also famous for its humpbacked banh chung. This dish has a different flavor from banh chung and banh tet in the lowlands and the south and has interesting meanings.

Ba Dung's Chung cake production facility wraps cakes to serve customers.

Humpback Chung Cake is a typical and popular cake of the Tay ethnic group in Ha Giang. The cake has the shape of a woman carrying a basket on her back and bending down. This is an indispensable cake in the Tay people's holidays and New Year. The cake is wrapped very carefully and displayed on the altar to worship ancestors and used in traditional meals.

Humpback Chung Cake product after completion.

Nowadays, in order to promote and introduce to more tourists inside and outside the province, as well as to serve the daily needs of people in the province. Many reputable establishments have wrapped thousands of humpback Chung cakes every day to meet market demand.

To learn more about this specialty, we went to Ms. Dang Anh Nguyet's humpbacked Chung cake facility, Group 5, Ngoc Ha ward, Ha Giang city to learn about the process and techniques to make delicious humpbacked Chung cakes.

According to Ms. Nguyet, to make delicious "humpback Chung cakes", her establishment has carefully selected the ingredients and especially the process of preparing and selecting the ingredients. According to the family's experience, her establishment has ordered and selected each young dong leaf. After washing and drying, the veins will be cut to make the leaves softer and easier to wrap.

For sticky rice to wrap the cake, her family ordered Bac Me sticky rice (a famous delicious rice in Ha Giang). After washing the rice, it will be soaked overnight for about 8 hours so that when boiled, the cake will become softer, more flexible and more delicious. The meat used to make the cake filling is fresh black pork, thinly sliced, marinated with spices such as pepper, fish sauce, salt, MSG. Green beans are also selected from new beans, after soaking, they will be cooked, mashed to make the cake filling.

According to Ms. Nguyet, the Tay people's humpbacked Chung cake usually has two types: black Chung cake and green Chung cake. For black Chung cake, the Tay people will create color in many different ways such as using sticky rice, núc nác tree, sesame tree, salted xoan tree... washed, dried, burned into charcoal and then pounded very finely and mixed with rice when boiled to produce black cakes.

As for the green banh chung, the Tay people will grind galangal leaves, mix the water with rice, and when boiled, the cake will have an attractive green color, eye-catching while still retaining the sweet aroma of the rice.

Ha Giang black humpbacked banh chung.

Coming to the stage of wrapping the cake, this is the most important and elaborate stage, it determines the value and quality of the cake. The technique of wrapping humpbacked Chung cake is carried out according to the following process: First, spread out the dong leaves, the green side of the leaves will be the outside so that after the cake is cooked, the color of the cake will be more beautiful. Next, spread a layer of rice, then a layer of beans and about two pieces of meat filling; then cover with a layer of beans and a layer of rice on top. To wrap the cake faster, the stage of making the filling of beans and meat together is all prepared in advance by the person wrapping the cake.

Ms. Nguyet is performing the process of wrapping humpbacked banh chung.

The dumplings must be wrapped tightly enough to prevent the rice from spilling out. The dumplings have meat filling in the middle, surrounded by beans and sticky rice. When cut, the dumplings must have enough filling in each piece.

The difference compared to the traditional banh chung of the Kinh people is that the cake leaves will be fewer and have different shapes such as long cake, hump cake. Hump cake has a convex back like the shape of a mountain peak and is wrapped with a long string running along the body of the cake. The size of the cake, big or small, depends on the intention of the wrapper.

Green sticky rice cake after it is cooked.

After wrapping, the humpbacked banh chung will be boiled for about 8 - 10 hours, then taken out, rinsed with cold water, and hung up to drain. When boiling, the fire must be kept steady, not letting the water dry out, to avoid the cake burning and not cooking evenly. When cooked, the humpbacked banh chung of the Tay people will have an attractive color, blended with the aroma of sticky rice with the fatty taste of black pork, the rich taste of green bean filling and the characteristic flavor of dong leaves.

From those flavors, Ha Giang humpbacked Chung cake has become a famous specialty loved by consumers in and outside the province. With nearly 20 years of making cakes, Ms. Nguyet's family has built a brand and exported 1,000 cakes to the provinces of Hai Phong, Hanoi, Ha Nam, Tuyen Quang, Thanh Hoa, Thai Binh every day. Especially on holidays, there are days when her family orders nearly 1,500 humpbacked Chung cakes. Creating jobs for dozens of female workers in the area.

In addition to Ms. Nguyet's family's humpbacked banh chung facility, in Ha Giang province there are many other famous traditional banh chung and humpbacked banh chung production facilities such as Mrs. Dung's humpbacked banh chung, Mrs. Lan's humpbacked banh chung...

To protect and build the brand of Ha Giang humpbacked banh chung, these establishments always put prestige and quality first. From there, they have created the famous specialty brand of Ha Giang humpbacked banh chung to customers inside and outside the province.

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