Soft and fragrant Banh Khuc - a rustic specialty

I'm not in Hanoi now, but every time I go on a business trip or have friends from the capital come to visit, I ask them to send me some banh khuc.

Hot Banh Khuc, a rustic specialty dish with white rice and yellow beans

Minh Minh

As everyone knows, Hanoi has Nguyen Cong Tru Street, famous for its traditional banh khuc (rice cake). Over time, due to the increasing demand, the descendants of the families in the old street opened more cake shops in all districts to serve customers.

Banh khuc is best eaten hot, and even more delicious in cold weather. The ingredients are simple, just field-picked vegetables , rice flour, green beans, pork and sticky rice, but it is delicious. A banh khuc sold for only 10,000 VND is enough to fill a child's stomach after school, sometimes asking the vendor to add some sticky rice is enough for breakfast.

Banh khuc is available in almost every village in the North. Every winter, people go to the fields to pick rau khuc (vegetables) and bring them home to make the cake. But due to the gourmet tastes of those living in the capital , the chefs have to make the cakes even more perfect.

In winter, use fresh leaves from the fields, and in the off-season, use dried leaves to wrap the cake. First, boil the leaves, then chop and pound them very finely, then mix them with sticky rice flour to make the cake crust. The cake filling has mashed green beans, add pork, choose pieces with both fat and lean meat to eat, and eat it lightly, just the right amount of fat. After molding a cake like that, place it on a layer of sticky rice and steam it on the stove to have a fragrant sticky rice dish.

Every time the shop owner sells the cake to a customer, he places it on a green banana leaf, sprinkles some sesame salt on the side to dip the cake for a rich flavor. The soft, white sticky rice grains cling to the light green crust of the cake, along with the fragrant yellow filling of green beans and meat, creating a simple yet delicious dish.

In most provinces in the Northern region, every winter, people pick rau khuc from the fields to make cakes. But from the countryside to the city, through the hands of those who are passionate about their hometown rice, Hanoi's banh khuc is more delicious and unique.

It is just a rustic food that many people love, even banh khuc is packaged, vacuum-sealed to send to the South, to go abroad on flights to reach friends around the world . Now that people can eat well, the delicacies are no longer attractive, the dishes of the homeland are even more loved and cherished.