Rice paper from Cho Don market - A lifelong debt of gratitude!

There is an old folk song that says: Cho Don Market is open six times a month/If you don’t go, you will miss the curse with each other , it is a promise of love and also a part of the cultural and spiritual life of the people of my hometown. Rain or shine, when the dew drops are still on the grass, mothers and sisters from Quang Hoa, Quang Loc, Quang Thanh, Quang Long… are bustling with laughter, happily carrying on their shoulders baskets of specialties to sell at the market. In that sound, there is a faint fragrance, a rustic yet passionate fragrance, that is the fragrance of rice paper from the countryside.

Rice paper, also known as rice paper, is a familiar dish in Vietnamese cuisine . But the rice paper of my hometown has a strong traditional flavor, closely associated with the lives of people downstream of the Gianh River for generations. Therefore, Don market rice paper is not only a dish but also a souvenir of time in the memory of each person.

Mentioning this, I suddenly remembered someone wrote: Mom went to the market, came back and passed by the bakery/I just wanted a sesame rice cake/I don't need much, just one piece/It's a whole afternoon of fragrant love. The rustic cake but contains sweet, warm family affection, arousing a whole sky of childhood memories. "Don't need much, just one piece" , it has shown a simple philosophy. Love is not measured by material things but by small, sincere care and sharing. All of that has created "It's a whole afternoon of fragrant love" , a warm feeling, wrapping the whole afternoon of childhood in the fragrance of cake, in mother's love, in gentle nostalgia.

My childhood was the same, every time my mother went to the market, I would look forward to it, her eyes always looking towards the hedge of the tea trees in front of the house. When my mother came back from the market, there was always a gift of rice paper in her basket that my sisters and I eagerly awaited. My mother would share a piece with each of us, a strange feeling of joy. Not daring to eat quickly, I would break it and sip it little by little, little by little to feel the sweet taste of the new rice flour, the crispy aroma of the cake mixed with my mother's silent figure. Time gradually passed, the years of wandering around the world to make a living, I still felt sad every time I remembered the rice paper from back then.

Nowadays, in modern society, life is full but rice paper is always present in daily meals to luxurious banquets. Each type has its own appearance and flavor.

In my hometown, the cake makers are scattered throughout the villages in the region, but the famous brand of Ba Don, Central region is Tan An cake village, Quang Thanh. The cake makers here usually wake up at cock crow. The cakes are made from new rice, fragrant rice, and seasonal rice, soaked and ground thoroughly. The cake making oven is made of clay, the cakes are spread with a ladle of dough, and covered for a few minutes to release the aroma.

The cakes are then dried on bamboo mats and then left to dry in the sun. A rice paper sheet from the oven is a painstaking process: from lining it with cloth, to keeping the fire even, spreading the dough to the right size, then leaving it out to dry in the sun; it must have enough sunlight so that the cake does not warp, does not break, and can be preserved for a long time. Each cake is like a slice of life, with sunshine, Lao wind, the scent of the fields, and the sweat of the hard-working people.

If you have the opportunity to visit Ba Don, take a cruise upstream of Gianh River to feel the unexpected beauty when passing through Tan An rice paper village. Leaning against the poetic Gianh River are rows of high-rise buildings decorated by bustling riverside roads, rows of green trees rustling coolly, and fragrant rice paper panels blending in the early morning sun.

If you go by road, about 2km from the center of Ba Don town, following National Highway 12A to Cha Lo International Border Gate, you look to the left, a village with bamboo groves, the green of rice fields, and rice paper panels shining under the sunlight, that is Tan An rice paper craft village, the main supplier of rice paper for Ba Don market. Tan An rice paper craft village is not noisy with advertising, not glossy packaging, it is present like the rustic, hard-working people of the Central region. The famous rice paper products of the people here not only reduce poverty but also help them have a full and prosperous life.

Today, Ba Don Market has changed a lot, with a synchronous planning, both preserving its traditional features and meeting the needs of trade and tourism in the period of integration and development. The old rice paper baskets may no longer exist, instead there are spacious stalls displaying all kinds of rice paper and local cuisine. Rice paper in particular, a rustic gift from the land north of Gianh River, is not only a rustic food, but has become a cultural symbol and pride of the people here.

Through the upheavals of time, the crispy rice paper still retains its traditional flavor. In modern life, Don market rice paper has followed tourists to every corner, appearing in specialty stalls and hometown fairs. Through hometown gift packages, Don market rice paper contains love and is sent to every corner of the country.

Don Market rice paper carries the breath of the sunny and windy Central region, is the thread connecting the past with the present, is the proof of the durability of the homeland values in modern life. Therefore, Don Market rice paper is not only a dish, but also a memory, an emotion, a pride of Ba Don people: Crispy rice paper tilts the golden sunlight/Mother's figure in the middle of life lights up my childhood/Years pass, the moon is still full/Like a cake of the soul of the homeland dyed with nostalgia/The sound of the wind, of the river, echoing the lullaby of the past/Don Market rice paper is a lifelong bond with me!

Tran Dinh

Source: https://baoquangbinh.vn/van-hoa/202506/banh-trang-cho-don-duyen-no-suot-doi-con-2227270/