Sweet soup made with palm sugar and Bay Nui palm fruit. Photo: THANH THANH
In Bay Nui, wandering through the Khmer villages and hamlets at midday, it's not difficult to spot wisps of smoke rising from palm sugar mills. Even from a distance, you can smell the fragrant aroma emanating from the boiling palm sap. While stirring the palm sugar, Ms. Neang Ray Tha, a resident of An Cu commune, explains that from around the 10th lunar month, households preparing palm sugar start getting their tools ready to climb and harvest the sap. The palm sugar making season lasts until around the 5th lunar month of the following year, as the palm sap is very sweet at this time, resulting in a higher yield of sugar. If the dry season is prolonged, harvesting can continue for another two months. Palm trees take about 3-4 months to flower from seed to about 10 years old, yielding sap with a very small amount of sugar. Palm trees have a very long lifespan; the older the tree, the more sap it produces, increasing the yield each year and increasing the sugar content. Palm trees that are about 30-40 years old practically flower, bear fruit, and produce sap year-round.
Every day, twice a day, Mr. Chau Thi, a resident of Tinh Bien ward, brings his tools to the palm tree field near his house to collect sap to make palm sugar. Mr. Chau Thi said that palm sap is collected from the flowers of the palm tree. From the 30 palm trees his family owns and those rented from local people, he collects an average of about 150 liters of sap each day and makes 23-25 kg of palm sugar.
Nowadays, the palmyra palm is not only famous for its sweet sap used to make sugar, but also for producing many products such as wine, tea, jelly, rice cakes, candied palmyra palm, jam, etc., leaving an unforgettable taste in the hearts of locals and tourists visiting An Giang . Among them, the famous rice cake made with palmyra palm is a must-mention. According to Ms. Chau Kim Sinh, a resident of Tri Ton commune with many years of experience making rice cakes with palmyra palm, to make a delicious rice cake with palmyra palm, the main ingredients needed are Nang Nhen rice, palmyra palm sugar, ripe palmyra palm fruit, coconut, banana leaves, etc. The palmyra palm fruit selected for the cake must be fully ripe, peeled, halved, and then ground into flour. This is a crucial ingredient that creates the yellow color and characteristic aroma of the rice cake with palmyra palm.
Typically, rice cakes are made with white or yellow granulated sugar. However, palm sugar rice cakes are made entirely with pure, high-quality palm sugar, resulting in a subtly sweet and non-cloying flavor. The golden-yellow, soft, and fluffy rice cakes have a delicate sweetness from the palm sugar, a richness from the coconut, and a subtle, characteristic aroma from the flour ground from ripe palm fruit. Ms. Sinh shared: “Previously, palm sugar rice cakes were only made for personal consumption or sold around the local market during Khmer festivals and holidays. Now, they are sold throughout the Mekong Delta provinces, Ho Chi Minh City, and even by overseas Vietnamese.”
Ms. Do Tran Ngoc Yen, a tourist from Ho Chi Minh City, said: “Every time I visit Bay Nui , I order 100 palm sugar rice cakes as gifts for my family, relatives, and friends. My family and I really enjoy the attractive and unique flavor of palm sugar rice cakes, a taste that can only be found in Bay Nui.”
Ms. Le Thi Bich Hien, a traditional cake maker residing in Tinh Bien ward, said: "I often choose products from the palm tree such as fruit, juice, jam, sugar, etc., as ingredients for making traditional cakes, hoping to contribute to promoting and introducing the value of the palm tree and my hometown to people and tourists both domestically and internationally."
THANH THANH
Source: https://baoangiang.com.vn/mon-ngon-tu-thot-not-a478047.html
Comment (0)