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Remembering the capital's sticky rice

Every time I pass by Hanoi, I always look to buy a handful of sticky rice.

Báo Thanh niênBáo Thanh niên30/07/2021

I am a northerner. I have passed through Hanoi many times. Hanoi is both far and near to me, strange and familiar. Every time I pass through Hanoi, I always look for a handful of sticky rice.
It’s not that I’m so “addicted” to this dish that I have to buy it, but I crave the feeling of returning to the memories of my first time in the capital. Sometimes it’s Co Lan’s banh khuc, sometimes it’s Quan’s banh khuc,… whatever, as long as I can hold a handful of Hanoi’s banh khuc in my hand.
Just holding a hot banh khuc wrapped in banana leaves makes my heart flutter with joy.
I remember the taste of the banh khuc from twenty years ago, it was strangely delicious, it stuck with my childhood and is delicious even now. The intact memories in my memory come flooding back.
That day, I was an 8th grader who followed a group of excellent students from my school to visit Uncle Ho's Mausoleum. On the way back, the bus stopped by Hoan Kiem Lake, and the teachers let us get off the bus to enjoy the view.
I stood looking at the rippling surface of the lake and glanced at the stone bench beside me. It smelled so good! I gingerly inhaled the aroma emanating from the handful of food in an old woman's hand.
She happily waved her hand, signaling me to sit back on the chair. She opened the banana leaf, a fragrant aroma wafted out, revealing a handful of white, shiny sticky rice. Perhaps, for a "country" child, who was hungry like me at that time, it was a strange yet extremely attractive dish. I pursed my lips, swallowing the saliva that was flowing out of my mouth. She smiled, broke the sticky rice in half, gave me half, and gently said: "You eat with me."
Inside the white sticky rice crust is a smooth green crust that wraps the green bean filling mixed with fatty meat. I feel like it is similar to the banh chung filling that my father used to wrap at home every Tet holiday . But when I put the sticky rice in my mouth and took a bite, I discovered that it was not at all like the taste of banh chung that I ate at home. A layer of rich, fatty green bean filling, mixed with the spicy aroma of pepper, seemed to melt in my mouth.
At that moment, I felt like this was the most delicious dish I had ever eaten. She looked at me and smiled gently, saying this was banh khuc. Her daughter often made it every weekend for the family to change up their menu.
When my friends called out, I thanked her and quickly got on the bus. The scent of sticky rice cake lingered in my mind. Therefore, every time I had the chance to pass through Hanoi, I wanted to buy a portion of sticky rice cake, not to fill my stomach but to fill my heart with longing.
Along with the nostalgia for Hanoi's delicious sticky rice, I also always remember the gentle eyes of my grandmother, a Hanoian.

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