Fire burns all night making rice paper at a century-old craft village in An Giang

Fire burns all night making rice paper at a century-old craft village in An Giang

Sunday, February 4, 2024 7:30 PM (GMT+7)

In the West, during the traditional Tet holiday, in addition to the typical banh tet, banh pul (rice paper) is also an indispensable dish in every family. In the days leading up to Tet, the nearly 100-year-old banh pul (rice paper) craft village in An Giang is always burning fire all night to have enough goods to sell for Tet.

Phu My rice paper making village (in Hamlet 3, Phu My town, Phu Tan district, An Giang province), is about 38 km from Long Xuyen city center and about 40 km from Chau Doc city center.

According to Mr. Tran Tuan Linh (one of the households that have been making rice paper for a long time in Phu My), shared: According to the elders, Phu My rice paper craft village was born from the time when people first learned to grow sticky rice, about more than 100 years ago. Currently, there are more than 50 households participating in rice paper production. Among them, the families of Mrs. Ngo Thi Don, Le Minh Don, Tran Van Tam,.. are considered the oldest rice paper producing households in Phu My town.

Mr. Linh added that to make a rice paper cake, it must go through many stages and requires a lot of skill and diligence from the maker. The main ingredient to make Phu My rice paper cake is harvested sticky rice, grown right in Phu Tan land. After selecting the sticky rice, it will be soaked in water for 3 days and 3 nights, then cleaned of the cloudy water.

In Phu My rice paper making village, the first steps of making rice paper usually start at around 1am. At this time, people put sticky rice into the pot and cook it. The fragrant smell of sticky rice spreads throughout the village.

When the rooster starts crowing, the sticky rice is cooked and is put into a mortar to be pounded. In the past, sticky rice was pounded by hand, people put the sticky rice into a stone mortar and used a wooden pestle to pound it smooth. This step was very heavy, usually done by men. Nowadays, this step has been assisted by machines so the sticky rice is pounded very quickly.

When the sticky rice flour is smooth, it will be divided into small pieces and rolled out evenly with a wooden roller into a thin, circular layer, about 20 cm in diameter. If the cake-making stage requires the strength of men, then the cake-rolling stage requires the dexterity and meticulousness of mothers, sisters, and children. To produce each type of cake with different thickness, the cake-rolling stage will decide everything. But in the 4.0 era, in Phu My rice paper craft village, the cake-rolling stage is also supported by machines.

After the cake is rolled out by the machine to the right size, people will arrange the cake on a mat, so that when the sun just rises, the cake will be taken out to dry. According to the people here, drying the cake in the early morning, with moderate sunlight will make the cake have the right amount of elasticity, fragrant without being dry and broken.

The cakes are arranged on mats and brought out to the yard to wait for the sun to rise.

After being dried in the sun for half a day, the rice paper will have a beautiful light yellow color and be soft and fragrant.

After the cakes are dried in the sun, they will be brought to a cool place where people will take them apart, arrange them into dozens, and put them in bags for storage.

Phu My rice paper currently has many types. In addition to traditional sticky rice paper, there are also sesame rice paper with coconut milk, sesame rice paper with cane sugar to be eaten raw, milk and white sugar rice paper, banana rice paper, noodle rice paper... Among them, sesame rice paper and milk rice paper are considered the two most delicious rice paper types here and are ordered by many customers both on weekdays and during Tet.

To enjoy the rice paper cake, it will be grilled on red hot coals. The cake is initially only as small as a plate but when grilled, it will swell up to be as big as a palm leaf fan. The process of grilling rice paper cake on charcoal also requires a lot of skill. The cake must be grilled just right, with a moderate crispiness and not burnt.

The cake after baking will be both spongy and soft. The fatty taste of sticky rice, coconut, the sweetness of milk and sugar mixed with the nutty taste of sesame, banana, etc. create a very unique delicious flavor that no other cake has.

In the West, on the days before Tet, families will buy dozens of rice paper cakes to use on the 30th night of Tet, waiting for New Year's Eve to boil Tet cakes and bake rice paper cakes. The family gathers around the fire, baking cakes and enjoying them, very happy, warm and together.

Hong Cam - Ba Phuc

Source: https://danviet.vn/do-lua-xuyen-dem-quet-banh-phong-tai-lang-nghe-tram-tuoi-o-an-giang-20240204133841446.htm