Tu Le pearls

It seems that people are too familiar with the concept of “ Hanoi Autumn and Com Lang Vong”. But this autumn, if you are welcoming the golden season in the highlands, visitors should listen to the sound of pounding Com in the village to learn about a delicious snack but full of rustic emotions from the fields and mountains. All over the Northwest and Northeast, wherever there is new season sticky rice, people are urgently harvesting, winnowing, and rhythmically pounding the green rice to produce green pearls with the fragrance of the fields and hills in autumn. The road to Yen Bai in the golden season always attracts tourists, especially when passing through Tu Le town (Van Chan district). This town with a beautiful name is nestled in a valley between three high mountains: Khau Song, Khau Pha and Khau Than. For many generations, people here have relied on the terrain to cultivate rice on terraced fields. Among the varieties of rice and sticky rice grown in Tu Le, there is a traditional sticky rice variety that is ranked as the best in Vietnam with valuable characteristics such as being sticky, fragrant, delicious, and rich. This rice variety, which is only grown once a year, creates the famous specialty “Tu Le sticky rice”. And of course, if the sticky rice is delicious, the green rice will also be delicious. From mid-August to mid-October, when people start harvesting sticky rice, the “com kilns” are bustling with activity throughout the villages. We didn’t have to go too far, we stopped by a house on the side of the road in the town center with a sign “Com Tu Le” to learn how they make it. The Thai people here are very hospitable, always smiling when talking to visitors from afar. They say that the rice chosen to make green rice flakes must be harvested at dawn, when the rice flowers are soaked with night dew. The heavy rice grains have large, round, firm grains, blue-yellow husks, and the heads still have a little milk. The sticky rice brought home is pre-processed: threshed, winnowed, rinsed in clean water, and then roasted on a cast iron pan. Perhaps the most important step in roasting the rice is the roaster’s experience in controlling the heat, paying attention to the time and stirring constantly so that the grains gradually separate from the husk. After that, they will be spread out to cool and put into a mortar. The mortar is rustic but attractive to visitors from the lowlands, making everyone interested in trying it. The stone mortar and the wooden pounding column transmit force through a foot-controlled horizontal bar. One person pedals to pound the wooden column into the stone mortar while another person stirs the green rice in the mortar evenly. This continues rhythmically until the rice husks are cracked, the round, flat green rice grains are sifted for the last time to be packaged in a layer of green dong leaves. The guests are delighted to be able to try the green rice grains that have just come out of the oven, still warm, fragrant, and soft. No one pays anyone, everyone buys very quickly as if they are afraid of losing this delicious gift. Tu Le green rice is famous far and wide, thanks to which the people here have more income and motivation to expand the cultivation and production area. For the people in Tu Le, making green rice is not only a traditional profession but also a livelihood for a more prosperous life.

Heritage Magazine

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