The Art of Making Bánh Tét
Photograph from johnlemon on Flickr
I woke up super-duper early this morning to witness a very special tradition—the making of Bánh Tét. With the Lunar New Year days away, my grandma’s sister and her two daughters-in-law gathered for their annual ritual of making this holiday specialty.
Bánh tét are cylindrical sticky rice cakes filled with pork fat and mung bean paste seasoned with black pepper and shallots. The cakes are wrapped in banana leaves and as a result, the sticky rice takes on a pale green color and a slightly leafy taste. Even though bánh tét are available all year, it is still considered a New Year’s treat.
Back at home in America, no one in my family goes through the trouble of making bánh tét by hand. Seeing one of my favorite foods executed firsthand definitely gave me a greater appreciation for it.
About the author: Cathy Danh is spending her Odyssey years in Saigon, Vietnam where she works as a copy editor and writer. She aims to eat five-a-day and avoids trans-fats like the plague. When Cathy’s not blogging, talking or reading about food, she’s most likely getting in some high-quality mileage along the Saigon River. Running + eating = perfection.
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8 Comments:
oh my goodness, I LOVE these (Cambodians make the same thing). I used to eat them cold. But the best way I like them is when you slice them and pan fry them.
FoodieCutie at 2:30PM on 02/05/08
what? no black eyed peas?
chlamers at 2:55PM on 02/05/08
oooh... i bet these would taste mighty similar to the pyramid-shaped rice dumplings that the Chinese have =p
i've never made them from scratch with leaf wrappers, but when i get a craving, i chuck the ingredients (glutinous rice, shitake mushrooms, dried shrimp, peanuts, marinade) in a rice cooker and it fixes the craving =p
onedaylingers at 4:04PM on 02/05/08
This makes me hungry and nostalgic. My dad makes this every year (actually banh chung http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banh_chung, the square version) and shares stories of how his mom (my grandma who I never had the pleasure of meeting) painstakingly spent days making tons of cakes to give out to friends and family for Tet. I won't be making it home this year, but hopefully I can plan better next year to spend time with my dad to learn the tricks of the trade.
FeedMe at 12:38PM on 02/06/08
My mom makes these every year too. It's such a nice tradition, sitting around the kitchen table all day assembling all the parts into one delicious cake. Bánh Tét is what they call it in the south, and it's round. In the north it's called Bánh Chưng and square.
frontstudio at 11:50AM on 02/08/08
Oops, I forgot the link to some "making of banh chung" photos:
http://vietclub.blogspot.com/2008/02/making-bnh-chng.html
frontstudio at 11:52AM on 02/08/08
Wow, brings back memories of Tet in our household when I was a wee small ladette.
foodiegirl at 1:39PM on 02/08/08
i prefer these sticky rice cakes with a baby banana filling. the bananas get all caramelized from the long cooking. i used to make them often, even during non-New Year days.
those banh tet does lack red beans in the sticky rice part.
charmedbeneath at 12:57AM on 02/12/08