''Bánh đúc'' is a

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...

bánh In Vietnamese, the term ''bánh'' ( or , Chữ Nôm: 餅) translates loosely as "cake" or "bread", but refers to a wide variety of prepared foods that can easily be eaten by hands or chopsticks. With the addition of qualifying adjectives, ' ...

'' (cake). There are two main types of bánh đúc, the white Northern Vietnamese cake and the green Southern version. This cake is also considered a local food of

Trat Trat (, ), also spelt Trad, is a town in Thailand, capital of Trat province and the Mueang Trat district. The town is in the east of Thailand, at the mouth of the Trat River, near the border with Cambodia. Etymology ''Trat'' is believed to d ...

, a small province located at the easternmost tip of Thailand. Bánh đúc is also found in

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

Northern Vietnamese version

In northern Vietnam, ''bánh đúc'' is a cake made from either non-glutinous

rice flour Rice flour (also rice powder) is a form of flour made from finely milled rice. It is distinct from rice starch, which is usually produced by steeping rice in lye. Rice flour is a common substitute for wheat flour. It is also used as a thickening ...

or corn flour. It is white in color and has a soft texture and mild flavour. It is typically garnished with savory ingredients such as ground pork, ''tôm chấy'' (grilled ground shrimp), fried onions, sesame seeds, salt, peanuts, lime juice, and

soy sauce Soy sauce (sometimes called soya sauce in British English) is a liquid condiment of China, Chinese origin, traditionally made from a fermentation (food), fermented paste of soybeans, roasted cereal, grain, brine, and ''Aspergillus oryzae'' or ''A ...

fish sauce Fish sauce is a liquid condiment made from fish or krill that have been coated in salt and fermented for up to two years. It is used as a staple seasoning in East Asian cuisine and Southeast Asian cuisine, particularly Myanmar, Cambodia, L ...

. Although it may be eaten on its own, it may also be served hot, accompanied by steamed meat or

mushroom A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing Sporocarp (fungi), fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or another food source. ''Toadstool'' generally refers to a poisonous mushroom. The standard for the n ...

s. ''Bánh đúc'' is available at small stalls and is eaten throughout the day.

Southern Vietnamese version

In southern Vietnam, ''bánh đúc'' is a dessert made from non-glutinous rice flour. It takes the form of gelatinous blocks that are often colored green by the addition of ''

Pandanus amaryllifolius ''Pandanus'' is a genus of monocots with about 578 accepted species. They are palm-like, dioecious trees and shrubs native to the Old World tropics and subtropics. Common names include pandan, screw palm and screw pine. The genus is classifi ...

'' leaf extract. It is cooked by boiling the ingredients and allowing them to cool, solidifying into a jelly-like sheet that is then cut into blocks.

Varieties

*Bánh đúc bột gạo - made from (non-glutinous) rice flour *Bánh đúc bột năng dòn trong *Bánh đúc vân đá cẩm thạch - veined coloration resembles

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

*Bánh đúc gạo - made from (non-glutinous) rice *Bánh đúc khoai môn - made with

taro Taro (; ''Colocasia esculenta'') is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, stems and Petiole (botany), petioles. Taro corms are a ...

*Bánh đúc mặn - made with pork or shrimp *Bánh đúc miền trung - made in the central region of Vietnam *Bánh đúc ngô - made from maize *Bánh đúc nộm - ''bánh đúc'' salad *Bánh đúc nóng - hot ''bánh đúc'' *Bánh đúc nước dừa - made with coconut milk *Bánh đúc nước cốt dừa - made with coconut juice *Bánh đúc sốt - steaming hot ''bánh đúc'' *Bánh đúc xanh - literally "green ''bánh đúc''"; made with ''Pandanus amaryllifolius'' leaf extract

Sayings

The Vietnamese people have a saying: The literal meaning is: "bones are never found in ''bánh đúc'', just like a stepmother never loves her husband's own children." This

couplet In poetry, a couplet ( ) or distich ( ) is a pair of successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (closed) couplet, each of the two lines is end-stopped, implying that there ...

is used to describe something very unlikely to happen.

References

External links