Snack foods - a special stroke in the picture of Hà Nội cuisine
VGP - Snack foods refer to the food eaten between meals or for relaxation. Thinking of snack foods, all Hanoians remember the special sounds that cannot be found anywhere outside Hà Nội: the cry for steamed sticky rice and bread every morning; the cry for bánh khúc ( khúc cake), b ánh giò ( giò cake), xôi chè (sticky rice with sweetened porridge), boiled maize or baked sweet potatoes in the late morning or at night. Each cry has a different rhythm and tone and leaves unforgettable memories in Hà Nội people and foreign tourists. This is a unique trait and a quintessence of eating and drinking culture in Hà Nội.
Another unique trait of Hà Nội’s snack foods is their popularity and convenience. Whenever you need a snack, you can enjoy it immediately. Snack foods are available in shops in all residential areas; or sold in peddled wares in all corners in Hà Nội; or made by housewives in families.
These are some typical snack foods in Hà Nội
Chè (different
from tea) or sweetened porridge is a kind of food made of sugar or dried
treacle and rice, sticky rice or rice flour and other bulbs and seeds.
Chè bà cốt – Illustration photo
- Chè bà cốt:
made of sticky rice and dried treacle, with ginger added near the end of
cooking time.
- Chè đậu đãi:
Green beans sifted, stewed and cooked with sugar, tapioca and juice from pomelo
flower.
- Chè đỗ đen:
Black beans stewed and cooked with dried treacle or sugar and juice from the
pomelo flower. This kind of food cools the body and so is very good in summer.
-
Chè con ong:
Sticky rice steamed and cooked with dried treacle and ginger until it has a
gluggy consistency. It is always put on a plate
-
Chè hạt sen:
Lotus nuts stewed and cooked with sugar and pomelo flower juice.
-
Chè cốm:
Green rice flakes cooked with sugar.
-
Chè hoa cau:
Green beans sifted and cooked with sugar and juice from the pomelo flower. This
food is usually eaten with xôi vò (a
kind of sticky rice) and create a dish called xôi chè.
-
Chè sen long nhãn: Stewed lotus nuts mixed with longan pulp, water and sugar and scented
with jasmine.
Cakes
are usually made from rice flour or sticky rice flour, green bean, dried
treacle, sugar and lard.
Two
dishes of bánh trôi (R)
and a bowl of bánh chay (L) –
Illustration photo
-
Bánh giò:
Rice is steeped, milled and filtered. The stuffing is made of fried minced
pork, onion and ‘cat’s ear’ flowers. Ingredients are rolled into a mound and
boiled.
-
Bánh khúc: A
crust is made by mixing boiled and sliced cudweeds with sticky rice flour.
Green beans are steamed, crushed and mixed with onion, pepper and lard to make
the stuffing. Cakes are rolled in sticky rice so that they will stick to the
crust, and then steamed.
-
Bánh đúc:
Rice flour is cooked with peanuts and little borax, cut into small pieces and
eaten with soy sauce.
-
Bánh gio (bánh tro): Ash of sticky rice straw, sesame plants or green bean skin is soaked in
lime for several days, then water is decanted. Sticky rice is then soaked in
this water for a day, before being drained and wrapped in young dong leaves in
the shape of square or slender figure. Bamboo shoot is added to give the cakes
an amber color. The cake is eaten with sugar or honey.
- Bánh cốm:
Rice flakes are soaked in water of galingale leaves or rattan leaves until they
become dark green, then fried with sugar to make a crust. The stuffing consists
of steamed and crushed green beans, mixed with sugar and scraped coconut. Cakes
are shaped into squares, covered with banana leaves and tied with red string.
This cake is not only eaten as a snack but is used as an offering on betrothal
ceremonies, weddings, ancestors’ death anniversaries, and the Tết holiday. Nguyên
Ninh shop at No. 11 Hàng Than Street is a famous address for bánh cốm.
- Bánh trôi and bánh chay: Vietnamese people have Tết Hàn thực or Tết đồ nguội, Tết bánh trôi, bánh chay on the third day of the third lunar month. Bánh trôi and bánh chay are the specialty on this day. On this occasion, most families make both kinds of cakes as votive offerings for deceased. Bánh trôi and bánh chay are both made of sticky rice flour. To make “bánh trôi”, flour is kneaded into small rounds and then stuffed with small pieces of dried treacle. To make bánh chay, flour is kneaded into flat rounds and stuffed with steamed, crushed green beans mixed with sugar and scraped coconut. Both kinds of cake are boiled until they float to the surface. Bánh trôi is sprinkled with fried sesame and served on small plates. Bánh chay is sprinkled with fried sesame or green beans and served in small bowls with an amber mixture of boiled kudzu flour, pomelo flower-scented water, and sugar.
Xôi (Steamed
sticky rice) is made by soaking sticky rice in water for about 4-6 hours and
then steaming for a further 2-3 hours. White steamed sticky rice is used as an
offering; steamed glutinous rice mixed with gấc
(momordica) fruit is used on weddings, betrothal ceremonies, and longevity
anniversaries (a special birthday celebration for people who have reached 70 or
80 years). When used as a snack food, steamed glutinous rice is cooked with
green beans, black beans, peanuts, maize, or manioc. Hà Nội has different kinds
of steamed sticky rice.
-
Xôi ngô:
White corn (maize) is soaked in limewater until it swells, then washed
thoroughly, boiled and placed in a basket so the husks can be ground out using
the bottom of a bowl. After careful sifting, the maize is mixed with sticky
rice (less rice than maize) and put in a steamer to cook. Green beans are
steamed, crushed, and shaped into a ball the size of an orange. Xôi lúa
is served with slices of the steamed green bean ball and fried onion. Some
people enjoy eating Xôi lúa with sugar.
-
Xôi vò: Green beans are sifted, steamed, and shaped
into a ball as big as an orange. Sticky rice is soaked and drained. Sliced
pieces of the green bean ball are mixed into the sticky rice until green beans
cover every grain of sticky rice. The mixture is then steamed, with chicken fat
added near the end of the cooking time to make the rice shiny and buttery. Xôi
vò is eaten alone or with hoa cau sweetened porridge or bột sắn
sweetened porridge scented with pomelo flowers.
