APPETITES

BÁNH CHƯNG
VIETNAMESE NEW YEAR’S
RICE CAKES

Vietnam’s new year specialty:

banh chung, the square-shaped
rice cake parcels filled with
mung beans and pork.

Compiled by #TramnguyenIELTS
 BANH CHUNG
C o m p i l e d b y # T r a m n g u y e n I E L T S

Têt – short for Têt Nguyen Dan – is the of wrapping the rice cakes and then steaming

Vietnamese term for the lunar new year and is them for hours is usually overseen by several

a big holiday in the country. Têt celebrations people, and is an integral part of the new

can still span up to 18 days. year’s festivities.

During this time, folks get together with their Some households have a giant pot in which

families, go visit other friends and families, the banh chung cooks overnight and it’s

remember their dead, decorate their houses common for the family to gather around and

with kumquat trees and peach blossom, and, spend the night around the pot, though we’d

most importantly, cook. like to make it clear that making our banh

chung recipe will not necessitate actually

With so many visitors coming and going from sleeping in your kitchen. And if you have an

the house, the new year’s spread needs to be Instant Pot or a slow cooker, the process can

hefty. Traditional dishes such as boiled be much easier.

chicken, pickled shallots and candied fruit are

rolled out to be enjoyed, but Têt would not be Banh chung’s origins can be traced way back

Têt without a shedload of banh chung in the ĩ

to a book called the L nh Nam chích quái, a

mix. compilation of stories from 14th century

Vietnam where an anonymous author tells the

TEAMWORK MAKES THE BANH CHUNG tale of how banh chung came to be:  King

DREAM WORK Hung Vuong VI of the Hong Bang Dynasty

couldn’t decide which of his 20 sons should

It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes assume the throne after his death. So he

a family to make banh chung. Not for the decided to give them a test.

impatient or those short on time, the process

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They were to go out into the world and bring

back the most exotic, the most enticing food

that would also make for a worthy offering to

the ancestors’ altar. The children scuttled off

and came back with  all manner of curious

comestibles  such as  bears’ paws, rhinoceros’

livers, monkeys’ brains, orangutans’ lips,

phoenix meat and peacock sausages. But his

18th son, Tiêt Liêu, who was not so wealthy

and didn’t have the means to travel far, had a

dream in which a deity appeared to him and

suggested using what was right under his

nose – rice.

Nutritious and filling, he suggested wrapping

the glutinous variety of rice in leaves – one in

a square shape to represent the earth and the

other in a cylindrical form to stand for the sky.

The kerfuffle of the wrapping, the deity told

him, would be an excellent homage to the

pain his parents and ancestors went through

in order to bring him into the world.

His father was very taken by the dishes

that Tiêt Liêu had prepared, and was touched

by their significance. He declared his rice-

cake making son to be the winner and named

him his heir.

03 FOODIE MAGAZINE
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RECIPE
INGREDIENTS TO MAKE PERFECT
VIETNAMESE BANH CHUNG

BANH CHUNG FILLING

1/2 cup mung beans washed

and soaked in water 8 hours

2 cups sticky (glutinous) rice

washed and soaked in water 8

hours

1.5 tsp salt (1 tsp for the rice; .5

tsp for the mung beans)

100 grams pork belly cut into

cubes

1 shallot, sliced

1 tsp turmeric powder1 tsp

chopped lemongrass

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tsp liquid smoke (optional,

depending on flavor preference)

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp sesame oil1 shallot, sliced

and fried

BANH CHUNG WRAP

4 pieces banana leaves

Cooking twine (for holding the

wrap together)