Banh ch?ng

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Banh ch?ng
A pair of banh ch?ng wrapped in la dong ready to be steamed
Course Main course
Place of origin Vietnam
Region or state Regions of Vietnam
Serving temperature Hot, room temperature, fried
Main ingredients Glutinous rice , mung bean , pork
Other information Traditionally consumed during T?t

Banh ch?ng (IPA: [??ajŋ??? t???ŋ??]) is a traditional Vietnamese food which is made from glutinous rice , mung beans , pork and other ingredients. [1] Its origin is told by the legend of Lang Lieu, a prince of the last king of the Sixth Hung Dynasty , who became the successor thanks to his creation of banh ch?ng and banh gi?y , which symbolized, respectively, the earth and the sky. Considered an essential element of the family altar on the occasion of T?t , the making and eating of banh ch?ng during this time is a well-preserved tradition of Vietnamese people. Besides the T?t holiday, banh ch?ng is also eaten all year round as Vietnamese cuisine.

Origin and symbolism [ edit ]

According to the book L?nh Nam chich quai ( Extraordinary stories of L?nh Nam ) published in 1695, the creation of banh ch?ng was credited to Lang Lieu, a prince of the last Sixth Hung Dynasty of the Hung dynasty (c. 1712 ? 1632 BC). It was said that in choosing a successor among his sons, the monarch decided to carry out a competition in which each prince brought a delicacy representing the sincerity of the ancestors on the occasion of T?t , whoever could introduce the most delicious dish for the altar would become the next ruler of the country. While other princes tried to find rare and delicious foods from the forest and sea, the eighteenth prince, Lang Lieu, who was the poorest son of the Hung king, could not afford such luxurious dishes and had to be content with everyday ingredients, such as rice and pork. He created one cake in the square form of earth called banh ch?ng and one in the round form of sky called banh gi?y from these simple ingredients. In tasting the dishes offered by his son, the Hung king found banh ch?ng and banh gi?y not only delicious but also a fine representation of the respect for ancestors. Therefore, he decided to cede the throne to Lang Lieu and banh ch?ng , banh gi?y became traditional foods during T?t . [2] [3] [4] Lang Lieu founded the Seventh Hung dynasty (c. 1631 ? 1432 BC).

Considered an indispensable dish of T?t , banh ch?ng is placed on the family altars to honor the family ancestors and pray to them for support in the new year. [5] Wrapped in a green square package, banh ch?ng symbolizes the earth , [6] the various ingredients of banh ch?ng , which come from all the products of nature, also emphasize the meaning of banh ch?ng with Vietnamese people.

Ingredients and presentation [ edit ]

Wrapping banh ch?ng without mold

The required ingredients of banh ch?n g are glutinous rice , mung bean , fatty pork and black pepper , salt , sometimes green onion , and n??c m?m for salty taste. [7] In the wrapping stage, one needs la dong , strings split from giang, one type of bamboo which has long node, and sometimes a square mold in wood so that banh ch?ng can be wrapped in a better shape, la dong , which is popular only in Southern Asia, can be substituted by banana leaves or even la bang . [8] La dong and giang strings have to be washed carefully in order to preserve the taste of the cake, giang strings may be soaked in water or steamed so that they become flexible enough for wrapping and tying. People often choose high-quality rice and beans for making banh ch?ng . The mung beans are soaked in water for approximately 2 hours and the glutinous rice for 12 to 14 hours. The mung beans are drained, cooked and mashed into a paste. The fat in the pork is preferred for banh ch?ng because its fatty flavor associates well with the glutinous rice and mung beans. After being sliced in approx. half-inch thick strips, the pork is mixed with pepper, onion, salt and n??c m?m . Sugar can also be added to this mixture of spices. [9]

The cake is wrapped in the following order. First, the giang strings and two la dong leaves are placed as the square base for the banh ch?ng . Then glutinous rice is stuffed in la dong , followed by mung bean, pork, more mung bean and finally another layer of rice so that bean and pork can be respectively in the center of the cake. The ingredients are carefully wrapped in la dong and bound by giang strings in the square form. In order to get a near-perfect square-shaped cake, the maker can use a square mold to help in the wrapping and pressing the ingredients to fill the corners of the square mold. To keep the cake from mold or being spoiled, banh ch?ng should be wrapped as tight as possible.

The prepared cakes are arranged in a large pot (with recommended spacing between cakes, using chopsticks, bamboo or other spacers). The pot is filled with fresh water and boiled for hours until they are cooked thoroughly. As the water evaporates during cooking, more boiled water should be added to keep the cakes submerged at all time. The outer-most layer of rice turns green because the rice absorbed the color of la dong . [7] One banh ch?ng is often divided into eight (triangular shaped) or nine (square shaped) pieces, usually by using the very giang string that bounded the cake. [10] As the cake was formed from several ingredients, the taste of banh ch?ng varies from part to part with different flavors of glutinous rice, pork, bean and even the wrapping la dong . Banh ch?ng is often served with pickled onions or vegetables, ch? l?a and n??c m?m . After unwrapping, banh ch?ng remains edible for several days when stored in the refrigerator, [10] while an unopened one can be kept for up to two weeks in the refrigerator. [11] Banh ch?ng can also be frozen and thawed again for consumption, though the quality is not as good as a fresh cake. Banh ch?ng has the water activity value a w of about 0.95 and its pH is approximately 6.4. [12]

  • Banh ch?ng examples
  • The prepared ingredients of bánh chưng
    The prepared ingredients of banh ch?ng
  • Wrapping bánh chưng using a mould
    Wrapping banh ch?ng using a mould
  • An unwrapped bánh chưng, cut into eight pieces, ready to serve
    An unwrapped banh ch?ng , cut into eight pieces, ready to serve
  • Bánh chưng is served with chả lụa and other dishes
    Banh ch?ng is served with ch? l?a and other dishes

History and tradition [ edit ]

A Vietnamese family wrapping banh ch?ng

Banh ch?ng is always considered an essential element of a traditional T?t , which is described by a popular couplet : [6]

Vietnamese: Th?t m?, d?a hanh, cau đ?i đ?
Cay neu, trang phao, banh ch?ng xanh
Translation: Rich meats, pickled onions, red couplets
Neu tree, firecracker, green banh ch?ng

Women wear ao dai for their tradition. Traditionally, banh ch?ng requires the preparation of many ingredients, each Vietnamese family that can afford such a preparation begins to make the cake on the 27th or 28th day of December ( thang Ch?p ) in Lunar calendar . In making banh ch?ng , all members of the family gather to perform different tasks, from washing the la dong , mixing the pork with spices, preparing the mung beans and most importantly wrapping all ingredients into the square form and boiling the cakes. Banh ch?ng needs to be carefully boiled for ten to twelve hours during which the adults and children sit together around the boiling cauldron. [6] In the countryside, to ensure that banh ch?ng is available for every family even the poor ones, a fund called h? banh ch?ng is jointly set up and about one month before the T?t , the accumulated capital and benefit are divided between members of the fund so that they can have enough money to prepare banh ch?ng . [2]

Nowadays, the tradition of self-made banh ch?ng gradually declines in Vietnam when the size of a typical family is smaller and people do not have enough time for the preparation and making of banh ch?ng . Instead, they go to the banh ch?ng shop or order cakes in advance from families that specialize in making them. Therefore, banh ch?ng still appears in each family during the T?t but they are not a family product anymore. [6] With the shift of banh ch?ng making from family to specialized manufacturers, some craft villages became famous for their reputation in making banh ch?ng such as Tranh Khuc village or Duyen Ha village both in Thanh Tri , Hanoi . [13] [14]

Each year, on the occasion of the Death anniversary of the Hung Kings , a competition of making banh ch?ng and banh day is often organized in Hung Temple , Phu Th? . Participants from eight different regions including Lao Cai , Hanoi and C?n Th? are provided with 5 kg of glutinous rice, bean, 1 kg of pork so that they can make 10 banh ch?ng in 10 minutes, the product of the winning team will be present in the official altar of the festival. [15] In 2005, banh ch?ng makers in Ho Chi Minh City offered Hung Temple a pair of giant banh ch?ng and banh gi?y , the size of the banh ch?ng measured 1.8m x 1.8m x 0.7m (71 x 71 x 27.5 inches) and weighed 2 tonnes after cooking, it was made in Ho Chi Minh City and subsequently transferred to Phu Th?. [16]

Variations [ edit ]

Banh ch?ng (square) in comparison with banh tay (cylindrical)
Black banh ch?ng is a variant of the Yao people 's banh ch?ng.

While being normally eaten warm or at room temperature, banh ch?ng also be fried up and served in the form of a crisp pancake. It is then called banh ch?ng ran or banh ch?ng chien (fried banh ch?ng ). [17] Writer V? B?ng in his book Th??ng nh? m??i hai (Longing of the 12 months) mentions banh ch?ng ran as a delicious dish during the cold February of Hanoi. [18]

In some regions, instead of banh ch?ng , people make banh tet : a cylindrical cake with almost the same ingredients as banh ch?ng . [6] [17] A similar cake as banh tet is made in some regions in the North but with the name banh tay , banh ch?ng dai (long banh ch?ng ) or banh dai . [19] [20] Banh tay is often made with a small quantity of mung bean and little or no pork, so that it can be preserved for a longer period. Banh tay can be cut in slices and fried like banh ch?ng ran .

The San Diu people has another variation of the long banh ch?ng with a hump in the middle of the cake ? hence it is called banh ch?ng "gu" ("humped" banh ch?n g). Besides la dong , banh ch?ng "gu" is wrapped with an additional type of leaf named la chit . [21]

There are also variations of banh ch?ng for vegetarians and Buddhists , such as banh ch?ng chay (vegetarian ch?ng cake) or banh ch?ng ng?t (sweetened ch?ng cake). Instead of being stuffed with pork these cakes are filled with molasses or brown sugar . [2] In these variations sometimes the glutinous rice is mixed with gac , giving the cake a red skin considered more appetizing. In the countryside banh ch?ng chay was once made by the poor families who could not afford pork for stuffing. They replaced pork with cardamom , black pepper and cooked mung bean. This type of banh ch?ng was eaten with molasses. [22]

See also [ edit ]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Banh ch?ng .

References [ edit ]

  1. ^ Aruna Thaker, Arlene Barton Multicultural Handbook of Food, Nutrition and Dietetics 2012 Page 171 "Banh ch?ng"
  2. ^ a b c Monica Janowski; Fiona Kerlogue (2007). Kinship and food in South East Asia . NIAS Press. pp. 251?257. ISBN   978-87-91114-93-9 .
  3. ^ Alice M. Terada; Janet Larsen (1993). Under the Starfruit Tree: Folktales from Vietnam . University of Hawaii Press. pp. 105?108. ISBN   978-0-8248-1553-0 .
  4. ^ Spagnoli, Cathy (1998). Asian Tales and Tellers . August House. pp.  66?67 . ISBN   0-87483-527-5 .
  5. ^ Agar, Charles (2006). Frommer's Vietnam . John Wiley and Sons. p.  22 . ISBN   0-7645-9676-4 .
  6. ^ a b c d e Laurel Kendall; Nguy?n V?n Huy (2003). Vietnam: journeys of body, mind, and spirit . University of California Press. pp.  75?77 . ISBN   0-520-23872-9 .
  7. ^ a b Chi Nguyen; Judy Monroe (2002). Cooking the Vietnamese Way . Twenty-First Century Books. pp.  66?67 . ISBN   0-8225-4125-4 .
  8. ^ Ngo Chi Tung (2008-02-04). "T?t ? Tr??ng Sa" (in Vietnamese). Laodong.com.vn. Archived from the original on 2009-12-08.
  9. ^ Nguy?n Nha (2006-01-25). "Banh ch?ng ngay T?t" . Tuoitre.com.vn. Archived from the original on 2010-01-31.
  10. ^ a b Caitlin Worsham (2008-02-10). "Banh chung: leafy chunks of love and lore" . Vietnamnet.vn. Archived from the original on 2009-07-18.
  11. ^ Pam Mailand; Robert Lewis (1997). Vietnam, young people, old country: primary . Curriculum Corporation. p. 21. ISBN   1-86366-381-9 .
  12. ^ Jeffrey M. Farber; Ewen Cameron David Todd (2000). Safe handling of foods . CRC Press. p. 387. ISBN   0-8247-0331-6 .
  13. ^ "Craft village's banh chung gets trademark" . Vietnamnet.vn. 2008-02-06. Archived from the original on 2009-11-09.
  14. ^ Minh Nguyen (2004-01-22). "The cake of mystique" . Vietnamnet.vn. Archived from the original on 2010-04-14.
  15. ^ "Festival to honor nation's ancestors" . Vietnamnet.vn. 2009-04-03. Archived from the original on 2009-04-14.
  16. ^ Van Tien (2005-04-13). "Biggest cakes for Hung Kings" . Vietnamnet.vn. Archived from the original on 2008-03-16.
  17. ^ a b Andrea Quynhgiao Nguyen; Bruce Cost; Leigh Beisch (2006). Into the Vietnamese kitchen: treasured foodways, modern flavors . Ten Speed Press. p.  259 . ISBN   1-58008-665-9 .
  18. ^ V? B?ng . "Thang Hai, t??ng t? hoa đao". Th??ng nh? m??i hai (in Vietnamese). Literature Publishing House.
  19. ^ "H?i th?o T?t Vi?t 2005: Ton vinh VH dan gian" (in Vietnamese). Vietnamnet.vn. 2005-01-31. Archived from the original on 2009-05-12.
  20. ^ Kong Foong Ling (2002). The Food of Asia . Tuttle Publishing. p.  172 . ISBN   0-7946-0146-4 .
  21. ^ Tr?n Thanh Ha (2006-03-10). "Xoi đen, banh ch?ng "gu" c?a ng??i San Diu" (in Vietnamese). Vinhphuc.gov.vn. Archived from the original on 2010-04-22.
  22. ^ Quang Anh (2005-02-07). "Banh ch?ng m?n, banh ch?ng chay va nh?ng chi?c o to" (in Vietnamese). Vietnamnet.vn. Archived from the original on 2005-02-08.
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