Food-blogger Cathy Danh can’t wait for Vietnamese New Year to eat banh chung but thankfully in Ho Chi Minh City she doesn’t have to
There are many delicious reasons to love Saigon, but one that is most near and dear to my heart is the constant availability of banh chung .
Prior to my arrival in Vietnam, I had to wait an entire year to devour the sticky rice cake filled with meat, pork fat, black pepper and mung bean paste and delicately wrapped-up in layers of fragrant banana leaves. During Tet this year, I was sick as a dog and desperately craving banh chung. Try as I might, I could not get my hands on one because the lone Vietnamese grocery store in Philadelphia was too far for me to walk to in my weakened state. Oh, how I yearned… Since moving to Saigon, I have developed an obsession of sorts with banh chung perhaps due to my deprivation earlier this year.
While wandering around town for some lunchtime grub the other day, I spied a woman selling banh chung from a steamer on Vo Thi Sau Street in District 3. I ordered one, paid VND4,000 and grabbed a seat on a beach-chair lining the sidewalk as she plated my selection. Using an especially sharp knife, she sliced through the countless layers of banana leaves to unveil the fleshy green goodness.
The inherent stickiness of the banh chung can be a turn off for some, but I simply adore the cake’s texture and the faint taste of banana leaves ingrained in the rice. The mung bean paste is savoury and works beautifully with the pork and rice. The banh chung in Saigon are a smidge heavier than the ones stateside due to the skewed ratio of fat to meat, but are truly just as good. Once I figure out how to instate the Tet tradition of li xi (gifts of money in red envelopes) year-round, I’ll be totally set.
You can read more of Cathy’s culinary adventures at gastronomy.wordpress.com
