Compass Travel Vietnam
Trang Bang dew-dried rice paper: The quintessential convergence dish
Dew-dried rice paper is considered the “unique” culinary quintessence of Trang (Tay Ninh).
With skillful hands and heirloom experience through generations, artisans in the countryside of Trang Bang have created a unique and delicious rice paper, the flavor is not mixed with any other type of rice paper.
According to people with seniority in the profession, the profession of making rice paper has been handed down since the 18th century, when his father lived in the land of Ngu Quang, Binh Dinh, and went to Tay Ninh to reclaim land and establish a hamlet. In the beginning, it was simply dipped rice paper and baked rice paper, only later did people create dew-dried rice paper.
Dew-dried rice paper – the quintessence of Tay Ninh cuisine (Photo: Hoang Ty – Trang Bang specialties)
Trang Bang belongs to the land of “sunny day, foggy night”. In order to have beautiful, smooth, and even layers of rice paper, bakers must be meticulous in each stage, from choosing ingredients to coating, drying in the sun, drying with dew…
As a popular dish of the people of the South, dew-dried rice paper brings a very unique flavor that cannot be found anywhere else. To make delicious dew-dried rice paper, the most important thing is the selection of ingredients.
Rice for making cakes must be new rice, delicious rice and absolutely not mixed with other types of rice. After filtering out all the moldy grains, removing impurities, wash thoroughly and soak, change the water continuously for 2 days, wait for the rice to release some “plastic” before it is pureed into a powder.
Dew-dried rice paper brings a very unique flavor that cannot be found anywhere else (Photo: tuhaoviet)
The flour is smooth as milk, people will add just enough salt to create a salty taste, making the cake more flexible and rich, rather than adding sugar like ordinary rice paper.
After obtaining a paste of water, the baker will heat a pot of boiling water, using a stretch cloth to cover the mouth of the steamer like how to make rice rolls. The technique of coating the cake must be very evenly hand, scooping each ladle of flour evenly on the thin cloth. The dough is cooked by steam. At this time, the cake flour layer is thin, transparent and fragrant with rice.
Another difference is that the dew-dried rice paper is coated with two layers of flour that overlap. When the dough is ripe, the worker will remove the cake, place it on a bamboo brooch (bamboo grid) and dry it in the sun so that it dries slowly (locals call it withering).
Deep-fried snakehead fish wrapped in dew-dried rice paper (Photo: Hoang Ty – Trang Bang specialty)
Depending on the weather, rice paper can be dried for half an hour to an hour. After drying in the sun, the resulting products are dry rice paper that is baked with peanut shells (peanut charcoal) so that the cake is cooked evenly, has soft puffiness and is not scorched.
The rice paper oven is made quite simply from an aluminum pot (round bottom pot used for cooking wine) tilted. The most extreme stage is that the baker has to sit for many hours by the side of a blazing red fire, burning his face, quickly turning back and forth so that the cake can expand and swell evenly on both sides without discoloring or making 2 layers. cake is broken.
After baking, the cake is placed on the truss and wait until 9-10 pm or 2-3 am the next morning to dry because during this time, fog spreads over Trang Bang land. The mist will slowly infiltrate to make the cake soft, not change color and do not need to be soaked in water before eating.
The flavors of wild vegetables have a characteristic aroma and are good for health (Photo: Ba Vinh Suong Drying Rice Paper)
The baker must stay awake with the cake, watch until the cake is moist enough, then immediately fold it and put it in a bag, lined with banana leaves to keep the cake soft and spongy. Experienced people usually only dry the cake for a short time because if it is for a long time, the cake will be wet, and it will not taste good. If you accidentally let air in, the cake will be hard and no longer flexible.
The people of Trang Bang always say that the reason why rice paper here is more delicious – unique – strange than other places is because it converges all the quintessence of heaven and earth: from daylight to dew drops at night.
Dew-dried rice paper has a characteristic flavor for the popular roll dish in the South. Currently on the market there are many types of Tay Ninh rice paper, of which the two most popular types are Trang Bang dew-dried baked rice paper (opaque white, oval shape, the size of A4 paper, flexible, surface texture). rice paper with seeds or small bubbles) and dew-dried rice paper in Go Dau district (white in color, oval in shape, the size of A4 paper, thinner than Trang Bang rice paper, the surface of the cake is raised with bamboo stains. cork).
Rice paper rolls with boiled pork and wild vegetables (Photo: Ba Vinh Suong Drying Rice Paper)
Trang Bang dew-dried rice paper with its own flavor on the banquet tray is rolled with boiled pork with wild vegetables such as cinnamon, toads, imitation vegetables, sesame buds, brooch, mango buds… becoming a famous specialty. of the land of Tay Ninh. When eating, people peel off a piece of rice paper, spread it on a plate, then arrange each favorite vegetable in turn, add a piece of boiled meat and then roll it up, dipping it with sweet and sour garlic chili sauce.
The dish is extremely attractive, strange and nutritious with the flavors of wild vegetables that are very good for health, with a characteristic taste and aroma. Soft rice paper with slices of fresh meat and sour, sweet, acrid, bitter flavors mixed with elaborately prepared dipping sauce or Tay Ninh sour fish sauce creates a delicious and attractive dish.
Photo: Internet (vinlove.net)
Trang Bang dew-dried rice paper: The quintessential convergence dish
vinlove.
Source: vinlove
