Hanoians has been familiar with the cry of sesame rice balls every early morning. Many people try it and get addicted to this dish which can provoke a pang of nostalgia about the ambiguous images of their hometowns. As a Vietnamese, everyone knows about Sesame rice balls. However, the urbanization process and diversification of food make this dish less popular. Today, as asking rice balls sellers on the Hanoi’s streets, they definitely come from only one place – Lac Dao, Van Lam, Hung Yen provin...

In 1996, the person gave birth to Lac Dao sesame rice balls is Mrs. Nguyen Thi Ly. She handed over the technique to spouses of her nephew living next door in Cau village. The reason is just the sympathy for family relations.

In Vietnam, there is a saying “ As the husband gets angry, speak less. As the rice boils, reduce the fire”. Unlike cooking rice by the electric cooker, the cook has to reduce the fire as the rice boils in order that the rice is well-cooked and rice water will not spill. Rice is cooked in 1 hour but not stirred too much. Otherwise, rice will be wet and burnt at the bottom of the pot. The ideal burnt layer at the bottom is as thin as the crisp of crust. It is deemed loss in case the rice layer around the pot is strongly burnt. The big household start their work at the midnight, the medium one also set fire from 1 to 2 am. The cook has to be skillful and sensible. The rice to make the rice rolls must be such soft white rice as Q4 OR Q5 rice. In the flare of fire, the woman stir and estimate the level of water to continuously add more into the rice. When the bubbles appear on the surface of the pot, the cook put the lid on, wrap a bunch of straws around the pot to have a delicious rice.

After 1.5 hours, the rice is cooked, soft but not sticky. Normally, 5 to 6 kgs of rice is made into 90 to 100 rice balls. The ladle is used to scoop the sticky rice instead of chopsticks. Each scoop is about 0.2 gram of rice, 1 cm thick, and  round like Moon cake. The next step is rolling the rice into balls. In order to get the round, smooth and firm rice balls, the cook must roll the rice balls strongly and properly. The newly- rolled rice balls are steaming hot, cooled off by the fan before putting into the bamboo closely-woven baskets covered by banana leaves or clean papers. In the extreme weather, sellers must replace the papers with the new ones as arriving Hanoi in order that the rice balls will not drain off any moisture and always keep the flavor

Currently, both Ngoc village and the Cau village has 6 large household businesses and many other smaller ones. Years ago, when rice ball was still a trendy dish in Hanoi, each household make thousands of rice balls per night. Today, rice balls are much less popular while the number of businesses and shippers are increasing; thus, each household only makes by 800 rice balls each night. At 4 AM, the vendors carrying the rice balls to Hanoi arrive. Some take 30 rice balls, some take 15. Today, 5,000 rice balls are shipped from Lac Dao to Hanoi every day. The selling price for villagers are only 500 VND/ rice balls, but that for citizens is 1,000 VND

Few people might think that contriving rice balls has brought  a new  business to Cau village and Ngoc village which used to be agricultural villages but now appears many new spacious houses. And few might think the Lac Dao sesame rice balls become such popular. This dish is ubiquitous, from crowded Hanoi sidewalks, busy morning school gates to luxurious party tables. And the Lac Dao residents have still passed over the story of two rice bags of Mrs. Nguyen Thi Dao - who gave birth to this business for a prosperity of the villagers