Phung Cong commune, Van Giang town, Hung Yen province with the camellia has been considered the cradle for growing bonsai trees. The commune is also well-known for Rang Bua cake. On the occasions of festival seasons, Tet holiday or the death anniversary, the pounding sound echoes across the village, which is an manual method to make the cakes and has been existing for years ago. Currently, Phung Cong Rang Bua cakes are renowned, not only on Tet holiday, for its delicious and beautiful flavor....
Rang Bua cake is named by residents of Ben village, Phung Cong commune because its shape looks like the rake used in farming. Rice is the symbol of water rice civilization, the food to feed Vietnamese decades ago. Rang Bua is made of rice, given birth with the familiar name to the Vietnamese farmers. This cake is also called “Rice cake” because it is made of Tam Xoan Hai Hau rice.
The rice to make Phung Cong cakes is soaked in the water from 3 to 4 hours, washed and ground in pure lime water. The flour is boiled on the hot charcoal stove until half-done, then ground one more time so that the flour becomes viscous, sticky and leathery. Then the dough is spread on the plate to cool off before wrapping cakes. This step of making the dough can decides the quality of cakes. It is said that making the dough and whipping it are the secret of each family
The filling includes diced pork side, onions, fish sauce, belostomatid essence, and seasoning. All are mixed together in a pan until they are cooked and then added wood ear mushrooms, pepper, and fresh onions. Phung Cong residents are very careful in each step of making this cake. The leave to wrap the cake is Dong leave which is leathery, distinguishably green and grown in Red River alluvial soil. This cake is especially used for worshiping ancestors on the fifteenth day and the first day of the lunar month, the death anniversary or Tet holiday. Currently, Rang Bua Phung Cong becomes the favorite dish in the wedding and many restaurants and hotels.
Wrapping the cakes or taking the dough is an important step, requiring skillful hands. Evenly spread the dough within the palm leave and then put the filling in the center of the dough. The finished products look like the rakes, swelling out in the middle and getting smaller at the two ends. The rice cakes are small so the qualified Dong leaves grown in gardens of provinces in Red River Delta which are not too big but not too small are the best. Dong leaves are cleaned, set aside to drain any water and make them soft to avoid being torn and the cakes to become tighter as wrapping them. The finished cakes are still raw which are cooked by steaming in a pot like making the steamed sticky rice or boiling. One noticeable thing is only putting cakes into the pot as long as the water boils. Perhaps this is the major method to make delicious cakes which are both perfectly cooked and non-stick as peeling off the leaves. Previously, a lot of jute and banana are grown on the riverside of Hong River, Rang Bua cakes are tied with jutes or dry fibers from banana trees. Now bakers use plastic ties for their convenience
In order to know whether or not cakes are authentically Phung Cong cakes, residents reveal the method to examine the leathery and sticky quality of Rang Bua cakes: “Other cakes are broken after peeling off. This cake can be bent from the two ends. The cakes are not broken and damaged. This is the method to try the taste of the cakes”
Phung Cong Rang Bua cakes after peeling off are dry, non-stick, dipped in chili sauce, delicious fish sauce or soy sauce, depending on likeness of each person. Taking a bite smells crunchy but leathery and carries an exclusive flavor that can not be found in other cakes. “Te” rice pervades the fragrance of new rice and fried onions, the crispiness of wood-ear mushrooms and the sweetness of meat.
Tourists can not fight the hunger for Rang Bua cakes as only taking some bites to eat one up and continuously peeling off another one. In addition, tourists can be full up eating cakes but never loose appetite. Remote tourists who would like to tastes Rang Bua cakes, can drive along the Red River embankment which is 15 kms long to reach Bat Trang pottery village – a renowned attraction, and drive little more distance to get Phung Cong commune.
