Hung Yen residents ingeniously combine rural products such as banana leaves, cudweed, and sticky rice to create a simple but delicious cake. Enjoying a hot cudweed cake in a cold afternoon of the freezing winter, can we feel that sense deeply. Going with the flow of Hong River to get to know this cultural land and simple life of people residing on the either bank, we understand the bond between local people and the nature....

Legend has it that the cudweed cake was the food made by the command of Khuc village head, put in the bags attached to the waist, useful for eating on the long distance march and also the food to celebrate the Independence day of Dai La

The cry “ Who wants hot “Banh khuc” easily tempt the crowds huddling up in the chill wind. Van Giang residents often carry the box of cudweed cake covered closely by cloths on their old bicycles. Many tourists buy Cudweed cake due to their curiosity of this cake, others to see if “ Hung Yen cudweed cakes are different from other places where they already had cudweed cakes”

The cudweed cake is wrapped by Tay banana leaves (tall banana tree with smooth and wide foliage). The cudweed cake is braised so the leaves are very soft, tough and aromatic. Cakes in each basket are sold out from very early morning, a pot of hundreds of cakes are sold out shortly. Some buy for presents, some sit right there to satisfy their hunger. Hot cudweed cakes ate in the cold winter are the best.

The cudweed cake is as simple as ingredients forming it. Peeling off the outside banana leaves, here comes the dark green filling which is exactly the typical color of the cudweed. Having one bite, you can see the tasty filling appear. The creative combination of rural products has made a kind of cake with buttery taste of beans,  greasiness of the pork side, rural fragrance of cudweed. Cudweed cakes are different from other luxurious cakes in the capital city

The cudweed cake is made widely by Hung Yen residents along Red River bank, not only Van Giang residents because the cudweed is ubiquitous on the banks and the soul of this cake. Cudweed has two types: “te” and “nep”. The former has bigger leaves than the latter’s but makes less delicious the cakes than the latter does.

Hung Yen residents do not grow cudweed which naturally grows abundantly on the banks. Young leaves are picked up, left off the old ones, washed up and ground. Previously, people use stone mortar to grind cudweed instead of using grinder like today. Due to this special method, cudweed cakes have the exclusive taste.

The ingredients of cudweed cakes include sticky rice flour. Hung Yen residents always ground wet flour (rice is soaked for 1 night and then ground), but it is possible to grind dry flour and then mix it with water. Rice flour is mixed with ground cudweed to knead the filling. In order to make fragrant cakes, Van Giang people also add a bit pepper along with beans and pork sides when making the filling. Steaming the cudweed cakes is different from other cakes. Each layer of green cudweed cakes is put alternately with a layer of white sticky rice in a steaming pot to creat a harmonious color arrangement. Cakes are steamed within 30-45 mins until the sticky rice outside is cooked softly and fragrant.

A passed cudweed cake must have the dark green filling which is soft but still having the fibre; the fragrance of the cake comes from the wrapping leaves, the filling and the core. Many people misunderstand the cudweed cake for the cudweed steamed sticky rice – the familiar breakfast for Hanoians. The cudweed steamed sticky rice only has a little cudweed in the filling; the the cudweed is the sole ingredient to make the filling

The cudweed cake is an ideal food for breakfast in the early morning or in the chill winter nights. Eating in those moments, can we feel the warm of the cudweed taste combined with the hot steamed sticky rice outside, the delicacy and fragrance of pepper and the bean and meat filling inside. Very warm and buttery!. If you want to taste this rural leave, you should visit Hung Yen to enjoy this delicious traditional cudweed cake.