(AG Provincial E-Portal) - The palm tree is closely connected with the lives of people in Seven-Mountain region in particular and An Giang in general, creating an inseparable soul in local culture, cuisine, and tourism. Recently, palm sugar has become an ingredient to enhance folk cakes, combining with many other ingredients in a gentle and harmonious way.
Participating in the folk cake making contest with ingredients from palm sugar with the theme "An Giang Fragrance and Colors" in An Giang on August 5, artisans of Ba Ria - Vung Tau province presented Palm sugar honeycomb cakes and grilled banana cakes, steamed rice cakes, wrapped leaf cakes, “little” cakes,... all were used palm sugar. The artisans’ ingenuity and skill helped the outstanding "native" folk cakes win first prize in the contest.
Palm sugar rice cake (Banh bo thot not) is an extremely familiar dish in An Giang, with the main ingredient from palm sugar, coated with an eye-catching yellow color. This is also a type of cake that appears a lot at local folk cake festivals.
The perspective of artisans from outside the province brings rich, diverse combinations of colors and flavors. Partly because palm sugar is very "easy-going", able to suit any ingredient, even resonated and enhanced that ingredient, with its inherent sweet and elegant characteristics.
Both strange and familiar are the common feelings of visitors when seeing folk cakes created from palmyra. Familiar is the shape and name, but strange is the taste, presentation, and way of eating. Tradition and modernity, old and new are intertwined, inseparable.
Ms. Do Thi My Hoa (60 years old, residing in Dong Nai province) continues the family cake profession from her mother-in-law. With experiences from this job, she discovered new ways to make cakes and made variations to suit today's consumer tastes. One of her favorite cakes is the palmyra lung rice cake, spongy and delicious on the tongue.
When talking about cakes made from palm sugar, it is impossible not to mention Ka Tum cake, a famous specialty of An Giang, preserved and promoted by artisan Neang Phuong (sitting in the middle, residing in Tri Ton district).
The cake crust is made of young palm leaves to wrap into a pomegranate shape (Kà Tum). A beautiful cake requires the crust to be square with all corners and sides, and the palm leaves must be tightly woven together so that the filling does not come out.
The folk cake making contest with ingredients from palm sugar is an opportunity to jointly honor and preserve the beauty of traditional culinary culture. At the same time, to promote creativity and prepare delicious dishes from rustic ingredients, close to the daily life of the people of Seven-Mountain hometown.
The contest brought together 100 types of folk cakes made from palm sugar, such as: Honeycomb cake with jaggery jam, silkworm cake with palm sugar, four-spice wet cake, golden jaggery cake, rose cake (palm rice), melted bread with palm sugar flavor, moist cake with palm sugar nectar, cake soaked in palm sugar ash water, palm sugar bread, palm sugar shrimp cake, grilled banana cheese cake,...
After examining documents, under direct appraisal at the contest, Vietnam Record Organization - Vietkings set a record for the Trade and Investment Promotion Center of An Giang province for the processing and presentation of folk cakes from An Giang palmyra palm specialties in the largest quantity (100 dishes).
At the event, many units and cake artisans were rewarded and honored, as an expression of gratitude from An Giang province to the team dedicated to folk cakes in general, and folk cakes made from palm sugar in particular, adding culinary excitement to the palmyra land in An Giang./ .
News by Gia Khanh
Translation by Thi Huynh
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