Residents compete in legendery Ha Noi rice cooking festival

People living in Thi Cam in Ha Noi's Tu Liem District gathered in the yard of the local temple on February 10 for the village's traditional rice-cooking festival.

According to legend, it originated during the 18th Hung King's rule, when General Phan Tay Nhac led troops through the village, and many villagers volunteered to join. The General organised a rice-cooking contest to choose the best cooks.

Four groups of 10 members compete. After receiving the rice and other materials, they have to pound the rice and cook it in clay pots using straw. The group with the most delicious rice is declared the winner.

Air Mekong to begin direct Ha Noi-Phu Quoc service

Air Mekong has unveiled plans to operate a daily service between Ha Noi and Phu Quoc Island this summer, making it the longest domestic air route.

Truong Thanh Vu, the carrier's director of commercial services, said the service will begin on April 28, with 90-seat Bombardier CRJ900 aircraft being put into operation. The aircraft will leave Ha Noi at 6am and Phu Quoc in the early afternoon.

Both business and economy class seats will be available, with economy fares starting at VND2.27 million (US$116) before tax.

More flights to be offered between VN, Australia

Australia and Viet Nam have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to operate more flights between the two countries, according to a press release from the Australian Embassy in Ha Noi.

The MoU will add up to 3,300 additional seats a week.

Carriers from the two countries will now be allowed to operate 14 services a week with 4,200 seats to and from major Australian cities like Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, an increase of 1,200 seats.

They can operate seven additional services a week with around 2,100 seats to and from these destinations if the flights stop over at regional airports.

Growing number of Japanese visitors opt for incentive tours

More and more Japanese are choosing incentive tours to Viet Nam. According to local travel firms serving Japanese visitors, the trend has changed since the last decade when most Japanese visitors were young women and elderly people who chose to shop and sightsee in Viet Nam.

But now fewer young Japanese are coming while more guests are choosing to come on incentive tours.

Nguyen Ngoc Giang of OSC Travel said demand for incentive tours has been on the rise since mid-2010 and the increase will continue this year.

US television news broadcast promotes travel to Viet Nam

KPVI News 6, a National Broadcasting Company-affiliated television station in the US' Idaho state, has advised Americans to tour Viet Nam to get to know "Southeast Asia's rising star".

As the world discovers more of Viet Nam's treasures, the country is climbing higher on travellers' must-see list, it said.

"A Viet Nam tour is often the most effective way to take in the best of this fascinating country's attractions including the highlands of the far north and the beaches of the south."

In its website, KPVI News 6 said travellers will not want to miss Ha Noi, Hue, Da Nang and HCM City. — VNS

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The Rice That Cures

Medicinal properties and remedies of sticky rice

Sticky rice, or glutinous rice, is a staple food of Vietnamese people, second only to plain rice. Sticky rice is also used as a main ingredient for various kinds of cakes and sweet soups.
In traditional Vietnamese medicine, sticky rice is considered to be sweet and warm, and good for the stomach. It is therefore used to refresh the body and treat asthenia, diarrhea and stomach inflammation and ulcers.

Cooked sticky rice

Simmer a little ng sâm (Codonopsis pilosula), jujubes and purified sugar; cook sticky rice and serve it in a dish; put the simmered ng sâm and jujubes onto the cooked sticky rice and then add the broth. Eat this dish to treat tiredness, sleeplessness, anorexia and edema.

Sticky rice cooked with mc nh (cloud ear fungus – Auricularia polytricha) is good for blood cells and thus can help prevent the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Regular intake of sticky rice cooked with mung beans (Vigna radiata) is good for the blood circulation, urination and the eyes. Mung bean-sticky rice is also a laxative. It is a food of choice for those in their convalescence period, or those with nearsightedness.

Sticky rice cooked with pumpkin is good for those with diabetes, as it delays the carbohydrate absorption of the body. Intake of the pumpkin-sticky rice is also recommended to detoxify the body and prevent colon cancer for the elderly.

Sticky rice cooked with sweet potatoes is good for the kidneys, blood circulation and digestive system. Intake of sweet potato-sticky rice can help lower the cholesterol level in the blood and prevent the risks of constipation, rectum cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

Sticky rice cooked with taro (Colocasia esculenta) can help detoxify the body and facilitate urination. It is a digestive food and is thus good for those with indigestion or intestinal disorders.

Sticky rice porridge

Prepare porridge with sticky rice, u en (literally means black beans), or catjang (Vigna cylindrica), and jujubes. Eat this porridge once or twice a day to treat anemia due to iron deficiency.

Grind sticky rice and cook it into a thin porridge; add honey and eat it a few times a day to relieve nausea and vomiting. This soup is also good for bile production.

Roast sticky rice and then simmer it with a little fresh ginger and water. Drink the broth during the day to cure nausea and vomiting.

The thin porridge prepared with sticky rice and jujubes is recommended to be eaten once or twice a day by herbalists to treat stomach inflammation and ulcers.

Prepare porridge with sticky rice and lotus seeds. Intake of the porridge in the morning and evening is recommended for those with asthenia or in their convalescence period.

Cook porridge with sticky rice and mung beans. Eat the porridge every day to support the treatment of diabetes.

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Overseas market grows for Tet products

HCM CITY — Many enterprises are making good on rising overseas Vietnamese -driven demand for traditional Tet (Lunar New Year) dishes like the banh chung (glutinous rice cake) and dua hanh (pickled spring onions).

In fact they say they are more concerned about the availability of raw materials to make several products than about finding customers to buy them.

As the Lunar New Year approaches, similar to Viet Nam, markets in Europe, America and other places where the Vietnamese diaspora is concentrated tend to carry many of the traditional Tet foods like glutinous rice cakes, lotus seeds, melon seeds, tropical fruits and jams that are stocked by Vietnamese families to serve guests during the Tet holidays.

Vietnamese enterprises are cashing on this demand for authentic Tet specialities by introducing their products at international trade fairs. Though they are small manufactures, they have already built websites to introduce their products.

Tran Thanh Toan said that his glutinous rice cake company was building a website to introduce products with a Tet flavour.

Toan said his company has exported 30 tonnes of banh chung and banh tet (cylindric glutinous rice cake) to France and the US for this Tet season, adding orders have doubled compared with last year. They can only deal with orders which are placed a month in advance, he said.

This month, he has to call on hundreds of locals to finish the task in time for shipping many kinds of foodstuff including pickled spring onions, fish-sauce and rice paper, Toan said.

Pham Thi Ngoc Lien, owner of a food company in HCM City, said she has exported three containers of similar products to the US. She said there has been a huge demand for such products in foreign countries.

The enterprises predict the food export volume will soar at least 25 – 30 per cent this month compared with the previous months and prices will increase by 10 per cent against last year.

Some exporters say they now have regular spaces in supermarkets and groceries in foreign markets. They are no longer confined to small shops run by overseas Vietnamese. —VNS

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A wine to tempt Bacchus

Vietnamese, whether rich or poor, like to serve their meals with cups of glutinous-rice wine. It comes in various kinds, depending on location and people’s social status, often mixed with medicinal herbs, roots, or fruits.

But of all rice wines, those scented with flowers are the most treasured because they are the most difficult to make.

Reverently called “poet’s wine,” those scented with chrysanthemums gathered at the end of autumn or lotuses at summer’s end exude fragrances that are immortalized in proverbs and poetry.

Like Asians elsewhere, Vietnamese set great store by lotus flowers which blossom bright and clean in mud. The lotus’ scent, considered nature’s quintessence, is reserved for the most cherished teas and wines.

In Hanoi, residents of Thuy Chuong Ward in West Lake District have long been admired for their superbly fragrant lotus wine which they made to offer to kings, though this once-glorious profession seems to be dying out.

Only connoisseurs know what lotus rice wine really is. Many still mistake it for rice wine made from lotus seeds. Both kinds help prevent aging, tranquilize the mind, and boost memory and health but the latter is easier to make and much less fragrant.

Making West Lake lotus rice wine is a complicated process. The ingredients - glutinous rice and lotus flowers - must be first rate. The lotus flowers must be the large type with layers of big petals hugging hundreds of smaller ones.

But they are rare and can only be seen in West Lake now. Wine makers gather the flowers before dawn, remove the petals, and gently pluck off the white anthers at the top of the pistil. One hundred flowers normally yield just one tael (38 grams) of anthers.

The anthers are dried under the sun and soaked along with lotus seeds in white-rice wine. After three to four months, the scents of the wine and lotus intertwine to create an exquisite drink that Vietnamese only share with their closest friends.

Temptation of rice wine

After a few months of fermentation, the wine acquires the light yellow color of morning sunshine. The lotus anthers and seeds are at the bottom, leaving room for the wine that rises up clear and beautiful.

The fine, mild scent of lotus has blended with the strong odor of rice wine.

Served in tiny cups on a breezy moonlit night with intimate friends around, lotus rice wine is an unequalled treat.

Hanoians make many dishes from lotus flowers, like sweet porridge with green beans and lotus seeds and lotus-scented tea, but lotus rice wine remains their most treasured. Yet, few have the chance to taste it now.

If you desire a sip or two, your only chance is perhaps to drop by West Lake, buy some lotus flowers, and ask the sellers if they happen to make lotus wine and are willing to share it with you.

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Hoi An’s little towns serve up tasty treats

The UNESCO World Heritage listed town of Hoi An is known for its centuries-old streets, lanterns, tailors, Chinese temples, beaches and the Hoai River, which snakes its way through the emerald patchwork of paddy fields before discharging itself into the ocean.

But one equally important, but often overlooked cultural foundation is starting to gain traction with those in the know. The food from this central coast tourist centre is winning a reputation as some of the best in the country; and some of the cheapest.

Cam Nam Village, just a stones throw from the heart of Hoi An’s Old Quarter, typifies the sort of gastronomical experience available to people not afraid of straying from the uninspired menus of the lollipop cute cafes dotting the river’s banks.

This tranquil spot, at the lower section of the river, is home to dozens of little restaurants. The one thing they all have in common is that they all serve great local rustic fare.

Three of the most common local dishes served up to punters are: banh dap (smashing rice paper), hen xuc banh trang (clams served with crispy rice paper) and che bap (sweet corn soup).

Banh dap or smashing rice paper derives its name from the action needed to produce the dish. It is made from two pieces of rice paper – the first piece is crispy, the second is wet. To join them together, they must be smashed on to the table.

The two freshly joined pieces are then draped in oil cooked with onions and served with nuoc mam, a pungent fish sauce.

That’s it. A seemingly simple rice paper with contrary tastes: sweet and salty, crispy and soft.

Hen xuc banh trang is a combination of clams and crispy rice paper. The clams are fished up from the Hoai River, which runs through Cam Nam village.

The clams are boiled and then fried with dozens of fragrant vegetables and spices, including onion, spring onion, pepper, chilli, ginger, sugar water and peanuts.

When the clams are ready, crispy rice paper is set on the table, which is also used as a spoon for the dish.

Finally the desert: che bap (sweet corn soup). Hoi An’s sweet and sticky corn is perfect for this soup. Locals swear that one bowl is not enough and visitors that return are the first in line, ready for another helping.

Whether this is true or not is a matter of conjecture. What is true, is that no trip to Hoi An is truly complete without sampling the culinary spectacles that small village’s like Cam Nam have to offer.

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Rice paper village

In the small village lying along the beautiful Ba River in the southern coastal Phu Yen Province, it was supposed to be a quiet  day.

Dong Binh’s renowned rice paper factories were not working at full capacity but still columns of smoke were rising up into the sky and bamboo grids filled with rice paper lined its roads.

The smell of rice flour pervaded the air and armies of trucks carrying rice paper passed in and out of the village.

Local residents don’t know when rice paper was first made here; they only know they learnt the craft of making it from their parents who learnt it from theirs.

But they think it started with one or two households making it to sell during the Lunar New Year, funerals, and death anniversaries before it gradually caught on.

Now, every household in Dong Binh makes rice paper.

Phu Yen people are very proud of the village’s savory white rice paper which has become popular all over the country. It is made from rice grown in Tuy Hoa city and irrigated by the Ba.

Like everything else, making good rice paper requires hard work. The rice must be soaked in water for up to five hours and then ground into flour. A normal work day starts at three in the morning. A wood fire is lit, water is boiled, and flour is kneaded.

Besides rice flour, wheat flour is also used to prevent the rice paper from breaking during transportation or becoming sticky when softened in water for use as a wrap. Two kilograms of wheat flour is added to every 10 kg of rice flour.

When the flour is kneaded, the right amount of water must be added; too little makes the paper thick, and later, when steamed, causes it to cook unevenly. Too much, on the other hand, makes the rice paper brittle.

Once the flour is kneaded, it is rolled into a very thin round on a flat pan and steamed.

This job is mostly done by women since they are considered to be more dexterous and meticulous, essential qualities for making nice, round rice paper.

They work in teams of at least three -- one spreads the flour, another spreads the rice paper over a bamboo grid, and the third carries the grid to dry under the sun and removes the rice paper when dried.

Spreaders are often likened to drivers since their hands never stop working. One hand stirs the flour and the other mixes it or adjusts the heat. Every move has to be quick and precise.

Even drying the rice paper in the sun requires experience -- if it is dried for too long, it will either become brittle and break or bend.

Nature’s blessing

Spreading the rice paper needs nature’s cooperation in the form of sunny weather. Most producers do not work on wet days. If it suddenly starts to rain while the flour is being rolled, the work is halted.

But on sunny days, every household in Dong Binh rolls 30 to 40 kg of rice on average (1kg of rice makes 20 to 25 pieces).

During the Lunar New Year, almost the whole village works through the night to make enough to meet the demand within and outside the province.

At night or when it rains, people use fire to dry the paper.

Dong Binh makes rice paper in various thicknesses, with the thickest being the most expensive. Prices range from VND3,000 for a pack of 10 pieces to VND7,000.

Though every household has its own secrets in mixing the flour and adding ingredients, they all make rice paper that is different from anything else made elsewhere in the country.

Dong Binh rice paper is popular as a wrap to roll up food since when soaked in water it does not stick or melt. It is also added to fried chopped meat and fried shrimp cakes.

It has a slightly tough taste and the fragrance of young rice stalk. If stored in a dry place, it keeps for several months.

In Phu Yen, there is a simple dish locals dearly love and show off to visitors: pork and vegetables wrapped in Dong Binh rice paper.

A few of the papers, a little chopped pork, and fresh vegetables, and a very delicious dish is ready.

Getting there: From Tuy Hoa city, drive along Highway 25 until you reach the 2km highway marker. Follow the small road off the highway until you reach the village.

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