Gau rice-cake

Gau rice-cake (Cuu Cao commune - Van Giang district - Hung Yen) has been ranked equally as Truong Xa wine and Ban soybean sauce, contributing to the special culinary culture of Hung Yen.

The Gau villagers created a kind of delicious cake from rice based on the Lang Lieu rice-cake in Hung King period.

Cake is made of glutinous rice which is washed thoroughly and soaked with water and then steamed. Its core is made of green bean which is washed, cooked, pounded and then kneaded into small handfuls. There are two kinds of cake, whose core is made of lean meat or green bean mixed with refined sugar.

The special feature of Gau rice-cake is that the glutinous rice must be planted on the village field and soaked in village wells’ water, and made by the village girls.

The local culture is expressed really specially in the way of making this cake. The thick stack of white cakes arranged in a basket and the green background of banana leaves make people think of the rice’ s miraculous incarnation devoted to a dish of home village.

The cake is ordered by customers from everywhere to serve for restaurants in the capital, conferences and weddings, creating job for thousands of workers.

In Tet holiday, the rice cake is placed on the altar to show respect to ancestors, which is also a cultural beauty of the country...