Waiting for the cake in the kitchen

In the anxiety of a child far from home thinking that he will miss the spring, I asked myself, has Quang Nam started preparing for Tet yet?

Back then, around mid-December, I saw my mother setting up the kitchen to make all kinds of cakes and fruits. The country people believe: "Hungry is also Tet, hungry is also harvest time".

No matter how delicious they were, they would try to save some for the New Year kitchen. Mom would always make several batches of banh in to offer to the ancestors' altar, wishing for a perfect new year.

Mom walked around the market a few times, looking for the right kind of sticky, fragrant sticky rice with big, firm grains. She watched the fire for a while, until the sticky rice in the pan turned apricot yellow, with a slight fragrance, then she would pound the sticky rice in a wooden mortar into a fine powder.

Then grate the sugar into a fine powder, heat the sugar water until just right and knead well with the sticky rice flour. When the dough is smooth enough to form into firm balls, adults will fill the holes in the wooden molds carved with many beautiful patterns and shapes, press tightly to print the cake. The wooden molds can print square, round cakes, apricot blossom, chrysanthemum patterns...

Turn the cake mold upside down on a bamboo tray lined with newspaper, use a pestle to knock on the bottom of the mold, and the cakes are taken out under the round, sparkling eyes of the children. On humid days lacking sunlight, Mom rolls up the bamboo blind, places a red-hot charcoal pot in the middle, and puts a bamboo tray on top to dry the cakes.

The dried rice cake is a bit hard, a bite is crispy, the cake melts in your mouth, sweet, fragrant with the aroma of cooked sticky rice mixed with sugar. Dried rice cake can be eaten for half a year without any preservatives.

During the Tet holidays in the countryside, the children would sit around the warm fire to dry the banh in cakes. Whenever they saw any slightly cracked or burnt cakes, they would be very happy. When the cakes were done, Mom would count them and every batch would be missing one or two.

In addition to sticky rice cakes, there are five types of green bean cakes that are ground into skinless beans, mixed with sticky rice flour and sugar to make green bean cakes. Green bean cakes are fragrant, rich, and slightly drier than sticky rice cakes. Both types are quite delicious, depending on each person's taste.

In the chilly weather, sitting by the warm fire warming my hands, smelling the fragrant smell of freshly baked banh in, I know that Tet is very close to my porch.

Then on the first day of the new year, my mother brewed a pot of guava leaf tea, the whole family gathered together to enjoy tea and taste cakes, lighting up many wishes for a peaceful year. Relatives and guests visiting the house were also invited to enjoy the cake, just enough to strengthen the bond of love.

That year, the molds printed beautiful sticky rice cakes, also imprinting sweet love in the hearts of children. Every time Tet comes, every child far from home remembers clearly the scene of the Tet holiday of their childhood. Or like my younger brother, on the last day of winter in the middle of the city, he prepares his memories to make a long journey to look forward to Tet...

Source: Ny An (Quang Nam Newspaper)

Source: https://baophutho.vn/ben-bep-cho-banh-in-226467.htm