Village making banh chung 'for the king': Some households boil 5,000 cakes per day

(Dan Tri) - Coming to Cat Tru commune (now Phu Cat, Hung Viet commune, Cam Khe district, Phu Tho) on the eve of Tet, the banh chung stoves are always red hot, with some households selling 5,000 banh chung to the market every day.

Cat Tru Chung Cake Village not only produces delicious Chung cakes but is also chosen as an offering on the occasion of Hung King's death anniversary every year. From generation to generation, the Chung cake wrapping craft has been preserved through many generations, creating the famous Cat Tru Chung cake brand throughout the North.

Many banh chung are displayed on wooden benches along the path between the village and a famous banh chung making facility in Cat Tru commune.

Inside the workshop, dozens of workers skillfully join hands to create the dish that has become a trademark of the homeland.

The family of Chung cake maker Nguyen Thi Minh Anh has been making Chung cakes for three generations, and her bakery has won 10 high prizes in the contest for making Chung cakes to celebrate the Hung Kings' death anniversary in Phu Tho. According to Anh, to make delicious Chung cakes, ensuring food hygiene and safety must be a top priority. Ingredients such as rice, green beans, and pork belly are all selected from the best quality and certified for food safety.

Ms. Anh’s family also has 1 hectare of land dedicated to growing dong leaves to wrap banh chung. The dong leaves must be medium-sized, thick, and have thin stems. In addition, to have enough ingredients to make banh chung for this year’s Tet holiday, she also buys dong leaves from neighboring households.

"After the full moon of December, the number of orders increased and the workload also increased, more urgent, so the workforce was also increased. On normal days, there were only about 7-10 workers, but during Tet, the workforce increased to nearly 30 people, the owner of the banh chung making facility shared.

Mr. Hoang Van Linh (son of artisan Nguyen Thi Minh Anh) has been making banh chung for 10 years now. Mr. Linh hopes to continue the tradition left by his grandfather to develop it for the future.

On normal days, Ms. Anh's bakery uses 3 electric pots to boil banh chung, but due to the increase in the number of cakes during Tet, she mobilizes 4 more pots using wood stoves to ensure the progress of supplying cakes to the market. At this time, the stoves seem to never go out as batches of cakes are continuously filled in pots one after another.

For each batch of cakes, the cook clearly records the time such as boiling time, scooping time, adding water... on the monitoring board. On average, each pot will be boiled for about 10 hours, from the time the cakes are put in the pot until they are scooped out.

On average, each pot can hold about 300 banh chung, and near Tet, the number of banh chung boiled per day can reach 4,500-5,000.

After being boiled, the Cat Tru Chung cake has a beautiful shape, sharp edges, bright colors, fragrant rice. The process of creating the product is elaborate, requiring the wrapper to have technique and passion...

Manh Quan - Dantri.com.vn

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