Phu Thuong sticky rice making profession is recognized as national intangible cultural heritage.
Sticky rice is sold in many places across the country, but only Phu Thuong sticky rice has a "name" and is remembered.
Phu Thuong sticky rice has just become a national intangible cultural heritage. People in the old Ke Ga village - now Phu Thuong village in Tay Ho, Hanoi - are overjoyed.
Sticky rice every day but never get bored
Ms. Mai Thi Thanh (59 years old) - member of the executive committee of Phu Thuong Sticky Rice Village Association - received the news with great emotion.
Mrs. Thanh is from another village and came here to be a daughter-in-law. Every morning she sees her mother-in-law carrying a basket of sticky rice to sell all over Hanoi.
Ms. Mai Thi Thanh said that in Phu Thuong, sticky rice is cooked with one or two fires depending on each family - Photo: DAU DUNG
She got married in early 1988, and in the middle of that year, after two training sessions from her mother-in-law, Ms. Thanh joined the Phu Thuong sticky rice makers who went to the streets to sell. In just a short time, she had been in the profession for 36 years.
Mrs. Thanh said that at that time, not many people ate sticky rice. The elders of Ga village carried sticky rice to sell every day, at most only about ten kilos.
Now it has suddenly "bloated". The whole village has about 600 households making sticky rice, selling both retail and wholesale.
On normal days, a family that cooks less consumes 10-20kg of rice per day, a family that cooks more consumes 50-60kg. On holidays, Tet, Tao Quan worship, or full moon and first day of the month, a family that cooks less consumes a ton of rice, a family that cooks more consumes… countless kilos.
On average, Phu Thuong village consumes dozens of tons of rice every day.
In the past, our grandparents only cooked sticky rice with beans and peanuts. Only later did we have sticky rice with mung bean and broken sticky rice.
About 8 years ago, there were also five-color sticky rice varieties. Recently, Phu Thuong people have followed the trend of molding flower sticky rice, carp sticky rice, and even chocolate sticky rice.
Not only in Hanoi, Phu Thuong sticky rice has also spread to other regions of the country. And perhaps only Phu Thuong villagers, who have come all the way to Ho Chi Minh City, miss the village's food so much that they set up a sign and opened a small shop selling Phu Thuong sticky rice to ease their longing.
Freshly boiled beans are scooped out and placed in a colander to drain - Photo: DAU DUNG
Mrs. Cong Thi My, 67 years old, explains why people in Phu Thuong often use velvet sticky rice or yellow flower sticky rice to cook sticky rice.
Of the two types, yellow sticky rice is more expensive, so when a customer orders it, Phu Thuong people use this type.
Mostly, we use velvet sticky rice, a type of sticky rice that makes the sticky rice grains when cooked reach the perfect level of plumpness, roundness, and shine. And with just velvet sticky rice, Phu Thuong sticky rice is already "very" Phu Thuong.
Mrs. My makes famous sticky rice in Phu Thuong village. The amount of oil and beans must be just right, and the salt used must be right so that the sticky rice is fluffy, not spoiled, and still fragrant.
She said, here, each family has its own secret and not every Phu Thuong person cooks delicious sticky rice.
To have delicious sticky rice, one must have skills. Sometimes, time teaches people to be "familiar", to know how much rice is enough, how much heat is enough, how much salt is sprinkled to get the flavor, how long to soak new rice and old rice to get the desired result. But these things are hard to understand, even if we say it, people may not be able to imitate it. We have to rely on the saying "the ancestors told us".
But the signs of good sticky rice are not difficult, Ms. Thanh said. If the sticky rice is left from morning to afternoon, it will still be soft and chewy, but the grains will not be broken or sticky, and will still be spongy, then it is good. If the sticky rice is not cooked enough, it will be hard and tough by noon.
Even though they cook sticky rice every day, Phu Thuong people never get tired of eating it. In the morning, they still have to make a handful of sticky rice to fill their stomachs.
Mrs. Thanh told that her mother-in-law, when she was over 90 years old and weak, lying in one place in the house, smelled the smell of cooked sticky rice coming from outside, and shouted out loud, showing her nostalgia for the days when she carried sticky rice to sell.
Phu Thuong people often use velvet sticky rice or yellow flower sticky rice to cook sticky rice - Photo: DAU DUNG
The sentiment of sticky rice and the sacred ceremony of human life
In the past, Ga village was a rice and flower village, surrounded by many fields.
According to Mrs. My, back then there were no alarm clocks, the elders just looked at the moon and stars above their heads to guess the time and then this family called the other family to wake up to cook sticky rice.
When Mrs. My woke up, she would call her daughter to wake up and watch the kitchen while she washed the rice and mixed salt into the rice. Back then, sticky rice was cooked with straw, so Mrs. My had to be on duty all the time.
The daughter who had just woken up in the middle of the day, with her eyes half closed, was now in her sixties.
Telling the old story, Mrs. My's eyes suddenly turned red because she missed her mother and her childhood days in the peaceful village. She loved her job so much that she kept trying.
Phu Thuong sticky rice dish with sticky rice with beans, sticky rice with gac fruit, sticky rice with xeo (the dish lacks mung beans)... from morning to afternoon, it remains soft and chewy - Photo: DAU DUNG
Researcher Phan Cam Thuong once wrote in one of his books that the Vietnamese originated from the Muong people, through at least two customs, including the use of sticky rice as offerings, as a way to remember their roots of eating upland rice, before knowing about the Cham rice plant, which was taken from the Champa people...
The Muong people also have a New Rice Festival in the tenth lunar month - which is still maintained today.
This is just like the story told by Mrs. Cong Thi My. In addition to the traditional festival in January, the ancient people of Ga village had the custom of offering new rice in the tenth lunar month after harvesting rice.
Every family usually offers sticky rice, boiled chicken and sweet soup. Many families have forgotten, but she still remembers October, her own rice harvest season.
No one knows when the sticky rice profession in Ke Ga began. We only know that the old song is still passed down: "Ga village has a banyan tree/ Has a cool river to bathe in, has the profession of making sticky rice". Any region with the word "Ke" in front is very old.
Phu Thuong people looked at each other, learned from each other how to make delicious sticky rice, and then brought their village's sticky rice everywhere. One generation followed another, each generation was "stronger" than the previous one, thus lingering and preserving the village's unique features.
Without having to be located in the 36 streets, in the West Lake area, Ke Ga people can still write their own "street legend" of their village with the sentiment of very Vietnamese sticky rice.
Finding the taste of Phu Thuong village sticky rice in the middle of SaigonSource
Comment (0)