Sticky rice with sweet soup calls Vu Lan season back

Hanoi style raspberry and sweet soup

July is the most special month because of Vu Lan festival and the Ghost Festival. During this season of filial piety, many families prepare vegetarian dishes and abstain from killing.

Journalist Vinh Quyen - one of the admins of the group Ha Thanh huong xua vi cu (more than 15,000 members) - said that after a feast, dessert is always xoi vo and che duong (areca flower sweet soup). The combination of these two dishes is really skillful, one of the special features of Hanoi.

Sticky rice with sweet soup and sugar is only available in Hanoi.

Ms. Quyen said the bowl of sweet soup looked rustic and simple but still sophisticated.

But it seemed simple, but it turned out not to be. For the past few days, she has been riding her motorbike to famous sweet soup shops in Hanoi to find the sweet soup that she remembers but failed. So the woman from Hanoi has been busy in the kitchen and remembering the old days.

In the past, her grandmother often cooked sweet soup with granulated sugar or rock sugar.

When adding tapioca starch, stir in one direction until the water is clear. Add enough beans because Hanoians eat for fun, not to fill their stomachs.

Culinary expert Nguyen Phuong Hai added: he has an "excessively fussy" grandmother. In the past, rock sugar often had threads or was dirty, so when cooking, she often filtered it through a muslin cloth. The same goes for processing tapioca starch and grapefruit flowers.

When everything was ready, she told her grandchildren to "sprinkle some beans in a little bit". The sweet dessert that Hai remembered in his memory absolutely did not have vanilla or shredded coconut like it does now. Each flavor had its own flavor.

Ms. Vu Thi Tuyet Nhung, author of the book series "Ha Thanh Huong Xua Vi Cu", tells a story that is perhaps considered a "discovery".

When cooking this dish, monk Dam Anh of Phung Thanh Pagoda uses tapioca starch, marinated with grapefruit or jasmine flowers. The tapioca starch is very clean, the sweet soup is stirred thoroughly, and the next day it is still sticky and thick, not rancid like sweet soup cooked in restaurants.

As for the sticky rice dish, Mr. Hai recalls, the old Hanoians often chose tangerine sticky rice or yellow flower sticky rice and green beans (small, fragrant, and flavorful green beans). For every 1kg of rice, there were 300g of beans. Being impatient, Ms. Nhung rarely cooked this dish. She "left" it all to her younger sister to do.

From left to right: expert Nguyen Phuong Hai, journalist Vinh Quyen, author Tuyet Nhung

Speaking of Master Dam Anh, he can be called "the ultimate kung fu master". Ms. Nhung said that the sticky rice he cooked was soft, bouncy, and plump like a young bee, with a fragrant aroma from the rice to the bean layer covering the outside.

He once shared the "secret" to making delicious sticky rice. First, you have to sift the rice to remove the small grains so that the sticky rice is cooked evenly, avoiding some grains being cooked first and some grains being cooked later.

Then wash and soak overnight. Wash the beans thoroughly but do not soak for long. For every kilo of rice, add one and a half ounces of galangal, of which 3/4 is sliced ​​and added to the sticky rice, the rest is pounded to extract the juice.

After steaming the sticky rice for the first time, take it out and sprinkle the juice on it, let it sit for 5 minutes, then spread it out, let it cool, and then steam it again. If you only steam the sticky rice once, it will never be delicious.

Xoi vo and sweet soup are made from ingredients that are not very luxurious. But through the cooking method and the kind heart of Hanoians, they are elevated to a rare, unique and pure dish. When eating, you can feel the softness of the sticky rice, the richness of the beans, combined with the elegance of sweet soup.

Not everyone makes delicious sticky rice - Photo: BUI THUY

The elders often call it sticky rice with sweet soup, but some people also call it sticky rice with areca flower soup. In cooking, our elders are very good at using images to describe things easily. For example, sliced ​​into pencils, sliced ​​into threads, sliced ​​into incense sticks, sliced ​​into chess pieces... It is called areca flower soup because the beans float in the bowl of soup like areca flowers falling in the yard.

Expert Nguyen Phuong Hai

There is a national soul in it

Writer Le Phuong Lien's family home used to be on Hang Dau Street. Of all the offerings made in a year, Ms. Lien remembers the offering made to the wandering souls in July the most. She also remembers the offering made to the wandering souls in 1944-1945, when her mother cooked a big pot of porridge and brought it out to the street to feed the hungry.

In July, sticky rice with sweet soup is an indispensable dish for Hanoians - Photo: D.DUNG

Later, every time she reads Nguyen Du's "Elegy for Ten Kinds of Living Beings" : "The seventh month of the year is filled with drizzling rain/ The cold breeze chills the bones...", Ms. Phuong Lien misses her childhood so much.

A feeling of both sympathy and warmth crept up in my mind.

Mr. Hai shared something very special in the ceremony of atonement for the dead. When offering food to the dead, our people never leave it whole, but cut and divide everything into small pieces.

Fear that strong spirits will steal all the food from weaker spirits. Therefore, it must be divided into small portions so that everyone can have a share, to be "warm" at least that day.

When I was a kid, my family and I used to fold paper clothes and divide them into equal parts, each with a piece of paper money. The paper clothes were white, without any fancy decorations or embellishments. It was so fun and memorable.

Two sacred festivals in life in July - a month that seems gloomy and unlucky but turns out to be strangely warm and humane.

There, besides the filial piety and respect for grandparents and ancestors, we can also see the soul and character of a peaceful, generous, and tolerant nation.

Interpreted in a subtle, unpretentious way, passed down from generation to generation, the Vietnamese cultural sentiment has perhaps never ceased to be fascinating. July is more beautiful because of that.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/xoi-vo-che-duong-goi-mua-vu-lan-ve-20240813100548928.htm