REMEMBER TO TRY THUONG TU PANCAKE IN HUE

Banh khoai (Pancake) is a popular dish in Hue. It’s easy to find a pancake store in Hue but Thuong Tu pancake is the most delicious and authentic one with more than 40 years old.

Thuong Tu gate is an ancient name, which is located at Southeast of Hue ex-capital. On Dinh Tien Hoang street leading to Thuong Tu gate, there are a pancake store of a very special family: everybody are dumb and deaf but they make very good pancakes.

Thuong Tu pancake is made specially

The owner is Madam Ho Thi Tra-90 years old, has 7 good children but all dumb and deaf, communicating by body language only. However, with the good special pancake dish, her family made a very famous brand name of Thuong Tu pancake. The original store is at Lac Thien pancake, at 6 Dinh Tien Hoang, the others next to it are her children’s.

The pancake’s stuff includes shrimp, pork paste, egg, pork belly

There are many places selling pancake: Dong Ba, Kim Long, Gia Hoi, Vi Da…, yet, Thuong Tu pancake is more well-known due to their cake’s flour mixture and the sauce made from 10 spices: soybean sauce, peanut, sesame, liver, pork, shrimp paste…

Because of good dough, Thuong Tu pancake has perfect brittleness. The stuff has shrimp, pork paste, egg, pork belly is very easy to replicate, but mixing the dough to have crunchy, flavor, sticky pancake is just at Thuong Tu pancake.

Thuong Tu pancake has perfect brittleness

The sauce to eat with pancake is similar, so enough with the sweetness goodness that nobody can replicate. The word is that even Madam Tra’s children might not be able to do it without learning carefully from her.

This is not only Hue people’s favorite place, but Thuong Tu pancake is also a popular place with foreign tourists. It appeared in Viet Nam reality show of Luke Nguyen.

If there is any chance to come to Hue, pancake is a dish that you cannot miss besides baby mussels rice, beef noodle soup, rice flour cake, etc…

*Taro**

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Miss Ha Noi Banh duc (Rice cake made of rice flour and lime) when the season comes

In the winter, people usually come to hot strong dishes but simple such as hot Banh duc. Do you sudden “crave” for this dish? Let’s go through some addresses in Ha Noi that have good evaluation for this dish!

1.     1.  Banh duc number 8 Le Ngoc Han

Located at 8 Le Ngoc Han, this is considered the oldest and most famous one. Every Banh duc fan knows this place. However, the store’s space is quite narrow, and you have to walk a long way from the parking lot.  

Hot Banh duc Le Ngoc Han

Banh duc here has traditional ingredients such as rice cake, ground pork, black fungus, broth and herbs with extra fry tofu.

1.     2.  Hot Banh duc at 296 Minh Khai

Banh duc here appeared at the same time as Le Ngoc Han’s. The dish here is much simple than the one at Le Ngoc Han, which includes mix fish sauce, together with ground pork, onion oil but still many people’s favorites dish.

Minh Khai hot Banh duc.

According to the owner, her store served only the nearby neighborhood. However, later on, there are more and more young people know, so it has more customers. The dish here is cheaper than the others. Its open time is from 2-5 in the afternoon.

1.    3.   Hot Banh duc at 106 Goc De

The store is very small, just a street side vendor in front of a house at 106 Goc De market.

Hot Banh duc Goc De

The advantage of this store is the sticky Banh duc, not smelling to much of lime and pork is not much fat. However, the broth is not really clear.

1.      4. Hot Banh duc Trung Tu

The hot Banh duc Trung Tu store is in the courtyard of Trung Tu department. No matter how the weather is, it still crowded, and it is just opened in the afternoon.

Hot Banh duc Trung Tu

The special of hot Banh duc here is the onion is fried really good, ground pork with black fungus and the broth is made perfectly. Rice cake is sticky, soft but tasty. Broth is lighter than the one at Le Ngoc Han. You can’t resist it since you try one. If you want to have Banh duc at Trung Tu in the winter, make sure that you come before 5p.m and before 5:30p.m in the summer unless there will be no seat left.

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FOUR OUTSTANDING FRIED CAKE STORE IN HA NOI

Fried cake – a familiar is snack that appears at every corner, but really popular. These four fried cake stores have the most customers in Ha Noi.

1. Ly Quoc Su fried cake

 Located at the center street, Ly Quoc Su, this store has been crowded. It can’t be said that the dish here is unique. Fried cake, stuffed cake or the sauce is at the standard level, which is not over 7. Its space and hygiene is not either highly evaluated. And the price here is not cheaper than others – 7,000d/fried cake and 9,000d/stuffed cake. However the cake is pretty big, fully stuffed, it cost nearly 100,000d for an afternoon snack meal including drink. But its location is at center of the town, has quick professional service, and long time in this business so it still has many customers due to crowd-effect. Ha Noi people are familiar with going to Ly Quoc Su for having fried cake.

2. Lac Long Quan numbering fried cake

This store is also old and not less famous. It used to be on Thuy Khue street, near Buoi market. Later, for some reasons, it was moved to 242 Lac Long Quan. The new place have comfortable seats in front of a temple, with big parking lot helps it have more customers. The only disadvantage of it is far away center of the town, so there are usually teenagers or the neighborhoods nearby. With that amount of customers, they have to numbering to make sure its safety and organized.

Everybody is given a number in order to be serve right. The cake is never pre-made. There are always 3-4 people kneading, stuffing and frieding cakes. There are always 4 big deep pan fried.

The cake is big with black fungus, whole piece of meat inside. The eaters don’t have to worry for those rotten meat inside. It’s still sweet and sour sauce but really dense, spicy is poured directly into a bowl of cake. They don’t serve the cake with mix vegetable but green papaya. The cake here is fresh and different. Price is cheap – 6,000 and deserve to be utterly famous store in Ha Thanh. 

3. “Petite” fried cake 

O Quan Chuong is just original sweet fried cake for to go guests but it is also famous in Ha Noi. The cake here is the round shape one with skinless green bean inside, crispy outside covered by sesame seeds. At other stores, a big sweet fried cake usually comes to 5,000-6,000/one but at O Quan Chuong is different, really small. It’s just 1,000d/small cake. It’s normal if people buy 50-70 cakes. The strong of O Quan Chuong cake is good dough, crispy outside but still soft inside, less fat, not harden due to cooling down. The green bean inside is lightly sweet. 

4. Shaking fried cake

Gia Trinh store in 16A Ly Nam De is a popular place with shaking fried cake. Fried cake here is also the sweet one with the size of a ping pong ball. The green bean stuff inside is separate from the cake’s skin, can be shake like a dice, so it’s called shaking fried cake. Ly Nam De fried cake is covered fully with sesame seeds, so it’s really aroma. The cake is small and delicious, that’s why the customer must have 5-7 cakes to get out of craving. The price is just 2,000d/one.

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THREE GOOD DISHES IN HAI PHONG YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW

Talking about Hai Phong, the diners might think of some special dishes such as Banh da cua, Banh my cay, Cua be,… But in fact there are many delicious dishes that shoudn’t miss when you visit Hai Phong.

1. Cafe cốt dừa (Coconut cream coffee)

 Do not miss this drink when you come to Hai Phong. Unlike the ordinary coffee, coconut cream coffee has strange flavor. This drink cause the memorable taste to everyone. Just a bit of dense coffee liquid, coconut cream and sugar, beaten well, then add tapioca, dry coconut, black jelly and ice. This drink has aroma and the fatness of coconut cream, the bitten of coffee, the sweetness of dry coconut knock down every picky culinary fan. You can have this drink with bean sticky rice cake to feel the sweetness of rice and the fatness of coconut coffee. The price is 10-15k.

2. Giá bể

Gia be is a dish that is not anyone in Hai Phong knows about. This kind of species lives in the banks near the sea, and available the whole year so everyone call it Gia bien (Sea sprout). Gia be has the shape of a nail shell but thinner. Its legs like the roots of bean sprout. Gia be is popular for the dishes such as stir fry gia be and gia be salad. Stir fry gia be is sweet and sour, really tasty. However, with anyone impatient, eating Gia be takes much time because you have to detach the shell of each Gia be. A bowl of Stir fry gia be comes to 15-25k.

3. Cháo khoai (Khoai porridge)

One more dish in Hai Phong that is not quite popular is Chao khoai (Khoai porridge). This dish is not only special for its name but also its outstanding color. The green of porridge made from star gooseberry, some is made from pineapple leaf. On top of the porridge, people add blended skinless green bean, fry onion. The price for a bowl of Khoai porridge comes to 10k. The popular place has this dish in Hai Phong is in Cot Den market (Du Hang, Le Chan, Hai Phong). Besides Khoai porridge, you can also try pearl porridge or pork rib porridge. Khoai porridge is usually sold in the afternoon. You will feel pretty awesome when having a Khoai porridge bowl with an almost empty stomach, especially in the winter.

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BÁNH DONUT ĐƯỜNG (SUGAR DONUT)

Time: ~1 hour

Level: sophisticated

It is great when you eat this hot dish in the rainy afternoon

Ingredients:

-         Wheat flour: 200 gram

-         Sugar: 40 gram

-         Salt: ¼ teaspoon

-         Powdered milk: 25 gram

-         Instant ferment: 1 teaspoon

-         Melted butter: 40 gram

-         Egg: 1

-         Warm water: 55 ml

-         Oil

Directions:

Step 1:

-         Mix wheat flour, sugar, powdered milk, salt, and instant ferment.

-         Blend melted butter with egg and warm water.

Step 2:

-         Pour the liquid mix into powder mixture, mix up and knead the dough until smooth.

-         Roll the mixed flour into balls, cover with a warm handkerchief, keep it out of the wind so that they can rise double (~1 hour or over, depends on temperature).

Step 3:

-         Smash the dough to release the gas inside, lightly knead the dough.

-         Laminate the dough into 1cm thick, use cutter to cut into small pieces as you want.

-         Let the small pieces dough on a tray covered with wax paper or oil. Annealed the dough to have it rise to double size (more than 45mins)

Step 4:

-         Heat a pan of oil at low heat.

-         Wait for the oil to hot. Lightly drop in the dough. Flip the donuts over to have both fry until gold.

Step 5:

-         The donuts are cooked, get them out and drain from oil.

-         If you want to have an original donut, cover it with sugar when it’s still hot.

-         You can decorate the donuts with melted chocolate, color candy, almond, peanut, sugar powder as your wish.

-         If you want to have a stuffed donut shape the dough into circle, after frying, squeeze the cream or jam into the donuts.

Step 6:     Enjoy it!!!

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Roll noodles ( phở cuốn)

Ingredients:

·        1 kg roll noodle cake

·        400g beef

·        1 onion

·        400g fresh vermicelli

·        100g roasted peanuts

·        10 dry violet onions

·        Vegetables: cilantro, marjoram, bean sprouts, salad and lettuce

·        Seasonings: fish sauce, ginger, chili, vinegar, lemon, sugar, cooking oil, 2 spoon of soup.

Roll noodles is easy to make, simple and bring your family together, that’s suitable for the coming summer.

Instructions:

1.      -Marinate the beef with fish sauce, black pepper, ginger, garlic, then fry them with onion.

-Wash the vegetables.

-Pound the toasted peanuts. Slice the violet onions and fry until they turn brown yellow.

2.    Stretch a roll cake on the dish, lay the salad, lettuce, vermicelli feied with beef, some vegetables, fried unions and some roasted peanuts on. Roll them tightly.

3.. mix the fish sauce with sour, spicy, salty and sweet flavour. ( it’s up to your taste, remember to have a taste regularly to have the best cup of sauce).

** PREP: 15 mins

**YIELD: 5-6 servings

** Skill level: easy.

Lành Phạm,

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TARO STICKY RICE ( XÔI NẾP KHOAI MÔN)

 Time: under 1 hour

Simple

 Cost: 20000vnđ

1.Ingredients:

·         Sticky rice: 300g

·         Taro: 200g

·         magenta plant

·         Baby coconut

·         roasted peanuts

·         white sesame, salt, sugar

Just with the rice cooker, you can also make a great food. The rice is sticky, taro is sweat and soft. Some fibers of coconut help to make yours more tasteful

 Wash the rice, make it drained. Cut the taro into small parts( see the picture). Put the magenta plant cook with 0.7 liter of water and wait to take its violet. Boil the taro with ½ of the water.

 Put the rice into the cooker with the rest of water, add some salt and boil. When the water boils, pour it out, then take the rice and taro to put into the rice cooker to cook.

Scraping the baby coconut into thin fibers. Pounding the roasted peanuts into tiny nuts; roast the sesame, mix with peanuts. Sprinkle them on the sticky rice, enjoy with the mixture above. Prefer when hot.

Lành Phạm,

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BÁNH ĐÚC TÔM THỊT (Shrimp pork rice cake)

Rice cake made of rice flour and lime juice is a Viet Nam traditional cake. It’s soft, flavorful with the thick topping.

Ingredients:

•          Rice flour: 80g
•          Coconut cream: 600ml
•          Ground pork lean:50g
•          Dried shrimp: 20g
•          Coconut: 1cup
•          Red pearl onion, jicama shredded, finely chopped garlic, chili, green shallot, coriander, lemon
•          Fish sauce, sugar, oil
•          Seasoning flour

Bánh đúc tôm thịt

Directions:

1.        .  Preparing

- Soak dried shrimp until tender and crush. Slightly boil the shredded jicama, drain.

- Fry the red pearl onion until smelling and soft, add ground pork, jicama and dried shrimp, season with ½ spoon fish sauce and 1 spoon sugar.

- Mix rice flour with coconut cream, season with ½ spoon seasoning flour and 1 spoon oil, put on stove and stir until denser.

1.  2. Steam cake

-   Oiling the mold, have a plastic on, add ½ the flour mixture into the mold, sprinkle a layer of stuffing, add the other ½ of flour mixture and sprinkle the rest of stuffing.

-  Steam the cake on boiling water in 15 mins until cooked. Get the cake out, decorate with coriander.

-  Mix the sauce: mix 1cup coconut, 1 spoon sugar, 1spoon lime juice, 1.5 spoon fish sauce, garlic and chili.

1.  3. Serving

 Place the cake on a plate, serve with the mixing fish sauce.

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The Brand-new dishes cause attention among young people in the early this year

  At the beginning of 2015, some strange snack dishes attract young-age people at the first look.

1    1.      Liquid Mochi cake

Looking like a giant water drop, this kind of mochi cake got a lot of young-ages’ attention at the first sight, this is a good-looking as well as delicious sweet dish. To enjoy the dish completely, you should eat within 30 minutes from the first serve. Some places have this dish that you can find in Sai Gon: Watcha Coffee – 28/1 Ton That Tung, District 1, Curry Shika – ¼ Nguyen Van Trang, District 1, Cornology – 233 Tran Binh Trong.

Liquid Mochi – A special tumult sweet dish from Japan

2    2.      Jelly Kiss – an eatable glass of frappe 

With a “sexy” name, Jelly Kiss – a glass of frappe made from jelly, you can drink the frappe and eat the glass also. Because Jelly Kiss is hand-made, it is limited, hence, there are about 90-100 glasses a day but it’s still not reach the demand of the diners. The only place to enjoy this strange and good beverage is Sai Gon Juice: 343/66 To Hien Thanh, District 10.

Eatable glass of frappe with a sexy name “Jelly Kiss”

3    3.      Cheese Jelly

As a sweet dish from jelly, cheese jelly is interesting the teenagers with the greasy and flavorful cheeses inside the clear nice looking jelly. A pretty full order of cheese jelly is just 20,000 dong so it attracts many students. Address that you can have this sweet dish is Tra Chanh Com Tron Maika – 35B Nguyen Kim, District 5. Besides, you can enjoy a lot more “super-hot” snacks: mixed rice, peach tea, Thai seafood vermicelli,… with affordable price there.  

Cheese Jelly- an attracted sweet dish at the first sight

4    4.      Mustard ice cream

The spicy contrasts with the sweet of ice cream, this causes many young people finish this ice cream half way and will never order it once again. However, if you can pass the first ice cream, feel the mystery hot hided in the cold of ice cream running straight to your nose, then melting on your tongue, you will recognize this spicy quite exciting and want to eat more. The place you can have this spicy ice cream is: Yamamoto Matcha Cafe – 84 Tran Hung Dao, District 1.  

 Mustard ice cream – the ice cream with the weird spicy flavor got many contrasted comment from young people

5.      Cotton ice cream

As a strange kind of ice cream, with the utmost new combination between the fresh modern ice-cream and cotton candy in the past, you just slightly bite and the candy’s layer will melt on your tongue. What a memorable delicious ice cream that remind us about our childhood. Address you can have this ice cream: Start up Coffee – 38 Tran Hung Dao. You can also enjoy super delicious bee net ice cream there.

Cotton ice cream –Modern ice cream reminds about the childhood

6    6.      Macaroon “exhaling smoke”

As well as colorful macaroons, but with a special technology, you can enjoy a super cold cake that there is vapor when you are talking, this cake is exclusive and available at only Italian restaurant Jcat – 345 Nguyen Trai – an European restaurant with the price only from 30,000-80,000.

Smoking Cake – freezing Macaron

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