Thua Thien-Hue Province is known for a variety of delicious cakes. Among those cakes is banh goi, a type of dumpling wrapped in dong (phrynium placentarium) leaves. This traditional cake has distinctive flavors of Hue’s authentic cuisine.
Huong Can Village in Huong Tra Town is believed to be where tourists can find the best banh goi in the central region.
The main ingredients of banh goi include a mixture of rice and tapioca flour, brackish-water shrimp caught from Tam Giang-Cau Hai Lagoon, and pork with some fat.
The first step to make banh goi is to prepare dough from the rice and tapioca flour mixture. This step needs experienced people to ensure the cake is neither too viscid nor too tough. Apart from water, the dough requires some cooking oil, salt and seasoning powder.
While it is cooked, the dough should be stirred continuously until it becomes thick. For the filling of the cake, the cook fries shrimp and pork with pepper, shallot, scallion and some spices before grinding the compound.
The next step is to wrap the cake. Finally, the small green cake will be steamed for 15 minutes.
The fish sauce served with the cake must come from Thuan An coastal village. When eating banh goi, people in Thua Thien-Hue usually use the fish sauce with chili only. They do not add any other ingredients to the sauce.
The dumplings should be eaten hot and it would be tastier if served with boiled pork.
Huong Can Village’s banh goi can be found at markets in other villages and restaurants around Hue City.
Making a trip to Huong Can Village, having the hot banh goi while indulging in the peaceful atmosphere by the Bo River will make your tour to Thua Thien-Hue complete.