Many kinds of girdle cakes are very popular in Viet Nam, such as Trang Bang dew-aired girdle cake, Huong Ho girdle cake, Ben Tre milk girdle cake. However, not many people know about a popular kind of girdle cake in Tam Quan, Binh Dinh Province, that is, girdle cake with coconut milk.

Like Ben Tre, Tam Quan is a well-known home of coconut palms in the country. Tam Quan is a small coastal town in Binh Dinh Province’s Hoai Nhon District. Coming to Tam Quan, tourists could see straight rows of coconut palms which have big coconuts with thick coconut that is very suitable for the making of coconut rice girdle cake. Tam Quan is also famous for some handicrafts, including the 8-shaped rice vermicelli, sesame candy, especially coconut matting and girdle cake with coconut milk. But the coconut rice girdle cake is better known among the others.

The making of coconut rice girdle cakes is as follows: after being husked, rice is mixed with coconut milk and coconut residue. Some sesame, pepper seeds, slice of purple onions, salt are then mixed together before being cooked on a hot griddle or frying pan. The girdle cakes are fried in a big mould before they are dried under sunlight.

Before enjoying coconut rice girdle cakes, we must grill them on a low-heat coal pot. They will inflate under fire. A coconut rice girdle cake has a delicious smell of purple onions, greasy flavor of coconut and sesame, and salty taste of salt. Nothing is more interesting than eating coconut rice girdle cakes when watching TV with family members. It is more delicious if we enjoy them with ginger fish sauce.

North-south trains or coaches usually stop in Hoai Nhon District for passengers to buy coconut rice girdle cakes as present. Tam Quan girdle cake, An Nhon fermented pork roll, Bau Da wine, banh it la gai (sticky rice cake), and Quy Nhon rice vermicelli with fried fish have long become specialties of Binh Dinh, the land of martial arts.

Source: Saga

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