- 1 The expressions “sticky rice” or “glutinous rice” (or sweet rice, waxy rice, soft rice, etc.) refer (...)
1Sticky rice or glutinous rice1 is grown and eaten in southeastern Asia throughout a broad belt extending from the Philippines to northeastern India and from southern China to the Indonesian archipelago, and including Taiwan, Korea, and Japan. The cradle of rice domestication is situated at the edge of the continental part of this belt. In this area, Vietnam occupies a special position. A great deal of archaeological, ethnological, linguistic, and botanical evidence, as well as clues from the folklore, indicate that rice was locally domesticated. The populations participating in the Hòa Bình culture (circa 10,000 b.p.), living in caves and gathering cereals, used grinding stones to husk (seemingly wild) rice. The people of the Phùng Nguyên and Đồng Đậu cultures (from the end of the third millennium b.c.) cultivated rice in muddy valleys by clearing the land by fire and weeding the field by flooding it, before sowing. And from then on, rice was and remains, by far, the main staple food of the lowland Vietnamese.
2The primitive rice had only one type of endosperm. The forefathers of the Vietnamese, living in mountainous regions covered with dense forests, came across a rice variety, the result of natural mutation, which was stickier than usual. Taking advantage of this new germplasm material, they started practising seed selection to obtain stickier, better-quality rice, and this went on, generation after generation.
3As a result, they obtained rice varieties that were markedly sticky and others that were markedly non-sticky. Then, these people left their cave dwellings, around which they cultivated much sticky rice on small patches of land, to settle in valleys and, later, in lowland plains. The new, wider, and more stable environment in deltas, as well as demographic pressure, led them to give prominence to the cultivation of ordinary rice, which is generally Jess demanding in terms of soi! fertility, yields more, and has a shorter growth cycle. Ordinary rice was eaten on a daily basis in the lowland environment, and sticky rice, then, was resorted to only for ritual and ceremonial purposes. In mountainous areas with low demographic pressure and favorable ecological conditions, however, sticky rice remained dominant.
- 2 There are many different versions of popular “texts” - sayings, proverbs, lullabies, ballads, myths (...)
4For the common Vietnamese, in the past as well as today, wealth is not complete if there is plenty of ordinary rice but no sticky rice. At all times, they must “have ordinary rice, and sticky rice as well” (có nếp có tẻ).2 The Vietnamese deeply believe that sticky rice is more nutritious and more aromatic than any other type of rice.
5In Vietnam, rice, mainly sticky rice, is an important component in over 400 dishes, 70 kinds of cakes and sweetmeats, 22 kinds of chè (sweetened porridges) and chao (soups, gruels), twenty kinds of alcoholic drinks (liquors, spirits, wines, and beers), and thirty kinds of pickles and pickled dishes. Among all these recipes, three cakes, the bánh chưng, bánh giầy, and cốm Vòng, are typical. The first two are believed to be the first cakes ever made by our remote ancestors, and the last is a result of the special combination of the local environment and culinary skills.
6This article deals with these three delicacies made of sticky rice, in a multi-disciplinary way and with evidence derived from ethnography, culture, and folklore, from North Vietnam to South Vietnam. And through them, the shape of our eating tradition emerges. The material presented here originates from persona! fieldwork and observations in the course of the past four decades (a part of these documents was unfortunately lost during our country’s tumultuous last two decades); from stories and eyewitness accounts; and from recent polis, surveys, and interviews.
- 3 The Tết (festival) or Tết Cả (main festival) or Tết Nguyên Đán (festival on the first morning in th (...)
7In Vietnam, the average annual consumption of sticky rice reportedly reaches 10-12 kg per capita. More than half is consumed during the T ế t festival3, mainly in the form of two traditional cakes called bánh chưng (lit., ’thoroughly stewed cake’) and bánh giầy (lit., ‘well kneaded cake’).
8Today, the bánh chưng is a square cake of about 25 cm by 25 cm and about 7-8 cm thick, of sticky rice filled with mungo bean paste and fat pork meat. In the past, the bánh chưng always came with the bánh giầy, a round sticky dumpling with no filling, about 30 cm in diameter and 6-8 cm in height. These are the standard sizes. From the north to the south of the country, the size and shape of the bánh chưng change and, sometimes, so does its name (see Fig. 1).
9For the Vietnamese, it is unthinkable to celebrate the Tét festival without the bánh chưng:
Thịt mỡ, dưa hành, câu đối đỏ
Nêu cao, tràng pháo, bánh chưng xanh.
- 4 Nêu is a long bamboo pole stuck in the ground in front of every house on the occasion of the Tết fo (...)
Fat pork meat, pickled anions, and crimson parallel sentences,
High nêu4, firecrackers in strings, and green bánh chưng.
Fig. 1. The traditional bánh chưng and bánh giầy
Shape and Size
|
North Viçt Nam
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Central & South Viçt Nam
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Square
|
Large Small
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bánh chưng bánh tét (1) bánh nếp / bánh chưng
|
bánh chưng (3) ― bánh chưng (3)
|
Cylindrical
|
bánh tày (2) bánh tét
|
bánh tét ―
|
(1) This appellation is widespread in the countryside; in urban areas, it is replaced by bánh chưng.
(2) This appellation remains popular in mountainous regions.
(3) This appellation was accepted after the coming of over one million Northerners in 1954.
|
10In the countryside, even poor villagers make sure that they can have bánh chưng to celebrate the Tết. A form of saving group, the họ bánh chưng, guarantees that all its participants can afford bánh chưng. Starting on the second lunar month, a fund is jointly set up by a group of villagers, with one of them or a local trader loaning a capital with a rea sonable interest rate, and a month before the Tết, the accumulated capital and interest is divided equally amongst group members to cover bánh chưng expenses.
- 5 Lĩnh Nam Chích Quái [The Extraordinary Tales from Lĩnh Nam] was written by an unknown scholar under (...)
11These two cakes, especially the bánh chưng, occupy a prominent place on anyone’s ancestors’ altar. The Vietnamese believe in the legend that tells of the first time these cakes were prepared, upon God’s advice, by Prince Lang Liêu, under the reign of King Hùng VI, in the first millennium b.c. In the written literature, one of the tales included in Lĩnh Nam Chích Quái5 constitutes the first reliable text relating the legend of the bánh chưng and bánh giầy:
- 6 One of the kings of the legendary Hùng Dynasty, which consisted of eighteen kings (or, rather, eigh (...)
- 7 ln general, the endosperm of sticky rice is round in shape and opaque white in color, whereas that (...)
After defeating the Ân invaders, King Hùng6 wanted to surrender his throne to a successor. He summoned his twenty sons and said: “I want to surrender my throne to one of you who fulfills my will. By the end of this year, he who can bring me ‘delicious food and rare delicacies’ (trân cam mỹ vị) as offerings to my ancestors, so that I can accomplish my filial duty, will be enthroned.” His sons ail tried their best to find delicious food and rare delicacies. The 17th prince, Tiết Liêu, whose mother had been disgraced and had died of disease, was on his own, so his difficulties were evident. One night, he saw in dream a Deity, who said: “On the earth and under the sky, rice is the most precious object human beings possess. By eating rice, one becomes strong and healthy; moreover, one could not get tired of eating rice. Nothing is comparable to rice. You shall make cakes of sticky rice, some square, some round, symbolizing respectively the earth and the sky. Then you shall wrap them with leaves and fill them with trân cam mỹ vị, to show your father your deep gratitude for the great pain of giving life to you.” Upon waking, he followed carefully this advice. He selected round, white, and opaque kernels of sticky rice,7 discarding broken kernels, and washed them thoroughly; then he wrapped the rice with green leaves in a square shape, and filled the cakes with delicacies that manifested the fact that the earth comprises many things, then he stewed them carefully. That was the bánh chưng. He also cooked sticky rice, kneaded it well, then shaped it in the form of a cupula, and called it bánh giầy. On the appointed day, King Hùng eagerly ordered the dishes prepared by his sons to be served. Tiết Liêu presented only his bánh chưng and bánh giầy. With great surprise, the king asked him for an explanation. Tiết Liêu told his father of what had happened in his dream. The King tasted both cakes and found them very tasty, and he could not get tired of eating them. He found that these delicacies surpassed ail dishes presented by the other princes. He praised Tiết Liêu lavishly and repeatedly and gave him the first prize. On the Tết festival, King Hùng used these cakes as offerings to his ancestors. His people followed suit and, ever since, prepared bánh chưng and bánh giầy on every Tét festival.
12In the northern part of the Red River Delta (Phú Thọ, Vĩnh Yên, Phúc Yên, Bắc Ninh, Bắc Giang, and Sơn Tây provinces), one finds a number of folktales about these two cakes, ail with the same theme, that of a specialty contest organized by the King for his sons. All these tales constitute closely or remotely similar renditions of the same legend.
- 8 ls there any relation between the cake called bánh tày and the Thày (Tày) ethnie group living in Qu (...)
13A Mường folktale about the bánh tày8 shows many details similar to the Việt legend. The Chăm, the descendants of the famous Champa kings, who now live in Thuận Hải province (Central Vietnam), have a similar tale, entitled Cadiêng (“Miss Cadiêng”), about their traditional cakes, the red, round xakaya, symbolizing the Sun, and the white, square paynung, symbolizing the Earth. In daily life, however, they follow the Việt custom and prepare the bánh tét during the Katê (Mid-year) festival.
14The Hré ethnic group in Quảng Ngãi province (Central Vietnam) prepare the bánh tét without a filling, and up to twenty or forty times during one Tet festival. The bánh tét also indirectly serves to keep a record of a person’s age: In the first phase of preparation, an extra bánh tét, called bánh cữ, is made for each family member, and only that person may eat this special bánh on the first day of the Tết. Then, the person carefully washes the wrapping leaves, binds them into a bunch with the wrapping’s tapes, then hangs the bunch under the roof, right above the front door. From the number of bánh cữ bunches one can know the person’s age. When the person passes away, these bánh cữ bunches are hung at his/her grave house.
15In the old days, the bánh chung and bánh giầy were two important components of the bridewealth required by the bride’s parents:
Money, I want three thousand tiền,
Rice, three baskets; pigs, three heads,
Alcohol flavored with lotus flower and chrysanthemum flower, three jars each,
Ten thousand areca nuts, one thousand bunches of betel leaves,
As for bánh giầy, I want two thousand pieces.
16Nowadays, the bánh chưng is made of top-quality sticky rice, mungo (green) bean (Phaseolus aurea Roxb.) paste, and fat pork meat - sometimes complemented with shallots, which makes the bánh chưng more prone to get stale. Rice is colored with a brew of la riềng leaves (Alpinia officinarum Hance) or, in some special cases when a red bánh chưng is needed, with the gấc fruit’s flesh (Momordica cochinchinensis Spreng.).
17The cake is wrapped in lá giong (Fig. 2), the leaves of a species of arrowroot (Phrynium capitatum Willd.), growing wild exclusively in northwestern Vietnam. These leaves, similar to banana leaves, are famous for their resistance to tear and their stable color through cooking: As the lá giong leaves, contrary to banana leaves, do not turn the cake’s surface black, a well-cooked bánh chưng remains green. The wrapping material, which can enhance the quality of a delicacy, is as important as the scales protecting the fish, as a folksong emphasizes:
... Bánh chưng có lá,
Con cá có v ẩ y...
... The bánh chưng has leaves,
[Like] the fish has scales...
18The tradition also wants to pay attention to minor details, like the tape used to bind a delicacy: The bánh chưng will be bound with fine lạt dang strips (Bambusa indosasa McClure). The color of this tape denotes the purpose of the tidbit: In the Tết festival or at weddings, the red (dyed) tape symbolizes happiness, whereas the dark green tape, used at funerals, indicates mourning.
Fig. 2 - A scene of bánh chưng preparation
(Photograph by M.-E. Blanc)
19Buddhists prepare the bánh chưng chay (vegetarian bánh chưng), filled with mungo bean paste, sugarcane molasses or brown sugar, and coconut shreds (Cocos nucifera L.). Sometimes, the mứt bí (sweetened shreds of a pumpkin, Benincasa hispida Cogn.) is mixed with bean paste. The appellation bánh chưng chay is avoided, however, if Buddhist rules are transgressed during the preparation: For example, it is unacceptable to cook the bánh chưng chay in a pan that has been used to cook meat or bánh chưng with pork meat filling. If this is the case, then the cake is called bánh chưng ngọt (sweetened bánh chưng).
20In the central and southern parts of Vietnam, the cake, called bánh tét, has a cylindrical shape, but the filling is the same as in North Vietnam. Moreover, due to the absence of lá giong, banana leaves are used. Only one variety of banana, called chuối hột (a banana with small, black pits), has leaves suitable to wrap this cake. These leaves are resistant to tear and do not blacken the cake’s surface after cooking. After the massive migration of Northerners to the South in 1954, the square bánh chưng became popular everywhere in Vietnam. Recently, creative Southerners have invented a lot of new bánh tét, with banana, groundnut, red beans (in whole grain), or other fillings.
21Irrespective of shape or size, the bánh chưng is cooked in a big pan for long hours, and most often at night. The entire family gathers around an open-air wood fire. Children, lying down, listen with bated breath to fairy tales like Tấm Cám (a Vietnamese Cinderella story; from tấm, ‘broken rice,’ and cám, ‘bran’) and Thằng Cuội (“The Liar”), or folktales such as Cây Tre Trăm Đốt (“The Bamboo with One Hundred Internodes”) and Cả Lém (“The Talkative”), told by their mother or grand-mother. While waiting for a taste of the first bánh tét (a small bánh chưng), they challenge one another with the riddle:
- 9 A famous race of swine in the Red River Delta, North Vietnam.
Trang xanh ngoài xanh,
Trồng đậu, trồng hành,
Lợn Ỉ nằm giữa…
A, a… Cái gì? - bánh chưng.
Inside, outside, both green,
Green bean, shallots are grown,
A pig of the I race9 lies in the middle…
Ah, what is it? - A bánh chưng.
22While bánh chưng, in the past and today, is highly appreciated by the Việt, as well as by other ethnic groups in Vietnam, to Europeans it is “more famous of reputation than of taste”, as one French journalist stated recently (Lauras 1997: 14). In 1913, an English adventurer tasted some cakes bought from a Kon Yai woman. “The cakes were made of glutinous rice with a mixture of beans; and they went very well.” This cake, I believe, was a bánh tày.
23All year round, on Hà Nội’s and Saigon’s streets, one can have small bánh chưng as a breakfast snack. And in winter, only in Hà Nội, small fried bánh chưng. The enticing smell of fried cake pervades a whole street corner.
24The preparation of the “twin-cake,” bánh giầy, is more difficult and requires qualified labor. Only young people from Quán Gánh village are able to produce delicious and attractively packaged bánh giầy. A proverb proffers a warning: Khôn khéo bánh giầy, vụng dại chầy cối (“Ifyou are clever and skillful, you prepare the bánh giầy; if you are clumsy and foolish, then you work with pestle and mortar”). This is probably one of the reasons why the bánh giầy today is Jess popular than the bánh chưng.
- 10 Bánh cuốn is a steamed cake of ordinary rice, a kind of ravioli.
25This traditional cake, however, was a principal offering in any ritual ceremony. For example, the contribution by the head of the giáp (a hamlet, the basic administrative unit in the countryside) to his banquets during village celebrations (usually twice a year, in the spring and fall) consisted of 244 bánh giầy and one pig over 100 kg liveweight. In Sơn Đông village (Hà Đông province), a traditional festival was organized on the sixth day of the second lunar month; two key offerings on the altar of the Đình (Community House) were the bánh giầy and the bánh cuốn,10 symbolizing the genital organs of the two sexes. After worship, the cakes were distributed to all villagers and parcelled out to neighboring villages:
- 11 Mo, a piece of dried areca leaf, was very popular in the countryside as a wrapping for cooked or st (...)
Sơn Đông có tục múa mo
Banh giây, bánh cuốn đem cho các làng.
Sơn Đông [village] used to celebrate the dance with a mo, 11
Bánh giầy and bánh cuốn will be shared with neighboring villages.
26At village level, several families from the same kin group usually join to collectively prepare the bánh giầy (see Fig. 3). The first bánh giầy must be placed on their ancestors’ altar. Small bánh giầy are reserved for children and divided among them as instructed by this saying:
Nằm trong ăn lòng với bún
Nằm ngoài ăn khoai chấm mật,
Nằm giữa ăn nửa bánh giằy.
If you lie at the inner edge of the bed, you eat wet noodle with chitterlings,
If you lie at the outer edge, you eat sweet potato with molasses,
If you lie in the middle of the bed, you eat a half bánh giằy.
Fig. 3 - Two strong men making bánh giầy
(traditional woodcut from North Vietnam)
27In Hà Nội, on any day, one can taste the bánh giầy Quán Gánh, a small bánh giầy that does not exceed a hand palm in size, and is rather looser in structure than the real bánh giằy, and so is easier to prepare. This cake is eaten with giò (Fig. 4):
- 12 Quán Gánh and Thanh Trì are villages outside of Hà Nội. Giò is a traditional lean pork sausage wrap (...)
Bánh cuốn Thanh Trì, giầy giò Quán Gánh.
Bánh cuốn from Thanh Trì, bánh giầy and giò from Quán Gánh. 12
Fig. 4 - The bánh giây and gio from Ouan Ganh
(Photograph by the author)
28In the countryside, meanwhile, the popular snack at any village market is the bánh giầy đậu, a small bánh giầy coated with boiled mungo bean powder.
29During the whole Tet festival, visitors, irrespective of age, sex, kinship relation, or social position, are respectfully presented with all worship offerings taken from the altar - bánh giầy bánh chưng, chè (sweetened porridge), mứt (sweetened fruit), rice alcohol, etc. - and they must take a taste, at least a little, of all items offered. As it would be a show of scorn to not take a bite of the dishes presented by the host family, in practice, this never happens. Ordinary rice is cooked and used in worship everyday, but it is neither offered to visitors nor eaten at home during these festive days. The eating behavior of the Vietnamese during the Tet festival reflects the past prominence of sticky rice in daily life .
30Vietnamese society is moving forward and traditions evolve. The traditions of the Tết festival, though still strong, tend to be simplified as they face new challenges. Due to the large gap between the haves and the have-nots, not everyone can enjoy the traditional cake. In urban areas, it is bard to find a household where the bánh chưng is prepared from A to Z. New adjustments to the old tradition come in three options: Each family wraps its own bánh chưng, then the cooking, a time- and fuel-consuming process, is done in co-operation with other households; several families surrender their raw ingredients to a team of professionals, who prepare the bánh chưng according to the respective tastes of the commissioning parties, and then cook ail the cakes together; or, people simply buy a couple of bánh chưng in one of many specialized take-away shops in Hiền Vương Street, Saigon. In such shops, one may find oneself embarrassed in front of the large assortment of bánh chưng available, from vegetarian bánh chưng with mứt dừa (sugar-preserved coconut cubes) and mứt bí (sugar-preserved pumpkin shreds) to bánh chưng with Jean or fat pork meat (Fig. 5). The size, quality, and prices are so varied as to satisfy even the most demanding vegetarian or vegan customer. The new life style has brought very pleasant changes, indeed.
Fig. 5 - The bánh chưng with pork meat (right) and the vegetarian bánh chưng
(Photograph by the author)
31In the course of the last two decades, over three million Vietnamese have resettled in more than one hundred countries over the world, but the tradition of eating sticky-rice cakes has remained very much alive. The bánh chưng, meeting new environments, has survived through time, showing its endurance as the core of the eating tradition of the Vietnamese, wherever they settle. It has also secured the young generations’ firm approval.
32In January 1999, a survey by telephone and mail, conducted by the Center for Vietnamese Studies, Dutch Chapter, of 253 Vietnamese adults (selected at random) residing in the Netherlands showed that, for the 52 percent of those who ate sticky rice in 1998, the bánh chưng was the unique source of this type of rice; and 35 percent of them prepared their bánh chưng themselves (the margin of error is approximately 3.6 percent; the “don’t know” answers were not taken into account).
- 13 The leaves of pandan (Pandanus amaryllifolius Roxb.) are used to flavor the cơm (cooked ordinary ri (...)
33The Vietnamese living abroad wrap the bánh chưng in banana leaves and color the sticky rice with an extract of pandan13 leaves imported from Indonesia, instead of the traditional extract from la riềng leaves. Only in these two details does the preparation depart from the traditional way of making bánh chưng. The bánh tét nhân chuối is also prepared, using a variety of plantain banana from Surinam, and sometimes synthetic coloring is added to make the bánh tét more attractive to the eye.
34In a few Dutch towns with notable Vietnamese communities, such as Hoorn (roughly 1,200 Vietnamese) and Heerhugowaard (about 500), some lò (factories) are specialized in bánh chưng. One of them consumed up to two tons of sticky rice during the 1998 Tet festival, suggesting a production of 4,000 to 5,000 bánh chưng. A part of this production is consumed beyond the Dutch borders, in the European Union. About five percent of the production of these factories is bánh chưng ngọt (sweetened bánh chưng) for Buddhist devotees.
35The effect of globalization can now be felt with the presence of the famous lá giong leaves in Hoorn during the 1999 Tet festival. Fresh leaves had been steamed and dried, then shipped from Vietnam by air cargo to the Netherlands. The bánh chưng is now fully recovering its traditional charms. Whereas the bánh chưng is shouldering the role of bridging the past and the future, the Vietnamese in their motherland and their country-fellows overseas, the bánh giầy has lost its appeal and remains merely as a recollection in the mind of younger generations.
- 14 Country-fellows, lit., people who came from ‘the same pouch.’ This expression derives from a legend (...)
36Even the way of celebrating the Tet has undergone deep changes. Whatever of the actual date of the First day of the Tet, the overseas Vietnamese have to celebrate it during the week-end, after a busy week of hard work. They see the Tết as a precious opportunity to meet their đồng bào14 and share the rare happiness of eating the bánh chưng, and chat and joke in Vietnamese in a traditional environment.
Tết về nhớ bánh chưng xanh…
Nhớ gnũ vị, nhớ chè lam… (by Bàng Bá Lân)
On the occasion of Tết, [we] remember the green bánh chưng ...
The five kinds of sugar-preserved fruit, the chè lam...
37In the Tết period, the Vietnamese prepare and eat the bánh chưng. In another important festive period, the Mid-autumn festival, they appreciate the cốm, especially the cốm Vòng.
- 15 Sometimes the cốm season lasts till the tenth lunar month, but the cốm cuối mùa (late cốm) is taste (...)
- 16 Lotus (Ne/umbo nuciphera Gaertn.); ray leaves are from a species of arrowroot (Co/ocasia macrorrhiz (...)
38In mid-fall and only in Hà Nội, Vòng villagers produce a special tidbit from young (immature) sticky-rice kernels: the cốm Vòng, light green in color like the paddy seedling, thin as down, and sweet as the taste of orange. During no more than forty to fifty days, from the late seventh to the very early ninth lunar month every year, 15the people of Hà Nội can note the presence of cốm vendors, with their equipment distinguishing them from other itinerant peddlers: a bamboo shoulder pole with one curling end and two rather small, smoke-tame baskets, not heavier than 4-5 kilograms each; under the baskets, some fresh lotus leaves and ráy leaves;16 and in the baskets, thin layers of cốm on banana leaves, piled up. Another characteristic of cốm vendors: All are girls or young women, modestly dressed and gently behaved; theywalk silently along the main streets of Hà Nội ‘s old city, not calling out to advertise their ware, but by about 11 a.m. the cốm is sold out - after that time, it could be stale and nobody would want to buy it. In some of Hà Nội ‘s main markets, like Đồng Xuân Cửa Nam, and Chợ Hôm markets, one can see a couple of such cốm vendors, discreetly sitting in a corner. Only regular customers come to them in search of this fine delicacy, and the vendors usually give as a present to their customers a special, pretty, small straw broom.
- 17 Thôn Hậu (or Vàng Hậu, or Dịch Vàng Hậu) is a suburb of Hà Nội.
- 18 Cáo (or Kẻ Cáo or Cáo Đỉnh) village is specialized in bamboo baskets.
39The genuine cốm Vòng is prepared at Thôn Hậu (lit., ‘hamlet at the back’), one of four harnlets comprised in the Dịch Vòng commune, some eight kilometers to the west of Hà Nội.17 The other three hamlets of Dịch Vòng used to practice hàng sáo, i.e., process the paddy into rice and retail the rice on the streets of Hà Nội. A local saying confirms this: Giành Cáo, gạo Vòng (“Deep basket from Cáo village18, rice from Vòng village”). More recently, a few families in the other three Vòng hamlets, having learned the secret recipe from Thôn Hậu, managed to produce a rather palatable corn, which, however, cannot compare favorably with the original cốm from Thôn Hậu. In the past, to prevent this secret recipe from leaking out, unmarried girls from Thôn H u, even very young ones, were not permitted to participate in the cốm preparation, in fear that when they got married, eventually, to outsiders, they would transfer the know-how of cốm making to their husbands’ families. For this reason, all cốm vendors were girls or unmarried young women: They did not take part (or, rather, were prevented from taking part) in the cốm preparation at nighttime, and they set out for Hà Nội early in the morning to sell the product.
40The cốm Vòng is ranked at the top of a list of Hà Nội tidbits:
Cốm Vòng, gạo Tám Mễ Trì
Hành hoa, húng Láng còn gì ngon hơn.
- 19 Mễ Trì and Lang are villages located outside of Hà Nội.
Nothing [is] more delicious than the cốm Vòng, rice from the Tám cultivar in Mễ Trì village, Shallots and húng [mild mint] from Lang village.19
and:
Cốm Hoa Vàng,
Chim ra ràng,
Gái mãn tang,
Gà mái ghẹ.
- 20 Following the custom, widows must remain in mourning for twenty-four months.
Cốm from [Nêp] Hoa Vàng cultivar,
Young pigeon starting to learn how to fly,
Young widow at the end of her mourning period,
Young hen in its first rut.20
41In the past, the cốm Vòng was among the food articles reserved as tribute to the King.
Thái Đô làm kẹo mạch nha,
Kẻ Vòng làm cốm để mà tiến vua.
- 21 Thái Đô hamlet is now in Hà Nội suburbs.
Thái Đô village prepares the malt sweets,
Kẻ Vòng prepares cốm and offers it as tribute to the King.21
42Nobody knows exactly the origin of the cốm Vòng. In Thôn Hậu, a legend still travels around:
Once, after a flood, the paddy fields were submerged as in a sea of red water, and this lasted a long time, and people suffered from hunger. One family in Thôn Hậu was fortunate enough to harvest in a hurry some young sticky rice. To stave off their hunger, they roasted the young grains and were surprised to find that it was delicious - it was the cốm. From then on, in the eighth lunar month, Thôn Hậu villagers prepared cốm partly for themselves and partly to sell in the region. Later, some villagers moved to Mai Dịch village [a few kilometers to the northwest of Thôn Hậu], bringing with them the kriow-how of cốm making. Later again, some villagers of Kẻ Mẩy (Mễ Tri) were hired as servants by residents of Thôn Hậu, and so picked up the secret of cốm preparation. This is why we can now taste the less delicious cốm from Mai Dịch and Mễ Trì.
43It thus seems that Thôn Hậu was the original center of cốm preparation and that the know-how now found elsewhere was picked up from Thôn Hậu. The picture becomes quite different when the scope is enlarged.
- 22 The word cốm has a complex semantic field. ln North Vietnam and northern Central Vietnam, cốm is a (...)
- 23 This selection of poems is one of the most ancient and best-known works in Vietnamese literature.
44Etymologically, the word cốm,22 we assume, derives from the word cơm (‘cooked non-sticky rice’). It appears for the first time in the 15th-century Quốc Âm Thi Tập (Selected Poems in the National Script)23 by Nguyễn Trãi (1380-1442):
Lân cận nhà giàu no bữa cốm,
Bạn bè kẻ trộm phải no đòn.
Living next door to the rich, you eat cốm more than enough,
Being friend with thieves, you get whipped more than enough.
45Nguyễn Trãi very likely took his inspiration from either a popular old wives’ saying, Đau răng ăn cốm (“When you have a toothache, you [should) eat cốm”), or the following proverb:
(Ở) gần nhà giàu đau răng ăn cốm,
(Ở) gần kẻ trộm ốm lưng chịu đò.
Living next door to the rich, you eat cốm when you have a toothache,
Living next door to thieves, your back is broken by whipping.
- 24 Researchers agree that the cốm Vàng has a long history, but disagree on the date of its origins. So (...)
46As a rule of thumb, the word cốm must have existed before Nguyễn Trãi ‘s times, i.e., before the 15th century and, therefore, the art of preparing cốm must have existed before that period.24
- 25 Rice is cultivated in two main “seasons” or cycles: the Mùa season (harvested around November) and (...)
47In any event, in North Vietnam, especially in the Red River Delta and in northern Central Vietnam, rains and storms are a constant threat during the harvesting period of the Mùa season.25 In the past, farmers frequently had to harvest their crop early to avoid coming storms (gặt chạy bão). The great risk due to sudden storms taught farmers that “green paddy in the barn is better than ripe paddy still in the field” (xanh nhà hơn già đồng). When there was no opportunity to dry the harvested paddy in the sun, the farmers had to roast it and, in case of shortage of food, poor farmers had to try to eat roasted paddy. If the harvested paddy was too young, they got cốm.
48The popular experience of weather forecast gave birth to numerous sayings and proverbs referring to the roasting of paddy in the rainy days of stormy periods. In North Vietnam, one finds:
Động biển Đông, bắc nồi rang thóc,
Động biển Bắc, đổ thóc ra phơi.
- 26 ln North Vietnam, depressions from the east bring rain and strong winds and farmers cannot dry the (...)
East Sea in storm, put a pan over the fire to roast paddy,
North Sea in storm, spread paddy to dry in the courtyard.26
49In Central Vietnam, the popular meteorological experience is expressed in these words:
Động biển Xuân Né, xúc thóc ra phơi,
Động biển Đại Bằng, đổ thóc vào rang.
- 27 Đại Bẳng and Xuân Né are located in northern Central Vietnam.
Stormy sea beyond Xuân Né, shovel out paddy to dry [in the sun],
Stormy sea beyond Đại Bằng, pour paddy [in a pan] to roast over the fire.27
or:
Cồn rền Quang Lang, đổ thóc vào rang,
Cồn rền Cửa Hội, cởi khố ra phơi.
- 28 Quang Lang and Cửa Hội are seaports in Thuân Hóa region, Central Vietnam.
In Guang Lang, when thunder claps repeatedly, pour paddy [in a pan] to roast over fire,
In Cửa Hội, when thunder claps repeatedly, take off your loincloth to dry [in the sun].28
50It is probably in these circumstances that, by chance, rice farmers discovered the delicious taste of roasted young paddy, particularly young sticky-rice kernels, and the cốm. From then on, over time, they improved the art of preparing cốm by identifying the best rice cultivars, the optimal time of harvesting the young rice, and the proper roasting technique, to finally achieve the highly relished quality found at Thôn Hậu.
51A basic knowledge of cốm making is found in almost every village, in the North as well as in the South. ln the Red River Delta, from time to time during the harvest, farmers would roast young sticky-rice kernels and eat them as a snack in the evening. Sometimes, they would even roast young ordinary rice. They prepare the cốm particularly for the Tết cơm mới (New harvest festival), principally on the tenth day of the tenth lunar month, i.e., about two months after the cốm Vòng period. This corn, made from riper paddy, is rather bard, Jess tasty, and Jess aromatic. Some corn are well known, however, like the cốm Nam of Nam Dinh province (in the heart of the Red River Delta), the cốm Bắc of Bắc Ninh and Bắc Giang provinces, and the cốm trắng (‘white cốm’) in many midland provinces. In South Vietnam, the cốm dẹp (a whitish, fiat cốm) is made of ripe grain.
52Ethnie minorities have also their cốm. For example, the Thai (Tay) group in North Vietnam prepare the cốm with their Tan Ngân cultivar of sticky-rice, and the Khmer group in the Mekong Delta produce their own cốm for their children during the Sarnpeak Preah Khe (‘Welcome the moon’) festival or the Ok Om Bok (‘Swallowing cốm’) ceremony in mid-autumn.
53The evidence, thus, suggests that Thôn Hậu does not enjoy the monopoly of cốm preparation. Wherever cốm is prepared and whatever know-how is putto practice, all types are highly appreciated by the local people:
Muốn ngon thì cốm dẹp,
Muốn dẹp thì cháo hoa.
If you want a delicious dish, order the cốm dẹp,
If you want a pleasant dish, order the cháo hoa [plain rice soup].
- 29 Mễ Trì villagers produce a special cốm called cốm dồ (or gạo đồ), made of sticky rice almost ripe, (...)
- 30 Under the Nguyễn Dynasty (1802-1883), Hà Nội was officially called Băc Thành (‘City of the North’) (...)
54In the area around Hà Nội, some cốm are famous, such as the cốm Vòng (from Vòng Hậu village, mentioned above), the cốm Lủ (from Lủ Trung hamlet), the cốm Mễ Trì (from Mễ Trì village),29 the cốm Mai Dịch (from Mai Dịch village), and the cốm Phùng (from Đai Phùng village). A proverb from Central Vietnam stresses the area’s culinary reputation: Ăn Bắc mặc Kinh (“[Delicious] dishes from Bắc region, [beautiful] clothes from Kinh area”),30 and the Vietnamese in general acknowledge that the finest gourmets are found in Hà Nội and only in Hà Nội.
55All these types of cốm share common features: They are made of young sticky-rice paddy; they are plucked carefully, kernel by kernel, from the rice ears; they are roasted over a fire, and then pounded to flatten the grain (cốm). There are differences, however: They are made from various cultivars of sticky rice; they are harvested at various stages of their ripening; and they are roasted at varying temperatures and for various durations; so, the color and thickness, the sweetness and savor of cốm vary from place to place.
56The wonderful art of preparing the cốm Vòng is based on several criteria: the selection of one (or several) appropriate cultivar(s); farming practices, especially in the choice of the right season and in the correct staggering of sowing phases, ensuring that kernels are ail at the same ripening stage; the choice of a timely harvest time, to get suitably young kernels; and a roasting at the right temperature and for the right duration. In other words, this is a highly sophisticated combination of seed selection, farming practice, craft technique, and culinary art.
57Vòng villagers buy young paddy (mua non, ’buy [when rice is still] young’) from farmers in neighboring villages, and then make their cốm using their secret recipe. Informants say that young paddy is sometimes carefully transported from up to twenty kilometers away to Thôn Hậu. Labor is specialized: Farmers in surrounding villages cultivate different cultivars of sticky rice with short growth cycle, in staggered phases of sowing. The most common of these cultivars, ail belonging to the “early Mùa” variety group, are known as Nếp sớm trắng, Nếp Bắc sớm, Nếp ta sớm, Nếp Phùng, Nếp Châm (dâu), Nếp Mỡ, and the famous, Nếp Cái Hoa Vàng. When the cốm season approaches, expert corn producers from Vòng survey paddy fields with their owners, reckon ripening stages, and decide on which crops are suitable to make cốm, which day the paddy should be harvested and, of course, the price.
58Nobody knows when this labor specialization initially took place. In the remote past, Vòng villagers probably cultivated their own sticky rice for their cốm. Over time, they became unable to produce enough paddy to satisfy the increasing demand for cốm. Then, this harmonious association between sticky-rice farmers and cốm producers emerged. One eider of Liên Hà stated that, on one year when the demand for corn had decreased, the rice farmers who could not sell their paddy to cốm producers had to ăn nếp trừ cơm (‘eat sticky rice in place of ordinary rice’), even though they knew that một đấu nếp đổi được hai đấu tẻ (‘a mug full of ordinary rice is equivalent to two mugs of sticky rice’). We believe that this association started in the early 1940s, after the great depression of the 1930s, and generalized from the 1950s onward, when the demand for cốm increased thanks to word-of-mouth advertizing, easier transportation, and commercialization trends. Like many other hàng sáo villages in Hà Nội suburbs, the Vòng villages, with a substantial population living in a confined territory (đất ít người đông), had insufficient farming acreage to satisfy their paddy needs.
- 31 Biên Niên Lịch Sử Cổ Trung Đại Việt Nam (1987: 216).
59Also like manyvillages in the western suburbs of Hà Nội (in the past, Thang Long), Vong villages were probably established in the mid-14th century. Official annals mention that “[t]he first month of Nhâm Dân year [1362], King Trân Dụ Tông ordered that slaves exploit the western areas of Thang Long, on the northern bank of the Tô Lich River, and cultivate vegetable, shallots, cucumber, etc. This area was called Toán Viên Phường [‘Garlic Garden guild’].”31 Later, another large vegetable-farming zone, called Thập Tam Thôn (‘Thirteen Hamlets’), was established.
60It is in this area that the villages of Láng (traditional horticulture), Ngọc Hả (flower cultivation), and Vòng (roses and cốm production) are located today. We refrain here from extending any hypothesis about a possible chronological connection between the composition of Nguyễn Trãi poem and the establishment of the Garlic Garden guild and the Thirteen Hamlets.
61It is difficult to procure accurate information about the preparation process of the cốm Vòng. Each author on the subject has his/her own version. The truth remains cloaked under the so-called giữ nghề tổ rule, ‘to preserve the profession learned from the Trade Genie,’ in other words, to keep the secret of the trade. Sometimes, intentionally or accidentally, there is exaggeration and even mystification. We tender here below a sketch of the process to the best of our knowledge.
- 32 ln the past, earthen pans from Hương Canh region (Phú Thọ province) were used; nowadays, cast iron (...)
62The paddy is harvested at its “middle milky stage” (an agronomie term), that is, about ten days before full ripeness. It may not be crushed or treaded on. Young kernels should be plucked from the ears with special, long and flexible bamboo chopsticks, called cái chằng. Tuen, the empty kernels are eliminated by floating, the only suitable way to keep full kernels intact. Full kernels are poured in an earthen pan32 for roasting. The secret of the cốm Vòng lies in the method of roasting the young paddy and of discarding the husks.
63Vòng people use firewood or than tàu (charcoal) to roast paddy on an earthen stove. The heat must be kept at medium level and the kernels must be carefully stirred and turned upside down (xơ cốm) with a wooden giá rang (a tool in the shape of a half-open hand); then, immediately, the kernels must be pounded lightly and regularly in a small mortar. Two persons are at work now: One operates the wooden pestle horizontally; the other, sitting by the mortar half-buried in the ground, regularly stirs the roasting kernels to eliminate the husks. The cốm mortar is of the same type as the rice mortar, but smaller and lighter. Then, the kernels are shifted and winnowed very fast. This process is repeated up to seven or ten times, according to experienced cốm producers in Vòng.
64The preparation of the cốm requires no sophisticated equipment, as is depicted in a folksong collected in Vòng village:
Đắp lò và sắm nồi rang,
Đôi quang đòn gánh vắt ngang mỹ niều.
[We] build a stove and buy an earthen roasting pan,
A pair of baskets and a bamboo pole lying prettily on [our] shoulder.
65The preparation only requires skilled labor, because the roasting and pounding are key stages. But everyone wants to take part in these final stages - maybe in the hope of getting a chance to taste the early cốm! Popular sayings clearly show the point:
Giã gạo thì ốm, giã thì khỏe.
When you must pound rice, you pretend to be sick; when you must pound cốm, you feel healthy.
or:
Làm thì ốm, đâm cốm thì siêng.
- 33 The verb dâm implies the “primitive way” of pounding cốm, i.e., with a hand pestle.
You pretend to be sick when you are called to work, but to pound côm by hand, you are diligent.33
66Only two to three kilograms of young paddy are treated at a time. Thus, the cốm preparation is time consuming. Paddy is usually harvested at 3 or 4 p.m., processed during the night and, early the next morning, customers in Hà Nội can taste the fresh cốm.
67The cốm production is a family affair. All family members participate in the process, from harvesting the paddy to peddling the final product on the streets of Hà Nội. In the past, the roasting was exclusively a man’s job, while the pounding and stirring were performed by married women. Nowadays, the role of women and children is prominent along the whole process.
- 34 The physiology of rice ripening and the tillering habits of the paddy plant are such that, at any g (...)
68After winnowing, the resulting cốm mộc (‘plain cốm’), which is delicious but not very appealing to the eye, is then sorted into four categories:34 cốm đầu nia (‘cốm that came out first’), made of the best young paddy (fiat, transparent-green, and sweet kernels); cốm non (‘young cốm’), of medium quality, made of young, fiat, green, and rather sweet kernels; cốm gốc (or cốm già, ‘old cốm’), the lowest grade, made of paddy not young enough (rather round, whitish-green kernels), almost tasteless before hồ (coloring and sweetening, see below); and cốm dót (vón, rón, ‘cốm in lumps’), made of paddy that is too young (dark green, sugar sweet, and sticky kernels), and forming small, shapeless lumps including tiny fragments of husks.
69The first and fourth kinds, always available only in small quantities, are highly appreciated; the former is reserved for worship and the latter for children and the elderly. But the cốm đầu mùa (‘cốm -primeur,’ or cốm in the very early season, i.e., in the late seventh lunar month) is, according to some connoisseurs, the most prized. Per sona! experience establishes that this cốm is rather neutral in taste and appeal, although it is very expensive: It is precious (since rare), rather than delectable.
- 35 Vòng villagers apply various degrees of hồ, from hồ sơ (or hồ nhẹ tay, 'lightly colored,' i.e., wit (...)
70More than an hour before leaving the village for the market, the cốm mộc must undergo hồ, i.e., coloring with a mixture of rice seedling leaves, and sometimes sweetening, to enhance the final product’s appeal to the eye and palate.35 Then, it is placed evenly, in thin layers, on banana leaves and put in baskets for the young vendors to take to Hà Nội.
71In the cốm business, quality is the main issue. In Vòng Hậu village, a special terminology has been instituted to describe cốm quality: mỏng tay trong hạt (‘thin hand [i.e., fiat, smooth kernel), transparent grain’) is an attribute of the top quality; cứng tay dày hạt (‘hard hand [i.e., hard kernel), thick grain’) describes the lower quality; the expression mềm tay (‘smooth hand’) is used for fresh cốm; and cốm nõn for very soft cốm.
72The cốm are placed on ray leaves (see Fig. 6), then wrapped with lotus leaves to form square packages bound with six fresh strawwisps, exactly as a thin bánh chưng. Packaged as it is, the cốm does not become dry but, in tropical conditions, it can only stay fresh for a few hours before going stale.
Fig. 6 - Cốm Vòng on ráy leaf
(Photograph by M.·E. Blanc)
73The cốm is a culinary specialty resulting from the marriage of an agricultural specialty (the Nép Cai Hoa Vàng sticky-rice cultivar) and a craft specialty. In 1987, we wrote: “An exceptional case is the Nếp Cái Hoa Vàng cultivar; its particularity is that, if grown outside its specific area (Vòng village), its aroma does not decrease completely.” (Nguyễn Xuân Hiển 1987: 11-12). We believe that the balance in this marriage is tilted towards the craft side: The skill in processing the young paddy to produce cốm is more decisive than the mastering of agricultural techniques in cultivating the Nếp cultivars.
Cốm is nota dish for those who are in a hurry. When eating cốm, one should do so slowly, little by little, and take the time to ponder. Only by doing so can one enjoy the fragrance of the new rice, of wild flowers and grass, find in the green color the freshness of young leaves and in the sweetness the softness and purity of the greenery. With the flavor of old lotus leaves, scented cốm seems to keep the warmth of summer days on the lake (Vũ Bằng 1994).
74The cốm Vòng is delicious and nutritious. One-hundred grams of ready-to-eat cốm contain 25 gr. of water, 6.1 gr. of proteins, 0.8 gr. of lipids, and 66.3 gr. of carbohydrates, and provides 304 calories. The digestibility of cốm reaches 75.5 percent.
75Today, only the cốm Vòng can be eaten fresh, as ail other types of cốm have to be processed. In the Mid-autumn period, people from all regions of Vietnam come to Hà Nội to taste the cốm Vòng. Although it is sold fresh by its producers, the cốm Vòng can also be processed - by other parties - into various “dry” products, such as the cốm sấy (‘dried com’), the cốm xào (‘fried cốm’), the bánh cốm (a cake made of cốm), the cốm nén (a compacted cốm that, after mixing with đường cát [powder sugar], stays fresh for over twelve hours), the chè cốm (a sweetened porridge with cốm), the kem cốm (an ice-cream with cốm), and the chả cốm (grilled chopped pork meat with cốm). All the cốm produced in other villages are “dry” products (or, rather, dry raw products), used to prepare various kinds of cakes, such as the bỏng cốm (‘parched cốm’) and the cốm rang nén (compacted, fried cốm, with sweet juice added).
- 36 Another variety of hồng, called hồng ngâm (‘soaked hồng’), with a hard and most astringent flesh, c (...)
- 37 Hạc Trì (in Vĩnh Yên province), where the seedless hồng is known for its sweetness, pulpy flesh, at (...)
76The cốm Vòng can be eaten plain, or with ripe hồng fruit (Japanese persimmon, Diospyros kaki L.f.), according to popular sayings: Hồng cốm tốt đôi (“Japanese persimmon and cốm make up a nice couple”), or Mâm cốm kẽo với mâm hồng (“A plate of cốm gets along well with a plate of persimmon”). Only the hồng mọng (pulpy hồng or hồng chén, fleshy hồng in the shape of a cup)36 is suited to the taste of the cốm. The best hồng come from Hac Trì village (Vinh Yên province).37 The red color of ripe persimmon enhances the green color of the cốm; and the sweetness of the fruit complements the light sweetness of the cereal. In the past, in the cốm season, a young man would make his future parents-in-law a present of cốm and hồng. Nothing more appropriate than cốm and hồng to show respect, gratitude, and love in these circumstances:
Ngườiời, biết có được không?
Để mẹ mua cốm mua hồng sang xin.
My dear, do you accept [my love]?
My mother will buy cốm and hồng as a present for your parents, to ask for your hand.
77Sometimes, the cốm gets stale, hồng becomes rotten, and the young man sinks into deep depression:
Gắng công kén được cốm Vòng,
Kén hồng Bạch Hạc cho lòng ai vui.
Trách ai lòng dạ đổi thay,
Hồng này để thối, cốm này để thiu.
[!] did my very best to get the right cốm Vòng,
And the hồng from Bach Hac, hoping to please someone.
And now [I] have to reproach someone who has changed her mind,
This hồng is becoming rotten, this cốm is getting stale.
78The fresh cốm Vòng can be eaten with chuối trứng cuốc, a slim, fragrant banana of the tiêu variety, at the trứng cuốc stage of ripening, which is marked by the presence of many small black spots on the skin, making it look like the egg of a swamp hen. Although the banana is fully ripe, very sweet, and fragrant, its pale yellow flesh is firm. The banana’s flavor and sweetness enhance the cốm’s romantically rural flavor.
- 38 Jew's ear (mộc nhĩ is Auricularia auricula (L.) Schust.
79The cốm (Vòng) gốc (‘old cốm’) can be mixed with lotus seed, minced pork meat, onion, and Jew’s ear,38, and stuffed into a pigeon, a duck, or a young chicken, which is then stewed, to be served to gourmets. This dish, called bồ câu tiềm (with pigeon), vịt tiềm (with duck), or gà tiềm (with chicken), is viewed as having efficient medicinal properties.
- 39 Bưởi is a kind of grapefruit (Citrus grandis).
80For over half a century, the bánh cốm (‘cốm cake’) has been served as a wedding cake. Square, covered with green banana leaves, and bound by two red bamboo thongs, it has the green color of young leaves. Fried with sugar and lard, it still gives out the fragrance of sticky rice. The filling consists of well-kneaded ground mungo beans and some coconut shreds. Sometimes, the bánh cốm is flavored with an attar of shaddock flower.39 Many gourmets do not relish this flavoring, as it deeply alters the authentic natural aroma of cốm.
81The Khmer group in South Vietnam, particularly in Trà Vinh and Cần Thơ provinces, also eat fresh (and rather hard, i.e., ‘old’) cốm with banana of the chuối già variety (a large, short fruit). In the early morning of the tenth day of the tenth lunar month , the almost ripe sticky rice is harvested , immediately roasted , and later winnowed by women during the day. The cốm is ready before the moon rises. The n, the whole household gathers in the drying courtyard in the full moon light. The elderly fill the children’s mouthes with cốm and banana and ask them what they expect the coming year to bring them. From their answers, people make predictions about their various crops for the coming year.
82Finally, it is worth noting that there are almost as many folksongs, proverbs, and sayings concerning the preparation and use of the cốm as there are concerning the xôi and the bánh chưng - this confirms the cốm’s great popularity among the Vietnamese. That the cốm symbolizes the Vietnamese culinary art and skill - for the palate as well as for the eye - is not an overstatement.
83The cốm Vòng is reportedly exported in dry form and limited quantities to the United States, France, Canada, etc. As their quality is notably lower, however, these dry products do not raise much interest among overseas Vietnamese communities. Of course, unfortunately, the famous fresh cốm cannot be found abroad. In Little Saigon (Westm inter, California) or in the XIIIth arrondissement of Paris, gourmets do not have the opportunity to taste the cốm Vòng or its derived products. In June 1998 , we were able to buy bánh cốm in a shop in Brussels. Despite its name and aspect, this cake (see Fig. 7), a dark green mass of sticky flour with a filling similar to that found in Hà Nội (with mungo bean and coconut shreds), had in fact but little likeness to the genuine item from Hà Nội. The disillusionment was even greater when we ate it, as it was very remote from the softness, natural sweetness, and refinement of the true cốm Vòng.
Fig. 7 - The so-called bánh cốm made in Brussels
(Photograph by the author)
84Informants from Hà Nội report that it is now impossible to get natural shaddock attar to flavor the bánh cốm. A coarse chemical flavoring is available, but it is rejected by sophisticated customers.
85In Thailand and the United States, many Vietnamese boat people are able to produce specialties like the nườc mắm (fish sauce) and mắm tôm (shrimp pastel with the same quality as is found in Vietnam, but they have to acknowledge their failure to produce good cốm.
86Recent genetic engineering has produced a new Nếp variety, called Nếp Hải Phòng, for off-season cultivation in the Chiêm season. With this new variety, the cốm can be produced in May and June, but this off-season cốm is whitish green, rather thick, hard, and tasteless. Consumers also tend to decline off-season cốm because the context is not the right one, that is, the one they enjoy in Mid-autumn (fresh weather, blue sky, clear moonlight, and festive ambience).
87The cốm is now an “endangered” specialty, because foreigners and new entrepreneurs are charging on Hà Nội suburbs, including Vòng village, and buying paddy fields to build resorts and golf courses. Local cốm producers have to leave their home village to reside elsewhere. A number of Hà Nội writers and journalists have warned of this critical situation. Should the cốm Vòng be protected and upheld
88While the bánh chưng remains the core of the Vietnamese eating tradition, the cốm Vòng, now facing an uncertain future, still embodies something special for the Vietnamese. Both are as pleasing to the eye as they are enticing to the palate. These two delicacies reflect the main features of the Vietnamese gastronomic tradition. Their ingredients all originate from agriculture or natural resources, and the raw materials for the utensils used in their preparation also are easy to find in the surrounding natural environment. They meet all the necessary criteria to be viewed as ideal delicacies in Vietnamese gastronomy, as a dish usually is evaluated in terms of its ngũ đắc, its five ‘abilities:’ It is popular, i.e., everyone is familiar with it; its ingredients are all locally available; it is acceptable to everyone, i.e., it is not taboo food in any religion; it is easy to prepare, so everyone can prepare it; and it can be afforded by every social category. Furthermore, the bánh chưng and cốm Vòng are served in the course of major festivities, so they are the right delicacies to be eaten at the right time in the right place and with the right company.
89Researchers have suggested that savor is bất khả tư nghì (‘impossible to discuss’), as it pertains to a complex issue at the border of subjectivity and objectivity, i.e., it is an individual intuitive perception. In theory, however, it can be claimed that a delicious dish should be a harmonious combination of four components: A) the nourishment component, consisting of 1) bổ dưỡng (‘wholesome’) and 2) tinh khiết (‘hygienic’); B) the taste component, consisting of 3) ngọt ngào (‘with a distinct flavor’), 4) thơm tho (‘with a pleasant fragrance’), and 5) đậm đà (‘tasty’); C) the preparation component, consisting of 6) khéo chọn ([ingredients] ‘harmoniously combined’), 7) khéo nấu (‘good cooking’), and 8) khéo tay (’competent’); and D) the appearance component, consisting of 9) khéo bày (‘nice display’) and 10) bắt mắt (‘pleasant to the eye’). These attributes in a delicious dish have been called thập toàn, the ‘ten (attributes of the] perfection’ [of a dish]. According to Vietnamese taste and mentality, both the bánh chưng and cốm Vòng possess all the necessary attributes.
90These two delicacies also reflect the Vietnamese life environment: the humid tropical countryside of an agricultural developing nation. The Vietnamese, consuming the produce of the soil, have flexibly adapted to ecological and economic conditions. Their affinity with nature is reflected in these specialties’ simplicity and the balance of savor and food value.
91In the course of the last half-century, however, and especially since 1975, deep, momentous events have occurred in Vietnam. The cairn Vietnamese countryside has suffered much human turbulence. It is now on the verge of unprecedented change, and facing irreversible industrialization, urbanization, and globalization, which affect every region’s traditions, culture, politics, identity, and behavior. On the one hand, agricultural patterns are changing and the agrobusiness is developing and, on the other hand, social patterns are dramatically altered - the social categories, ethnicity, the development of leisure - and so are mental patterns - behavior, aesthetic taste. As a result, the Vietnamese eating tradition is facing tremendous challenges. Modernization has already gone so far that growing numbers of young Southeast Asians no longer relish rice!
92The traditional bánh tét has now become integrated into the modern ambience on a par with... beer:
Banh tét, dưa hồng, la ve, củ kiệu.
Banh tét, red watermelon, beer, pickled shallots.
93Biotechnology, especially genetic engineering, has a deep impact on the quality and yields of agricultural products, and has recorded wonderful achievements that are opening wider horizons and new options for upgrading the quality and appearance of traditional specialties. For example, new sticky-rice varieties released by the IRRI (International Rice Research Institute) in the last few decades have a long, opaque, and even fragrant kernel. This rice, which meets the consumers’ dreams, allows even an unskilled person to easily produce a tasty and attractive xôi vò, a delicacy highly prized by the Vietnamese. And we remember the recent sticky-rice variety called Nếp Hải Phòng for preparing the off-season cốm.
94Thus, change in the eating tradition, and particularly in the spectrum of ingredients, is induced by the development of science and technology. Change is also induced by social and economic development. In step with the progression of welfare, the eating becomes more sophisticated: Phú quý sinh lễ nghĩa (“Prosperity and nobility usher rituals and festivity”). On the other hand, the consumer society is condemning some traditional specialties to disappear (e.g., the bánh giầy in its traditional shape and quality is now only known by eiders) or to change (e.g., the bánh chưng can now be filled with Chinese sausage and monosodium glutamate, a potentially carcinogenic substance).
95Alarming signals are sent from Vòng village, where villagers are forced to sell their rice fields. How long will the genuine cốm Vòng survive? The rich biological diversity of Vietnamese sticky-rice germplasm is now jeopardized by the genetic erosion caused by the farmers’ determination to obtain high yields. It is now reportedly difficult to find a genuine specimen of the Nếp Hoa Vàng cultivar in the Red River Delta, where this cultivar was widely cultivated only a few decades ago.
96Our forebears used to say: Ăn theo thửơ, ở theo thì (“Eating according to the time’s fashion, behaving according to the time’s tradition”). We must, however, distinguish between horizontal change, with an increasingly deep and broad impact of regional and international factors, and vertical change, which is mainly the result of the generation gap and modernization. In the case of Vietnam, change has Jess to do with internal causes than with foreign influences.
97As of today, in this context, the particular features of sticky-rice use remain vivid and fascinating. Our concern is to preserve traditional customs, for ourselves and for posterity, in a fast-evolving society and, at the same time, to integrate into this very strange modern society focused on the individual; that is, to bring together, to some extent, Eastern tradition and Western philosophy. History demonstrates that the Vietnamese often embrace other cultures, but never to the detriment of their own. After all, the three delicacies described here show that sticky rice remains a mainstay in any Vietnamese banquet and ritual ceremony, in Vietnam and abroad. This constitutes a unique, inseparable, and enduring part of the Vietnamese identity.