Van Dinh town of Ung Hoa district has long been famous for its delicious grilled duck and boiled duck dishes, but few people know about Van Dinh and have another specialty, duck spring rolls. From the familiar duck meat, Van Dinh people have varied a little, creating this special dish.
Mr. Luong Tien Manh, owner of a duck cakes production facility in Van Dinh, said: "I started making duck cakes in 2020, luckily I was loved and welcomed by customers. When enjoying, the dish has a little grilled duck flavor, a little boiled duck flavor".
Making duck cakes is more elaborate than any type of cake made from fish, pork, or beef. First, the duck meat must be processed and cleaned with lemon, grain salt, and pureeed ginger to remove the odor. After that, the duck bones are removed, the lean meat is taken to make the spring roll.
The duck meat is cut into small pieces, pureeed with a little lean pork, pork fat, pepper, chili, sweet potato, fish sauce, sugar, salt, minced onions... During the process of pureeing, the maker must always pay attention to keeping the plants cold, otherwise the meat will be mushy and not tough.
When collecting the mixture like raw ham, the farmer's hands swirl it into pieces or balls that suck your taste. The final step is to bring steamed duck cakes, unboiled, to preserve the full flavor of the dish.
"To make a piece of duck cakes, it goes through many stages, from the selection of ingredients to the filtering of duck meat and pureeing. However, the secret to creating a delicious duck cakes is summarized from the secret to making traditional pig cakes of the ancient Van Dinh village, combined with some unique spices for a unique flavor, Mr. Tien Manh shared.
If used immediately, the steamed duck cakes should be fried or put in an air fryer until golden brown. If not used, the duck cakes are frozen, vacuum-packed, and stored in the refrigerator ice unit. To ensure the best quality, it should be used within three months.
Van Dinh Chai can be eaten with rice paper, lettuce, cucumber, pickles, dipping sauce or fish sauce, it is both delicious and less boring. Or, add the duck cakes to the hotpot, eat with the vermicelli. The soft, chewy duck cakes, sweet and chewy, have the sweet taste of duck meat, the aroma of garlic pepper... make diners eat them forever.
On the market, there are 2 types of duck cakes, one made from duck meat, the other made from bone-cut duck feet. Duck cakes cost 200,000 VND/cakes. Because of the long storage time, visitors from far away can buy Van Dinh duck cakes to store, gradually use or buy them as gifts whenever they have the opportunity to visit this land.
