equivalent to waking up early in the early cold autumn to see the beauty. Under a banyan tree, a cloud was rising, sometimes blurred, surrounded by a tight crowd that almost melted. It was not clouds or fog, but smoke coming from a basket of sticky rice.
There is nothing warmer than the smoke of an colder morning in Hanoi. That smoke is fragrant with the scent of yellow sticky rice flower seeds that once grew in Me Tri fields, Phu Thuong is so cooked that it is as rich as the buttocks of a bee, it seems like just a slight bit will break the toothbrush.
But no, that berry sticky rice does not break as you dream, but is sticky and fragrant, just put it in your mouth and you will feel the warmth of the entire mouth, then the truly fragrant but seductive smell will take over all the senses. The chewer you are, the more flexible you are, the sweeter you are.
Stevia with sesame salt, peanut salt, cotton stockings, or more luxuriously, ham, fat is a popular breakfast dish in winter. The sticky rice pack of Hanoi is as attractive as other sticky rice packages in cities in North Vietnam in the cold season. They all brought overwhelming emotions.
For example, in Nam Dinh city, there are scallops, which are still fragrant sticky rice grains surrounding a shell made of fat lying in the pureed green beans, and when eaten, they suddenly feel " upon the table" for an hour, then a stream of smoke rises and smells hot with the smell of pepper and green beans. Oh my gosh, there is no more joyful and enjoyable culinary experience.
But it should be morning sticky rice packages, not salty sticky rice with all kinds of "topping" such as braised meat, braised sausage, braised eggs, hot potatoes covered in sauce. Because salty sticky rice seems more modern and "famous", not suitable for the old people and especially they cannot spread the fragrant smoke in their hands.
The cold season sticky rice packages are the salvation of students in difficult times. Cheap, but every morning when going to school in the cold, having a handful of sticky rice, walking and extinguishing warm smoke, while creating a delicious, hot piece to fight the cold at the beginning of the season, that is truly a paradise reality.
It is even better when the hot sticky rice is wrapped in newly picked banyan leaves, washed until shiny. Bang leaves are thick and soft, no matter how hot the sticky rice is, it is not as soft and sticky as other types of leaves. Bang leaf sticky rice has a very unique flavor, bringing an interesting and clean feeling.
But the warm smoke of the cold season is not only in the sticky rice baskets and handfuls. The salvation of the cold winter city is still in the 50 pots that when opened, a warm cloud of clouds with the strong smell of stewed beef bones with ginger, cardamom, and cinnamon shocked the whole street.
That warm smoke from the pho pots makes everyone feel compelled to cheer early in the fall. Above all, the warm smoke of pho water and pho bowls has made the cold season seem very unique. Almost every ethnic group has a cold-proof dish, which is hot, delicious, and special. For Vietnamese people, it is pho.
Think of a broth simmered with coal for 8 - 9 hours. The temperature of the ingredients and the cooking time are converted into each drop of the broth, and then it is converted into each piece of pho, into each cell of the pho player.
The Buddha once said that each drop of water contains tens of thousands of worlds. So even a drop of pho broth can contain tens of thousands of cold winds. Those cold seasons have flew into warm smoke, captivating the souls of tens of thousands of people, becoming worries every cold morning along the long street.
What is happier than playing a delicious bowl of pho on a cold early morning? Although the monsoon is here, it is covered by a layer of warm smoke coming from the pot of boiling pho, and the hot bowl of pho also emits the boiling smoke like the surface of Dam Dam Lake in winter. Then, enjoy the heat and deliciousness of the food that is extracted from the intestines and liver from thousands of temperatures.
However, the warm smoke also often has a rich romantic look. Sit with your lover in a small shop, eyes painfully looking at a steamer, next to a woman, fat, thin, ugly, beautiful but powerful like a fairy.
A hand raised, the warm smoke flew like a dragon roll, the saleswoman's hand suddenly swung up a mist of flour, rubbing it on a layer of fabric, creating a round layer of xoi flour. Then his hands swung up to the hood, the warm smoke suddenly disappeared, leaving only a few lines of lightness like a breath of doubt.
About a few minutes later, his hands swung up again, the hood swung open, and the magical performance developed again, causing warm smoke to fly. But this time, that stream of smoke not only blurs the steam but also cools with the aroma of cooked rice flour, chopped wood, and cooked pork.
Shelves let smoke fly like the million-year-old thunderstorms in Thang Long, fingers used a pair of thin bamboo sticks, hung under the top of the shirt, transforming into a circle, from the spread to the cake roll, then lifted them up and placed them on a plate. Wherever your hand goes, the smoke will follow depending on the taste, until it is cut into bite-sized pieces, sprinkled with some precious yellow fried onions, then holidayed in front of diners.
That hot roll of cake dipped in a bowl of dipping sauce is also a bit hot, release fresh chili and pepper, eat with cinnamon and coriander is truly the love of a cold night. The cake is wrapped in your mouth, enjoy it, and there are still light smoke when you open your mouth and ask your lover: "Is it delicious?".
How many rolls of cakes are there in this land of North Vietnam? How many people have been sitting and watching the steaming smoke of banh cuon rolls on Hoi Nhai slope, in the mountainous city of Cao Bang, at the old Dong Van market? No matter how many people enjoy the joy of eating the warm smoke lane, making the cold season a source of love and regret.
