Famous brands near and far
Thuy Duong village, Thuy Nguyen ward, Hai Phong is famous for traditional banh chung making. From the beginning of the village, when mentioning banh chung, everyone mentions the family of Mr. La and Mr. Lo, who have several brothers who have followed the profession, passing on it to their children and grandchildren for generations.
Mr. Nguyen Tat Lo (69 years old) said that his family has 5 siblings, 4 of whom have a facility to wrap banh chung. Among them, Mr. Nguyen Tat La (81 years old) is the eldest brother in the family, with the largest banh chung wrapping workshop in the village. As for Mr. Lo, he makes about 700-800 cakes per day, and on Tet, the amount of cakes is double or triple depending on customers' orders.
From the beginning of December, his family imported sticky rice and delicious beans to prepare for the Tet banh chung crop. “Normally, households only wrap with Thai Binh fragrant sticky rice, but especially for the Tet cake crop, they have to wrap Dai Thang yellow flower sticky rice to make the cakes fragrant and more delicious. The meat must be fresh and delicious, the pieces of meat are both lean and fatty, marinated with salt and a lot of pepper to create a characteristic flavor. The cooking time for Tet cakes must be 12 hours, 4-5 hours longer than usual to ensure the cakes are crispy, leave for a long time and still sticky and fragrant, without being "sweetened" (live), Mr. Lo said.
Not far from Mr. Lo's house, in the house next to the road of the Bac 2 residential group, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Mui (74 years old) and Mrs. Vu Thi Thuy (69 years old) both wrapped banh chung and listened to old songs that they had heard since their twenties. Mrs. Thuy confided that she herself had nearly 5 decades following the banh chung wrapping profession left by her grandfather and father.
When they were young, the whole family of 3 generations gathered to wrap cakes, hundreds, thousands of cakes each day for visitors from all directions. Now that they are old, although their health is also weak, Mrs. Thuy and Mrs. Mui still follow the traditional profession, their hands still meticulously pour rice, beans, arrange meat and then wrap cakes evenly.
“In many other places, Thuy Duong banh chung does not use wooden molds but uses... my own hand molds. Every day I wrap banh chung, so I naturally make each one the same, without molds but still square and beautiful” - Ms. Mui shared.
On average, every day, Ms. Thuy's family wraps 500 large and small Chung cakes to send to traders. In December alone, the amount of cakes increases, sometimes up to 1,000 pieces a day.
Preserving traditional crafts
The work is hard all year round, month after month, it seems that only generations like Mr. Lo and Mrs. Mui still cling to the profession. But their joy is not only the orders from everywhere pouring in, but the passing of the profession to their children and grandchildren. Mrs. Thuy's son has also been in the profession for 10 years.
As for Mr. Nguyen Tat La's family, from sons and daughters, they also gather every day to wrap cakes with their father in the family kitchen.
Similarly, in Mr. Lo's household, although his son works in the company, he still comes home every day to process rice, soak beans, wash, and arrange dong leaves to help his father wrap banh chung or arrange banh chung, boil banh chung. Mr. Lo also encouraged his son, no matter what job he does, to try to preserve the traditional craft, as a way to show gratitude to ancestors.
The closer to Tet, the Thuy Duong banh chung craft village becomes more busy and bustling. No longer the scene of red fire day and night because now Thuy Duong banh chung has been improved to boil with electric pots instead of cast iron pots and fireplaces as before. People are also somewhat less vat va.
However, in the days leading up to Tet, households still wrap cakes and boil cakes at night and in the morning. Some households have to hire 5-7 people per day, with a salary of 500,000 VND/person to keep up with orders sent to distant provinces. From 2-3 am, each truck of traders has parked from the beginning of the village, waiting for new batches of hot cakes to be delivered to customers.
Mr. Nguyen Van Sap (Dong Am village) said that this year, due to increased ingredients, the price of Thuy Duong Tet banh chung is also expected to be higher than every year by about 10,000-20,000 VND/piece. However, the ingredients still ensure to preserve the traditional flavor that has made the brand for generations, so that customers remember it forever when they eat it once, every year they look to buy Thuy Duong banh chung for the Tet feast.
