Unlike cakes that are easy to travel around the four directions such as banh bao, banh xeo... banh kho is almost only available here, causing people who want to eat banh kho to "squeeze" down to Vung Tau.
It is difficult to count how many cafes have banh khot in this land of the wind and waves. Surely if you count carefully, you have to go to a few dozen shops but don't play, from unknown "hamlet" banh tet shops to some famous shops in the "river god" form like Cay Vu Sua restaurant.
The large number of banh khoai is not to meet the needs of tourists from all over the world to play banh khoai, but in the immediate future is to satisfy the cravings for banh khoai of the local people, who can eat banh khoai for breakfast, lunch, dinner or snacks.
So what is banh khot? What does Khot mean? First, it must be clarified that the name of the banh khot comes from the thanh statue. The movement of removing the cake from the mold causes the metal to collide and create a sound of "throating, throbbing", and the word "khot cake". This is the way to name the dish by sound, like a banh xeo calling xeo xeo in a hot pan of fat.
The cutting board for making banh kho is a plate of cardboard, usually made of aluminum or stainless steel, with semi-cted holes as large as a tabletop ball. People put the basalt plate on the charcoal stove to heat the basalt plate, then put the fat in each round hole, wait for the old hot fat to be scooped in, place the filling on top, then fry the cake until golden brown. When the cake is cooked, use a metal stick to separate the cake from the mold.
The banh khoai pouring, combined with the ingredients and shapes, makes many people think that banh khoai is related to the banh chung of the Cham people in the South Central region. Because the cake filling mold is also shaped like a cake filling mold, the only difference is that it is made from pottery and has a lid.
However, the way to make the cake is completely different. The biggest difference is that the banh chung is baked according to the principle of radiation therapy, using heat from heated ceramic mold to transfer to the banh chung to cook. Therefore, the mold for pouring the new banh chung needs a lid to preserve the heat.
Meanwhile, hot pot cakes thanks to the fat in the mold according to the frying/tsuring method do not need a lid. However, after being fried, the hot cakes have absorbed all the fat, so they are dry, yellow, and crispy similar to banh chung. In addition to the similarity in processing ingredients, hot cakes and banh chung chi can be arranged like "tsucchi chung gian".
It can be said that banh kho is a cooking art cleverly combined with the use of fragrant sticky rice grains and fresh seafood ingredients of the Vung Tau - Con Dao sea area. Traditionally, the banh khoai used fresh sea shrimp as filling, but now, there are sim squid (small squid) and scallops.
These ingredients are completely available, so there is nothing simpler than pouring banhhot for Vung Tau people. In the stages of pouring banh kho, the flour making stage is the most important.
You have to use delicious rice to make a flour, including some rice soaked overnight and then ground into a flour, the cold rice is crushed until smooth to blend. Mixing the flour in equal ratio is each person's personal secret to create the crunchiness and stickyness of the banh kho.
Traditional banh khoc is shrimp, which must be fresh, moderately large iron shrimp, peeled, with the head and feet removed. Although this shrimp is small, its meat is firm, sweet, and has the characteristic aroma of shrimp, when chewed, the crispy shrimp meat is very delicious.
Speaking of the word "traditional" is because hot pot cakes are different from banh chung, which is also the point of definitely using shrimp instead of a variety of variations with squid, beef, scallops, quail eggs... like with banh chung. For many people in the original Vung Tau, banh kho is just a banh kho when using iron shrimp as filling.
However, in the past 20 years, this tradition has also withered, when accepting more squid
sim - the small amount of squid that many people use to make rim squid is also quite famous here - to make filling. Anyway, sim squid must be fresh and delicious.
After the ingredients are ready, start pouring the banh khot. It must be one by one, or at most a few pieces to be delicious because the banh kho also needs time to be cared for to rise up to all its delicious, attractive flavors.
When the tray has been heated, people pour the cake into each cake mold with a piece of pork fat, let the fat flow out and massage the mold tightly. This fat is not just normal pork fat but is the fat that has been fried with onions and chives, so it has a very characteristic aroma. During the frying process, the aroma absorbs the fat into the cake flour.
A pot of heat will cause the aroma to increase, at that time, scoop a billion of flour in a moderate amount, so that the mold surface is soon opened. Then add the shrimp filling or squid to the middle of the cake. This method is meticulous and time-consuming, but that is pouring banh kho, not frying a dozen batches in an oil-filled mold.
Under the influence of heat, the banh kho gradually ripened and changed. The layer of molasses white flour turns turbid white, then golden brown. On the surface of the cake, the red color of the shrimp meat gradually increased. At this time, sprinkle some chopped onions and chives to add a very eye-catching green color. Just fry for a few minutes to make the hot pot cooked.
Remove the hot cakes from the mold, absorb the oil, then put it in a plate and sprinkle some dried shrimp shrimp shrimp and a spoonful of onion fat on the surface of the cake. The hot pot cake is eaten in the same way as the green cake and the Khoi cake, meaning it is eaten with a lot of raw vegetables and dipped in the dipping sauce made from sweet and salty fish sauce, inside are thinly sliced green papaya and fresh chili.
First, take a leaf of beetroot to wrap the hot pot with vegetables: such as lettuce, perilla, fish lettuce, herbs... Then, season that cake and put it in your mouth to chew.
At the same time, diners will feel the crispy sound of the cake crust, the fragrant smell of ripe rice flour, the sweet and aroma of shrimp, the sweet and aroma of green mustard leaves and the fresh flavor of the mixed raw vegetables in a harmonious dipping sauce of salt, sourness, sweetness, spicy.
It is truly a delicious piece that is attractive when combined with the sweet and fatty flavors of seafood and dried shrimp paste, the fatty aroma of onion fat is balanced by the crispy sourness of papaya and fish sauce. It is said that every weekend, groups of people "dzoot" to Vung Tau to play banh khoc.
