"Village" makes specialties
The rice paper and peanut candy craft village of Vinh Duc, Do Luong town, Do Luong district, Nghe An province, is about 300 years old, passed down through many generations and was recognized as a craft village 10 years ago. To make the special rice paper bearing the brand of Vinh Duc craft village, the most important thing is still the ingredients and processing recipe.
The whole village has about 400 households producing rice paper. The ingredients to make this specialty are white rice ground into water powder and black sesame. To have a standard rice paper, people have to go through many stages such as grinding flour, mixing flour, fermenting flour, making rice paper and drying. "At the age of 7, I did not go to school, so I followed my parents to make rice paper. When I grew up, my parents taught me the profession. Before, we only produced traditional black sesame rice paper. In the past 3 years, my daughter has created purple sweet potato rice paper, gac rice paper...," said Ms. Dinh Thi Chung (born in 1968), one of the longest-serving workers in the village.
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Rice paper is hand-rolled over a wood-fired steamer. Once rolled, the rice paper is dried in the sun. Only on sunny days can rice paper be made because with enough sunlight, the rice paper has the distinctive flavor of this Luong land. Traditional rice paper has the spicy taste of pepper, the aromatic taste of sesame, ginger, garlic, and is grilled over a charcoal stove to create a distinctive flavor.
Keeping up with the times, about 3 years ago, Ms. Nguyen Thi Nhan (born in 1995), Ms. Chung's daughter, combined gac and purple sweet potato with rice paper flour and created colorful and eye-catching rice paper. "Rice paper made from gac and purple sweet potato is more elaborate than other types of rice paper. The gac seeds must be removed, dried to remove excess oil, and then ground with rice. The purple sweet potato is steamed, ground, and a little condensed milk is added to create a fragrant aroma, then ground with rice, mixed with spices, then spread, dried, and baked. Rice paper can be fried in oil or baked in a fryer, but the best, most fragrant, and delicious rice paper is baked with charcoal," said Ms. Nhan.
Rice paper is made entirely from natural ingredients, so it is very popular. Currently, traditional black sesame rice paper is sold on the market for 2,000 VND/piece, grilled for 2,500 VND/piece; rice paper with gac fruit, purple sweet potato, brown rice,... is sold on the market for 3,000 VND/piece, grilled for 3,500 VND/piece. Every day, Ms. Chung's family produces about 1,000 - 1,500 pieces by hand. In order to dry the rice paper in time, her family also hires 2 more workers to dry the rice paper from 8am to 11am for 200,000 VND/person.
Put the "playful" cake on every tray of food
With clean raw materials and safe production processes, all sesame rice paper products of Vinh Duc craft village have achieved 3 OCOP stars at the provincial level and are exported to many foreign markets such as Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, etc. Exported goods are carefully packaged by the people in foam boxes to ensure that even if transported far or for many days, the rice paper remains intact and of guaranteed quality.
Ms. Nhan added: “Every day, my family makes about 30 to 40 kg of rice. The cakes are made entirely by hand, so every hour we can make 200 cakes, and every day we make about 1,000 to 1,500 cakes. During Tet, people's demand for cakes is higher, so the number of cakes made every day will increase. There are times when my family has to hire more workers and work overtime to keep up with the demand.”
The finished rice paper will be placed on a special bamboo tray and dried in the sun. When the rice paper is dry enough, it will be grilled on a charcoal stove and packaged in a sealed plastic bag so that when it reaches the consumer, the rice paper is still crispy, fragrant and flavorful. The rice paper made by the people of Vinh Duc village will be transported to provinces across the country. Restaurants, pubs and family meals all love this crispy cake.
For those who work far from home, rice paper is also a meaningful gift from home. “Every time I go back to my hometown, I always bring some rice paper as a gift for my brothers, friends and colleagues at work. Everyone loves this gift from home because it is easy to eat and very enjoyable to snack on,” said Thanh Loan, a native of Do Luong who is currently working in Da Nang.
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At this time, when Tet is approaching, every day, the people of Vinh Duc village are busier to have enough goods to pay for customers. The sound of milling flour and people drying cakes is always bustling on sunny days. From raw materials such as rice and sesame, through the hands of the "artisans", crispy cakes are created, fragrant with the taste of the homeland.
From a snack, today Vinh Duc village rice paper has “scored points” in the hearts of diners across the country to become a specialty that reminds them of their homeland. As Tet is approaching, Vinh Duc village rice paper will continue to travel across the country and abroad to bring spring, bringing the taste of the homeland to those far away from home as Tet approaches.
(Posted in the Special Publication of Labor North Central Spring At Ty)