Come to Ben Tre, and don’t forget to taste these 3 extremely delicious and unique snacks!
Giong Luong coconut cake
A perfect Giong Luong coconut cake will bring the aromatic flavor of sticky rice, the fat of coconut milk, the sweetness of beans or the sweetness of bananas. Not only that, the leaves used to wrap the cake are taken from the nipa palm tree, young and fragrant with the new leaves, so when you finish cooking, you will feel a very unique aroma unique to Giong Luong coconut cake without the type of cake. which can be.
Giong Luong coconut cake is carefully wrapped with young coconut leaves. They are not sold individually but in bundles. When enjoying, you cut off the rope that is fixed in the bunch of cakes. Then, you open the leaf part slowly by turning in the direction the baker has wrapped it. The sticky part inside begins to show, you will know the bean paste or banana cake through its shape. No need for sauce, salt or sugar at all, you directly bring the piece of cake to your mouth and bite a portion just enough to eat. The flavors that have been blended in this specialty will awaken all your senses.
Apricot leaf cake
If anyone has ever enjoyed coconut leaf apricot leaf cake, they all think that only in Ben Tre province can this dish achieve its inherent fatness and characteristic aroma. In the past, workers had to use apricot leaves to make cakes, but recently, it has become less and less so they use feathery apricot leaves.
After picking the apricot leaves, they will be washed, cut into small pieces and then finely ground to filter the water. Next, add apricot leaf juice to mix with rice flour, sugar and Ben Tre coconut milk and knead the mixture until it doesn’t stick to your hands. After that, the craftsman will prepare the cake mold, they will usually use the leaves of nipa, jackfruit or banana to make the mold. Each region will have different ways of doing it, but many people still praise the best apricot leaf cake when it is molded with water coconut leaves because when steamed, it will give off a very special aroma.
The apricot leaf cake has a beautiful green color, when you eat it, you will feel the toughness, sweet and rich flavor mixed with the greasy juice of peanuts and pandan leaves.
smashed bananas
Banana dam is one of the specialties of Ben Tre that everyone who comes here must taste once. Bananas selected to make this dish must be Siamese bananas that are just ripe, with moderate flexibility, not too hard or too mushy. After peeling the banana peel, cut it in half and bake it on a charcoal fire for about 5 minutes. Baked bananas are placed in a bag, flattened and then baked again until golden on both sides.
To make coconut milk, one must choose old coconuts to scrape the rice. After grated Ben Tre coconut rice, it will be taken to squeeze out the juice and then boil on low heat, stir well and add a little salt, sugar, and green onions to create a characteristic sweet and salty flavor. In addition, you can add a little tapioca starch to create a consistency for the Ben Tre smashed banana dish.
Enjoying Ben Tre bananas, you will feel the ingenuity of the people of the West in harmoniously combining rustic and familiar ingredients in daily life. It is the greasy taste of coconut milk with a little sweet and salty taste from salt, sugar and green onions. Waiting for the fat to melt away, you will feel a little bit of sweetness mixed with a slight acrid taste of a ripe Siamese banana… All flavors blend together so deliciously that people can’t stop.