Hue – pressed cake is considered a “delicious – nutritious – cheap” snack of the ancient capital’s cuisine. Hue-pressed cakes are widely sold, but no two shops are the same.
Besides many famous delicacies such as Hue beef vermicelli, grilled meat vermicelli…, pressed cake is also a specialty not to be missed. The cake is tiny but has the unique flavor of a pressed cake.
Pressed cake is a childhood snack of many people from the capital. Pressed cake is essentially an improved filter cake, not fussy about how to prepare it.
The main ingredients include filtered flour and many different types of fillings. Previously, cakes only had tapioca starch, eggs, and served with raw vegetables. However, now, this dish has been modified with many toppings such as shrimp, meat, sausage, pate…
The name Hue pressed cake is known to come from its processing method. The cake is usually pressed through a cast iron plate placed on a red charcoal stove.
Before pressing, the maker rolls the cake into small balls of dough, puts a little pate or pork or sausage on top, but nowadays shops mainly use pate with a little chili and green onions. Then, the dough ball is placed between two red hot oiled cast iron plates, closed and pressed tightly for a few seconds.
Next, open the mold, add a raw quail egg and continue pressing a second time for a few more seconds. During the process of pressing the cake, the shop owner will flip the cast iron plate about 2-3 times so that the cake is cooked evenly. Thin hot cakes come out of the oven.
When eating, diners can optionally add a little laksa leaves, sweet and sour papaya, cucumber, roll the cake up and dip it in a bowl of spicy and sour fish sauce or seasoning sauce. Some places make ready-made sweet and sour fish sauce with chili and garlic, others use fish sauce mixed with chili sauce or steamed chili. It is the spicy and aromatic taste of chili in fish sauce that stimulates the taste buds.
The tiny cake has the greasy, chewy taste of the cake, the aroma of green onions, the crispy sourness of soaked papaya… The cake is even more delicious when eaten hot and must be eaten with sweet and sour dishes, laksa leaves, cucumbers…
This is a suitable gift to fill your stomach in the evening or to eat late at night. Pressed cakes cost about 4,000 – 5,000 VND each. In addition, Hue pressed cakes also have carefully packaged dried varieties to give as gifts to people far away.
In Hue, there are many cake shops so visitors can freely choose a place to enjoy that suits their taste. Each restaurant will have a different way of processing, creating a unique and extremely attractive flavor.
Some pressed cake shops that diners can visit to enjoy in Hue include Gia Di Hue pressed cake, Ms. Hue pressed cake, Ms. Xi pressed cake, Cay Su pressed cake, Cay Dua pressed cake, O Kieu pressed cake, Cau Hai pressed cake. …
($1~24,000 VND)
Photo,Video: Internet (Vinlove.net)