Coming to the Old Town, tourists can visit a lot of ancient sites such as: Japanese Bridge, Phuc Kien Assembly Hall, Old Houses..In addition, you can enjoy many special foods here and Cao Lau, Quang Noodle are examples. Have you heard “ White Rose” before? And just ask by yourself that “What is it?”. That is also a special food in Hoi An .
What is Hoi An White Rose?
According to the local people, White Rose has been long time ago.From the 17th century, when French reporter came Hoi An and enjoy it. He felt that its flavor was delicious, strange and its shape like Rose( a kind of flowers) and White was the color of these cakes.
Known locally as Banh Bao Vac, the name ‘white rose’ was apparently given by the French. When examining the Vietnamese dish closely it’s easy to see how they came up with the name as the outer section certainly could resemble flower petals.
White Rose dumplings are a a specialty of Hoi An and cannot find them anywhere else. It is said that if visitors have not eaten White Rose dumplings they have not yet enjoyed the taste of the ancient town
White Rose Dumplings is made by one family who makes them for all the restaurants in town
How to make hoi an white rose?
To make good cake, it requires many qualities such as patient, carefully, skilful because you must pass stages to become product.Small stages that seemed to be not important, or necessary, but for these stages. You would not have cakes that are nice, beautiful and famous like that in Hoi An.
White Rose cakes including “ banh bao( kind of dumpling)” and “banh vac( its shape like cauldron) usually go together. Both of cakes are made from rice flower as main ingredient. Right from selecting rice, it shows that these cakes are very fussy and it is dificult to choose material. Rice flower are taken from Mekong Delta where rice are really white and delicous, sticky. You need to clean the rice to exclude dust and rice husk. Cleaning rice completely, you put water into rice and grind to become the flour. The water used must be clean,pure, no salty,no acidid and it is taken from a ancient well named Ba Le Well in Hoi An. Flour done, you continue to “ bong bot” with water. “ Bong bot” means that you filter water and flour mmany time, from 15times to 20 times. When water is seen as flour settles in, you pour water out and bring flour to clean bowl.
Along with the cake fllour processing, you must do the filling inside and fried oninon that is ingredient on the top of cakes.
The filling is divided into 2 kinds. The first one(banh bao) made from shrimp which is ground and VietNamese ingredients including onion, pepper, salt. You mix all of them together. The second one(banh vac) we need add more other ingredients. It is really more diversified with bean sprouts,green onion, port meat. All of these ingredients are put on the sauce and fry together. Now, everything is already. Are you ready to make White Rose?
The first step, you dip two fingers in the bowl of oil to ensure that your fingers do not stick with flour, so it is easy to roll flour. Next step, you take a little flour in your finger and roll it, after you press your finger in the middle of a pice of flour. Using your hand is to bend flour into thin pieces. Your cake will start as incipient flower buds, growing up .
You should cut that flowers bud and continue to bloom petals. You must ensure thin enough of flour to be easy to roll. Then, using a spoon scoop a little the filling (if making dumplings) placed neatly in the middle of the cake, one hand lifting slightly lower, keep the cake, one hand on the top to bend shape like stylized rose. This step requires you need to be slow and skilful. Perhaps the sight of this cake, the foreign tourists think of rose petals so the cake is named White Rose. “Banh vac” is relatively easier “banh bao” because it has shape like cauldron. This cake is bigger than “ banh bao”. You roll flour and pull out all 4 sides. You put the filling in the center of this cake and make the edge of cake become stick again.
After the “ banh bao, banh vac” are done. You put them on a speacial pot(usually aluminium) and steam it, especialy, steam but separate with water. You remember that it takes 10-15 minutes to cook. One more thing I want to tell you is that you should cut your fingernails. The aim of this action is to roll it easily and avoid breaking the cakes.
After 15 minutes, you will have White Rose completely and can enjoy it. The main ingredient that is very necessary is fish sause. You dip White Rose into the fish sause to improve the flavor.
In Hoi An, there is a famous restaurant that keeps secret how to make White Rose in the best way. That is at 533 Hai Ba Trung Street. In that restaurant, the family has traditon making White Rose and move from the generation to another generation. Everything creates the unique feature for that restaurant. Coming Hoi An and enjoy White Rose that is a special food you can not skip and I am sure that it wil give you an unforgetable experience when you learn how to make it in “ White Rose Restaurant” 533 Hai Ba Trung Street.
