Enjoy Hue cuisine in Hanoi – 14th Masumi Lady’s Committee Event

On the May 26th, Masumi Lady's Committee has a monthly event in Ajinomoto Cooking Class. In this class, all members learn how to cook and enjoy 2 most typical dumplings in Hue – Bánh bèo and Bánh bột lọc.

Hue city is an old capital of Vietnam. Although this city is near Da Nang city – economic central of the middle of Vietnam but Hue is very peace, calm and also is a world’s cultural heritage. Bánh bèo (Bloating Fern-shaped cake) usually serves in small bowls with some ingredients. Bánh bột lọc (Rice dumpling cake) - the name means “clear flour cake”, alluding to the translucence of the tapioca wrapping.

This make us can’t wait to make the dumplings. Let’s start right now!!!

Starting the class, the Ajinomoto chef shows us how to make 2 dishes and some tips about making dishes successfully. After that, 10 members were divided into 3 groups.

The first, we make the Bánh bèo dish. The ingredients of this dish are very simple: tapioca starch, dried shrimps, crispy pork skin, scallion oil, and dipping sauce. However, the cooking process is extremely important to determine the deliciousness of the dish. We mix water with flour and let it rest in 30 minutes to make the sour smell of flour disappear – it’s very important to make the dumpling taste good. After that, we fry pork skin to make it crispy, prepare scallion oil and dipping sauce. The fish sauce for Bánh bèo is quite sweet and not so salted. After 30 minutes, we pour flour mixture into small bowl and steam in 5 minutes. To enjoy, we add dried shrimps, crispy pork skin, scallion oil and dipping sauce. People use a small spoon to get the sauce to the bowl and eat, which makes it looked more polite than dipping the whole thing into the sauce. This makes people realize why Hue culinary is so delicate and elegant.

After the first dish, the good flavor of Bánh bèo makes us really want to cook the second dish. Because it takes a long time therefor we mix and cook the flour first. After that, we stir fired the filling, cashew oil makes the filling become beautiful in the red color. All the ingredients is ready, we put a layer of flour in banana leaf and add the filling. Steam dumplings in 7-10 minutes and then we have chewy tapioca dumplings filled with shrimp and pork. The fish sauce goes with Bánh bột lọc is different from Bánh bèo. It is saltier, therefore, it is served in a very small plate. How to eat it? You peel the leaf, dip the cake with a sauce, then put it in your mouth… Yummy!!!

Thanks for the cooking class, we learn a lot about declicous Vietnam cuisine and waiting for the next activites of Committee.