Bac dau cake – The 'squeeze and eat' specialty of the Sán Dìu people

The Sán Dìu ethnic community in Quảng Ninh province has a special cake that often appears during festive occasions like Tet holidays and weddings… It's the bac dau cake, a rustic yet incredibly unique dish.

Bac dau cake – The 'squeeze and eat' specialty of the Sán Dìu people

Many people are intrigued by this cake due to its unique name, and if they've ever tasted it, they're sure to be impressed. After preparation, the cake is covered with a layer of fine white glutinous rice flour on the outside, and the name bac dau cake stems from that.

Bac dau cake is made from glutinous rice, with an outer layer of white flour to prevent sticking. To make the cake, first crush or grind the glutinous rice into a paste, then shape it into a round form, with fillings like peanuts, sesame seeds…

Although it sounds simple, preparing this dish requires a lot of skill and cleverness from the cake maker. From selecting the ingredients, grinding the flour, making the filling… After the harvest season, people choose the best and most fragrant glutinous rice to make the cake.

Glutinous rice should never be mixed with regular rice. Soak it in water for 10-15 minutes until the grains can be easily broken in half, then drain and pound it with a stone mortar until it becomes a fine powder. Then carefully sift it through a sieve to ensure an extremely fine finished flour.

After sifting the flour, the parts of the flour that have not been pounded thoroughly are continued to be pounded, this is a meticulous process and sometimes takes up to half a day. Nowadays, pounding rice is simpler thanks to grinding machines. Many households no longer pound by hand as before, but the flour still has to be fine, white, and clean.

The finished glutinous rice flour is then mixed with warm water and kneaded thoroughly by hand, then shaped into round, thin leaf shapes, gently dropped into a pot of boiling water. The cakes are boiled until they float evenly on the water surface, then removed when cooked. The newly removed dough chunks, while still hot, are mixed with glutinous rice flour again, then kneaded into round, thin, wide dough leaves, with fillings placed in the middle and skillfully molded into evenly round cakes, then rolled in a layer of fine flour…

Sesame seeds, roasted peanuts finely ground and mixed evenly with finely ground white sugar are used as cake fillings. In many places, green beans are added or the filling is made from bean flour to make the cake filling richer and more attractive. A delicious bac dau cake often reveals a blurry filling beneath the layer of glutinous rice flour, with a sweet, slightly fragrant taste of peanuts, sesame seeds, and fresh glutinous rice.

Bac dau cake doesn't need to be fried or steamed, just boiled to be enjoyed. The cake is sweet but not too sweet, not greasy, with a refreshing, mild fragrance and not cloying. That's why this rustic cake is very popular with tourists when they first taste it.

Bac dau cake is also used as a betrothal gift or for sale, becoming a specialty. When visiting Quang Ninh to explore the Sán Dìu ethnic villages during festivals, Tet, tourists will encounter bac dau cakes everywhere. Enjoying the delicious cake and learning about the culture of the Sán Dìu people as well as the highland communities of Quang Ninh will be a meaningful experience on the trip!

As per Mytour

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Reference: Mytour Travel Guide