For many years, Hang Than Street in Hanoi has been well-known for Banh com (green rice flake cakes). Banh com is not only one of the indispensable offerings during wedding ceremonies and ancestor-worshipping days, but is also a specialty that any visitor to Hanoi will want to buy for their friends and relatives as a present.
In 1865, the ancestors of the Nguyen Duy family on Hang Than Street found a way of drying green rice flakes to make Banh com. Since then, the trade has continually developed on the street and there are now over 50 shops selling Banh com of different types to meet the increasing demands of customers.
 Bao Minh Banh com.   Well-known green rice flake cakes on Hang Than Street. |
According to Ngo Thi Tinh, the owner of Bao Minh Shop, to make delicious cakes the cooks must follow a complicated process. It is necessary to carefully select sticky unhusked rice to make green rice flakes. Then, the main ingredient is dried and packed tightly to avoid getting wet. When making the cakes, the green rice flakes are mixed with water and sugar until they become soft. The mixture is fried for two hours and stirred well until it becomes pasty.
 Banh com is indispensable on the trays of offerings during traditional betrothal ceremonies of Hanoians.  A Banh com shop on Hang Than Street.  Customers buy Banh com.  Making and selling Banh com is a traditional business of people on Hang Than Street, Hanoi.  A part of Hang Than Street. |
To make the stuffing, submerge green beans in water and flay them before steaming. The green bean paste is blended with a dash of sugar, grapefruit flower attar, sugar coated lotus seeds and coconut. The stuffing is divided into small rolls that are covered by fried green rice flakes.
Banh com on Hang Than Street is delicious with the green colouration of green rice flakes, the sweet and nutty flavour of green beans and coconut and the scent of grapefruit flower essential oil.
Banh com is often served with tea. Today, Banh com on Hang Than Street is considred a speciality of Hanoi.
Story: Ngan Ha - Photos: Cong Dat
