Hanoi – the capital with thousand years of culture, not only the beauty of the people here, but Hanoi also has a unique culinary culture. Speaking of culinary culture, we cannot fail to mention a specialty of Hanoi – Green sticky rice (Cốm) in Vong village. This is a folk and elegant food in the autumn Hanoi. And now Com is a special street food of Hanoi which you should try while visiting Hanoi.
(image source: Internet)
The making of Cốm is still kept as a family secret. What most people know is that the process of making Cốm is complicated and tedious. The main ingredient is young glutinous rice, carefully selected since they are in their blossom. The grain must be manually threshed and cleaned, before being roasted with a stoneware pan over firewood. The fire is kept low and steady and the cooking process need full attention. For flavor and color preserving purpose, each batch should comprise 800 grams of rice at the maximum. The dried grains are then pounded in a mortar and stirred frequently from bottom to top. This step is repeated 7-8 times to remove all the husks from the grains. The final result is glossy green rice, soft and slightly chewy, that is nowhere to be found.
(image source: Internet)
Cốm is normally eaten by hand, a pinch at a time, or served with red persimmons and ripe bananas. Chewing Cốm slowly is the way to enjoy its subtle scents, tastes and softness. One note is that Cốm should be eaten within 24 hours or its original taste will be lost.
There are usually three types:
-The early season seed is thin, soft, flexible, suitable for vegetarian or eaten with banana, is a kind of glutinous rice at early season.
(Sticky rice eat with banana- image source: Internet)
-Mid-season seed are often used to make fried nuggets.
-End of season seed is usually large, thick and slightly hard to eat, only suitable for cooking or sticky rice.
(Fried nuggets- source: Internet)
Up to now, green sticky rice in Vong village are sold all over the streets and markets in Hanoi.
Green Sticky Rice Hanoi have represented the art of processing Hanoi delicacies, you should not miss a chance to taste this street food of Hanoi when you travel to Hanoi during Fall season. This is also a special gift to bring home after your trip.
