24 HOURS OF MAKING VIETNAMESE "BÁNH CHƯNG" | TẬP LÀM BÁNH CHƯNG GIA TRUYỀN CÙNG MC KỲ DUYÊN

And now I'd like to take you to the house that specializes in making these great Banh Chung, which is our traditional Vietnamese cake that we all eat for Tet. And it looks simple, but it's very hard to make. So for those of you in the U.S., the Vietnamese kids growing up, you eat a lot of Banh Chung. Now I'm going to show you how it's actually made. And now I'm sitting here with this lady who has the formula, has the recipe, I'm sorry, for this Banh Chung. She came here from the North, and she's 73 years old. So she said that for the past 51 years, every Tet, she makes this Banh Chung. So there are no preservatives, but she's saying the secret is you have to wash the rice very thoroughly so that once you make the Banh Chung, it will last longer. But of course, there are no preservatives here. Secondly, the meat has to be very fresh and very clean in the preparation. Thirdly, the most important thing is to mix the salt so that the meat and the beans are mixed together. So to make the recipe, you have to make it so that the sweet rice, the beans, and the meat, the flavor has to be equal so it tastes good together. That's all. Why is it so easy for you to say? It's that simple. But you have to wash the leaves very thoroughly so that they can last longer. And when you take the leaves out, you can feel how fragrant and delicious they are. And what kind of leaves are these? They're ginger leaves. I don't know what it's called in English, but in Vietnamese, it's called ginger leaves. We'll look that up later. I don't know what it's called in American either. But why do you make all your Banh Chung with ginger leaves? You can wrap it with banana leaves, or in the North, you wrap it with chives leaves. Chives leaves are small like this. But if you put them together, you can make a Banh Tet or a Banh Chung. But I make Banh Dong. And this Banh Dong, you have to... Ginger leaves. Oh, ginger leaves. Ginger leaves to make the cake green, right? To make it green, and at the same time, it's greener than other leaves. It's more beautiful. The first string has to be tied like this. Two strings tied together like this. Okay, two strings tied together like this. This leaf has been cut into squares. I hold this leaf like this. Alright, so we put this... This is called a frame. It's called a frame. So we have this... I don't know what it's called in American. I'll tell you later. And then these leaves, we cut into four like that. Wash very nice and clean. The leaf... So before, it's a big leaf like this. And we cut it, and we clean it. It's just right. It's a square shape from the beginning. And when we fold it, it has a beautiful square shape. So we have to make sure that everything fits perfectly so that it becomes like a nice square. It's very hard. Every rice cake has to be perfect. Alright, put it down like this. Now, you pull this. Pull this. Just pull it lightly. Okay. This is only half done. This is only a quarter. Oh, wow. So this one has four leaves? Four leaves. We have to adjust the second leaf. So for each of this cake, we need four leaves. So we just do one. So now we're going to do a second one. This is very hard. We're just working on one cake. Okay. We have to put two in front of each other like this to make two leaves. Why haven't you done anything yet? Why are you so slow? I haven't seen you yet. I've just seen you. The person next to me is doing it. I'm just watching. That's three, no, four leaves. Oh, wow. It's very special. You can never smell the leaves. They're smelly. So this cake takes a long time to bake. This is special. It's only used for small cakes. So with the leaves, it won't be smelly. So this leaf is very important for making this cake. You have to use your hands to do it gently. You can't do it like this. Oh, wow. I'm so happy. I didn't know it was like that. So before, we always say that Banh Chin stands for the heaven cake and the moon cake. So here you can see the rice part is square and the green bean part is round. We put three pieces of meat and three pieces of meat. We put a bowl of beans and three pieces of meat and a bowl of beans on top. Wow. I thought it was simple but when you do it like that, the beans and the leaves don't bulge out. The beans are separate, the leaves are separate. Until now, I've been using my hands to do it like this. We have to put the rice on top. We put the rice on top so that the beans are in the area of the beans. The outer skin is just a layer of sticky rice. Then we put a layer of beans on top. A layer of sticky rice on top. Yes, a layer of sticky rice on top. We put it like that. Can we use a tape to stick it here? Why don't you wrap it? Why do we have to do this? It's so difficult. Okay. What is this rope made of? It's made of a palm tree. It's also a palm tree. It's called a palm tree because they grow it in the forest. Oh, so these also come from the leaves of the trees we call palm trees. Ah. When you tie it, you put your hand right here and you twist it. Now you twist it and tie it. I was worried because you said you didn't know how to tie it. Can you do it again? Yes. When you tie it, you tie it for 6 seconds and the result will be like this. When it's all wrapped, you can take it out. But I see that there is a corner here. Did you do it on purpose? We cut this corner out to create a aesthetic. Yes, yes. And the inside of the cake Ah, I see. This is the corner of the cake. No, I haven't done anything yet. This is exactly what I did. How much does it cost to sell this cake? We sell it for 390,000 VND. 390,000 VND. 2 cakes? 390,000 VND. 9 dollars for 1 cake. I'm going to buy you food. Don't make me do it. She has a passion. All of this work. And then they sell it for about 15 dollars for 2. So that's a lot of work for 7 dollars a cake. So it's about 8 dollars for all of this work. Alright. I don't think I'm going to open a cake factory. I'm just going to buy and not invest. Oh wow. And now after it's done, it's not really done. The next step is to put it in the steamer. And if you don't put it right, it's not going to cook right. So the way you lay it in the steamer is a whole other process. So this is from the leaves and we have to put this down first. You have to put it across like that. Lay it down. Ah. Okay. Yeah, so you have to lay it criss cross like that and about 3 inches away from the bottom. This is how you make the cake. You can try it. You have to turn the cake inside out. Because this side has more leaves. And the other side will create the core. The core inside the cake. For example, like this. You put it down. Put it down. You put it down. You have to turn it around like this. You have to let it open a little bit. You have to squeeze it a little bit. Don't squeeze it too much. If you squeeze it too much, when the cake is cooked, it won't be cooked. For example, if you put these two sides together, it won't be cooked. You have to let the rice inside cook a little bit. That way, it will be cooked. You can't squeeze it too tight. You have to turn it over. You have to turn it over just enough. So that the cake will be cooked. You have to steam it for 12 hours. I steamed it for 12 hours since it was cooked. It has to be cooked for 12 hours. Why does it take so long? But this cake is soft. When you press it to cool it, the air will blow and the cake will be firm. It's called Banh Jem. If you don't cook it right, the rice won't be cooked properly. Yeah, so it has to be cooking for about 12 hours. And like I say, it's very complicated. You gotta lay it right, you gotta cook it right, or the cake will not come out right. It will be still... I don't know how to say it in English. It will be hard. Yeah, it's hard. It's not gonna be cooked. It's not gonna have that soft, chewy... that is so famous for Banh Jem. I don't even know how to say it in American. I'm such an idiot. I don't even know how to say it in Vietnamese. I don't even know how to say it in American. I'm such an idiot. After steaming, you bring it here, right? Yes. You bring it here, then you pack it. Yeah, so that it can cool down. Oh, so that it can cool down. Oh, you have to wash it after steaming, right? Yeah, it's like this. When you boil it, it's hard to eat. When it's done steaming, you have to wash the cake with cold water. Yeah. You have to wash it. Soak it on one side, and when it's cold, you have to wash all the foam that sticks to the cake. So that it won't be... the foam that sticks to the cake, you have to wash it. After washing, you dry it. You dry it with a piece of paper, or a piece of newspaper. Then you press it. You have to press it for 3 hours. Pressing it means... Pressing it means you have a plate. Let me see the plate. Here it is. So, after it's been steamed, you have to take it out, and then you have to wash it. You have to wash it very clean to make sure that all the gritty, all the dirt, all the things are not stuck here. And then you have to put pressure on it. You have to put something hard on it. So, after this, we have to put some pressure on it for another 3 hours. Wow. Yeah. Ah, wow. Wow. So, yeah, the process is actually very sterilizing. They wash it, and then they put pressure on it, and then you wrap it, so you rest assured that it's very healthy and clean to eat. So, you've seen how we make the bánh chưng. Now, taking it apart is also another artistry that we're going to show you. You want to see what I mean? So, we're going to show you how to cut the bánh chưng, which is... We're going to cut it in the Vietnamese traditional way too, and you will see. Cắt bánh chưng cũng là That's correct. That's right. So, see, if we use regular knife to cut it, then it will stick to the knife and it will break the bánh chưng, so you want it to be in perfect little squares. That's why we're going to cut it with this string, not with a knife. You have to open it around it first. As you can tell, there is no artificial coloring at all. The green is from the leaves. Absolutely 100% natural. We're going to use the string to cut it. So you have to place it like that, very nice, into 8. Take the plate and then flip it around. Now we take the bottom part out. Beautiful. That's how you cut it. There we go. Beautiful. Phuong, you can eat it now. How do you take it out? You can skewer it from the bottom, but you can also scoop it out from the top. You can only eat the meat, not the string. Wow. This is how I do it. Now I'm going to eat the string and the bean. I'll leave it for Phuong to eat. It looks so good. I can smell it. It smells so good. And I can smell the mustard. That's right, the mustard. This is the first time I've had it. It's so good. It's so good that the music is playing. It's so good. I like this because there's a lot of filling. Try it. I can't eat the fat. No, you can try it. The most difficult part is the outside. The meat inside is... When you eat it, the rice is all over the place. The rice is all over the place, but there's not much of it. Can you give me a spoon? You have to see this. The piece is very beautiful. There. The rice is all over the place, but there's not much of it. But there's a lot of filling. It's so good. Thank you. Thank you for letting us in.