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What Hanoian specialty that I would bring to you in today food tour?
The dish, it was originated from a Southern area of Hanoi that is really near the Red River.
The dish’s name is Banh Cuon in Vietnamese, and in English, it is the steamed rice rolls.
Let me translate Banh Cuon word by word in English for you.
"Banh" means, in this case, pancake and "cuon" is roll.
So it’s simply just a rolled pancake but the foreigners usually call it steamed rice rolls.
If you have been in Hanoi, you really should try this dish because it is a very famous specialty of Hanoi.
Especially in the autumn weather, it would be perfect to try a hot dish of steamed rice rolls.
I’m standing right here at 41, Tran Dang Ninh St., and in front of a local diner of rice roll in Hanoi.
It’s not famous as the rice roll in the Old Quarter,
but my friend highly recommended it because it’s really good in quality and in flavor.
So let’s get inside to try the dish with me, okay?
I’m sitting and waiting for my delicious dish of steamed rice rolls,
and before I try the dish, I would introduce a bit about the origin of the dish for you.
As I have said to you that the dish was originated from a Southern area that is really near the Red River
and that area’s name is Thanh Tri.
For Vietnamese people,
we usually have a habit of combine the name of the dish with the name of the famous place that the dish is served.
In this case, it is "Banh cuon Thanh Tri",
or in the previous video about Pho, it is Pho Bat Dan
because the restaurant of Pho is located on Bat Dan St.
Banh cuon Thanh Tri was invented long time ago.
The image of banh cuon goes with the famous image of Vietnam,
which is a woman with the carrying pole with two rattan baskets like this.
It’s really traditional and vintage.
In that time, banh cuon had no fillings and it was only served with dried shallots.
It’s really simple but it was famous in the city
and its reputation also reached to others cities from Northern to Southern Vietnam.
My delicious dish of rice roll has arrived and I’m so happy at the moment.
The rice roll here is almost transparent in color and also is the standard color of the rice roll.
It needs to be almost transparent so you can see the fillings inside.
Nowadays, the most common fillings for rice roll is minced pork with some wood ear mushrooms.
It’s served with a bowl of fish sauce with some roasted cinnamon pork inside.
The rice roll maker has to be an artist because the rice batter layer when it’s steamed,
it’s really thin and easy to be broken or torn out.
So they have to do it quickly and tactfully enough so that it wouldn’t lose its texture.
They also sprinkle some fried shallots on the dish like this.
The dish also served with a basket of herbs, some kumquats, and chilies.
I'll try to see how is taste.
Yeah it’s really wet
You should dip the rice roll into the bowl of fish sauce, dip it quickly.
And bring it to your mouth
I have to tell you that the rice roll is still warm.
It doesn’t melt in your mouth, it’s a bit chewy.
It’s chewy enough so that you want to eat another bite of rice roll.
It also like Bun cha and other dishes that served with fish sauce, the sauce is really important.
When you eat with the roasted cinnamon pork, it will strengthen the flavor of the sauce as well as the rice roll.
As you can see that I left nothing in the dish.
It’s mostly because the dish is too delicious.
I have to thank my friend after this video for recommending me this delicious diner.
As you know that the rice roll has the common filling of minced pork.
If you are a big fan of dried shallots and eggs like me as every time I go to the rice roll diner,
I also order rice roll with dried shallot filling and egg filling.
It’s really good, I bet to you and you can try if you want.
I think that’s all for today video about rice rolls.
For the next videos, there would be one video that I would introduce you about a surprising kind of food,
I bet that not so many foreigners dare to try it.
If you are curious what the dish is,
you can check out our channel regularly, about once a week is enough.
Thank you for following me today and see you next time. Goodbye!