BANANA CAKE
Banana is a super food that is very good for your health. It also is a friend of anyone with high blood pressure. One or two a day is very good for your health. This fruit is grown everywhere in the Mekong Delta by everyone. You would often find a few banana trees in someone’s backyard. Banana cake is a snack that is made mainly with banana along with flour, tapioca starch, rice flour, or glutinous rice. It can be fried, steamed, or grilled and can be eaten with coconut water. You can find a woman in simple rural clothing, wearing triangle hat, on the side of the street flipping banana cake on a red hot charcoal grill.
At the end of May 2013, World Street Food Congress was being held in Singapore and Vietnam’s banana cake was honored as one of the best street food. Besides from cake, banana can be enjoyed cooked in coconut which is easy to make and very tasty. The weather of the Mekong Delta has two seasons: rain and sunny. On the rainy days, I would reminiscent about my childhood eating street food. But the most memorable was the fried banana, hot and crispy. After the chase for street food, the sun would come out again and I would come home and change into dry clothes. Then I would take little money I had and went after the fried banana stand. The fried banana stand was a small place made with hay and leaves. Under the stand is a charcoal grill and above is a pan filled with oil with numerous bananas rolled in flour waiting to be bathe in oil.
Fried banana cake: The ingredients are a sweet banana cut into halves then flatten into sheets. Then it is dipped in a mixture of flour (flour, rice flour, water, baking powder, sugar, and a little bit of salt). After the excess mixture is removed off the banana, it is dropped into a pan of oil and fry. The heat has to be just right, too hot and the flour becomes tough, not enough and the flour can’t expand and become crispy. When the cake is floating, then it is dipped for the second time in the mixture and refried until golden on both sides. The hot bananas with crispy crusts, airy inside, aromatic and sweet of banana in a cold, rainy day makes my stomach growls. One bite is enough to make me feel warm inside. Nowadays, the stands of fried banana made from hay and leaves can no longer be found anywhere but replaced by the aluminum stands that travels throughout the city, looking for customers.
Steamed banana cake: Banana provides a lot of energy for the body along with two important minerals, Potassium and Zinc. Potassium help the body to digest and maintain balance, absorb sodium, and good for your heart and nervous system. Zinc helps against the scarring of skin problems. The ingredients for this cake includes riped sweet banana, tapioca starch, sugar, salt, and coconut milk. Two banana is cut into small slices, the rest can be crushed until smooth and mix with flour, sugar, salt, and coconut milk. Use the slices to cover the bottom of the pot and pour the mixture over. Steam with pandan leaves to give nice aroma. When done, the cake can be cut into desired shape and place on a dish. It can be enjoyed plain or with coconut milk and crushed peanuts.
Grilled Banana Glutinous rice cake: To make this cake, the process is very simple. Glutinous rice is washed and soaked overnight. Leave coconut milk on the side and cook the rice with coconut shavings and a bit of salt. When it is cooked, put in sugar and leave for a few more minutes. The rice has to be fully cooked and soft so that it would stick and won’t be dry once grilled. Cook coconut milk until boil with little bit of sugar and salt, tapioca starch pearls (washed and soak in cold water for 20 minutes), and a bit of tapioca starch to thicken the coconut milk. When the coconut water thickens and the tapioca pearls becomes clear, the mixture is done. Crush up some peanuts. Pick ripe sweet banana and skin it. Get a sheet of saran wrap, put a little bit of the rice on, put the banana on, and roll until the rice covers the bananas. Then, take the wrap off and wrap the cake in banana leaves. Then, put on a hot charcoal grill. Within minutes, the aroma of the burned banana leaves, of charcoal, and of coconut will cover the air. When golden, use a spoon to split the cake until you can see the inside of the coconut, and pour the coconut milk mixture on and spread some crushed peanuts. The rice is crispy while the banana is soft with the fat from coconut milk and peanuts. How can it not taste great?
Crushed banana: In the lands of Bến Tre, every family has their own garden filled with fruits so not many people make a living selling street food. Because of such, grandmothers and mothers usually make snacks for their kids using ingredients gather from their garden. From this land, many famous street dishes have been created. Choose a sweet banana that just ripen, leave the skin on and slice in halves. Then, put them on the grill until the skin is burned, then remove the skins and smash the banana until flatten and put it back on the grill. Use coconut milk with tapioca starch and salt until thicken. Then use the crushed banana and dipped in the coconut milk. The sweetness of the banana combined with the fatness of the coconut milk. Nothing is better than enjoying this on a rainy day. Currently, only a few stands sells this in Bến Tre, a simple and tasty treat.
Grilled banana: Is a very familiar dish for many people. For a good grilled banana, one has to pick bananas that are not ripe and not too green. Once the skin is removed, the bananas are sun dried for one morning. Then grill the banana on red hot charcoal grill, flip often to avoid burning the bananas. To make it even better, fry pork fat with scallion with a little bit of salt and sugar and immediately take it off the heat to keep the scallion green. Then pour it over the grilled banana. You would often see a lot of women selling these in every alleys. It is always cheap that you can get 5 for 5000 VND. Because of that, no one makes it at home.
Coconut banana: Use a ripe sweet banana, boil it, then cut into slices. Then, wash tapioca pearls and soak. Cook coconut milk in a pot until boiled with a little bit of tapioca starch to thicken. Then add sugar and salt. Cook banana and tapioca pearl until boil several times and add the coconut milk in. Then serve with crushed peanuts.
Collected by Linh Trang
