GOURD CAKE
“She cooks delicious shrimp gourd soup, he gets a full bowl. They enjoy it together!” The first pastry on the list appears in alphabetical order. It has rough look and pale taste, which shows the Southerners’ habit of being creative; they tend to mix available ingredients to make pastry. For instance, gourds are one of the most mundane ingredients, and yet they could still be transferred into something tasty. Then what else cannot be. As a result, we have various gourd pastries from grilled gourd, fired gourd to steamed gourd. They are similar to gourd soup since they are well accompaniedby shrimps. Tiny shrimps are the best because of their soft slightly sweet and bitter meat that adds more flavors to the pastry…Despite the dish’s fugal look, oneis unlikely to stop eating it. “Those with gourd-like cheeks appear offensive while those with square cheeks appear charming!” Southerners first make pastries for family and friends, and later to make ends meet. However, selling pastries is sometimes just a way for Southerners to make new friends. This was Son Nam’s remark in “Tam cake served with boiled coconut milk – a memory of Son Nam” written in the beginning of book.
Soc Trang steamed gourd cake: Gourds are thinly sliced, mixed with rice flour and coconut milk, poured into molds, and put in a steamer (sticky rice steamer). Wait until the crust is half cooked, put the stuffing of stir fried well-chopped pork and shrimps on the surface. Wait until the crust is well-cooked. For serving, put the pastries on plates together with bean sprouts, sliced herbs, coconut milk, and sweet sour fish sauce. Nowadays, only some venders inSoc Trang suburban sell this pastry in the morning.
Fried gourd cake: Rice flour is similarly diluted for pancake flour. Next, add a little amount of tapioca starchfor sticky texture, and a bit of salt for enhanced flavor. Fresh gourds are chopped into thin slices as in for gourd soup. (Peeling is not necessary if the gourds are not ripe yet). Mix the sliced gourds with flour and shrimps whose tails and heads have been left out. Prepare a hot pan; pour oil into the pan then an adequate amount of flour mixture (similar frying technique forpancakes). The dish is served with sweet sour fish sauce and mixed vegetables.
Collected by Linh Trang
