Introduce Banh Da Cua Hai Phong
Each region, each city or ethnic group will have its own specialties. And in Hai Phong too, it’s crab cake.
A bowl of crab cake is made from very simple ingredients such as crab, rice cake… But with the skillful and meticulous workmanship of the chefs, they have created a wonderful and attractive dish. People who eat Banh Da Cua once will feel forever remembered.
Ingredients for making Banh Da Cua include: First, field crabs must choose fat crabs, full crab bibs. Usually female crabs give more meat and bricks than male crabs. Next is the red rice paper – this is the ingredient that makes the difference for the crab cake soup.
How to make red rice paper each place has its own secret. But Du Hang Kenh is said to be the most famous red rice cake making area of Hai Phong. In addition to the two main ingredients above, there are also some ingredients and spices used to cook crab broth: pork bones, shrimp, tamarind, seasoning powder, salt, cooking oil, shrimp paste, dried garlic, dried onions, tomatoes, fried onions, shiitake mushrooms.
Along with that are some dipping, blanched vegetables in the bowl (spinach, celery, water spinach). Condiments are served with shrimp paste, chili paste, vinegared chili, lemon, and kumquat. Many diners also eat with bay leaf rolls, eggs, meat, pork feet…
How To Cook Banh Da Cua
About how to cook Banh Da Cua. First is the broth, you can use pork bone broth cooked with crab for more flavor. Field crabs must choose fatty crabs with full bibs. After washing, the crabs are separated, the crab body is crushed and filtered to get the water.
When the decanter has dried up, the crab water is filtered through a sieve or fine cloth to get water. Continue filtering until the crab meat is gone, then remove the crab carcass. Bring the pot of filtered crab juice to a simmer on the stove, stirring constantly so that the crab meat does not stick to the bottom of the pot. Continue stirring until the water is almost boiling, then stop stirring, the crab meat will solidify into pieces and float to the top. Tasting spices to taste. The crab bricks are stir-fried and then put in the broth to increase the color and flavor.
Next is processing crab rice paper, must choose dark brown rice paper – the cake is made quite elaborately. The rice paper used must be fresh rice paper, so you have to eat it every day. Therefore, when eating rice paper, you will feel the softness and chewiness. A bowl of delicious Banh Da Cua must have all five colors. Pink-brown color of crab bricks. Dark brown rice cake color.
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The green color of water spinach, coriander leaves, celery sticks, and pieces of guava leaves. The yellow color of the dried onion cloves is crispy. Red color of tomatoes, of chili. All the colors are mixed into a bowl of crab cake with delicious, greasy flavor, surely diners will not be able to stop and enjoy. After blanching the rice paper, put it in a bowl, then display the vegetables, crab meat, and guise leaves so that it looks beautiful. Finally, the broth is really hot. So there was a bowl of hot, attractive Banh Da Cua.
Banh Da Cua is often eaten a lot in the summer – when the weather is hot. Because of the cool green color of vegetables, and the greasy taste of field crab. For a long time, the port city of Hai Phong has been famous for this dish. Anyone who comes here will want to enjoy a new bowl of Banh Da Cua to satisfy their expectations. When enjoying a bowl of rice cake with crab, diners will feel the bar of the broth, the fatty taste of the guava leaves, the fish cake, and the richness of the crab.
If you have the opportunity to visit Hai Phong, do not hesitate to try a bowl of crab cake. Believe that, just eating once will forever remember the bold flavor of the dishes of the coastal people.
