Stuffed, rolled, baked or fried: Rice paper rules in food-obsessed Vietnam, where diners have spurned factory-made versions for homespun ones, propping up a thriving cottage industry in the Mekong Delta.
They are a staple on dinner tables from north to south, eaten fresh with fish, fried with pork or baked on an open flame and eaten like crackers — a popular bar snack.
Regardless of how they are prepared, one thing most people in Vietnam agree is that homemade is always better.
“It’s better than the factory version. Try it, it’s tastier,” Nguyen Thi Hue said, offering a baked coconut version at her roadside snack stop in southern Can Tho Province.
She sources her banh trang in nearby Thuan Hung village, known for producing some of the finest in the Mekong Delta, long renowned as the “rice bowl of Vietnam.”
Some families earn a living making rice paper, even as factories have popped up producing creative flavors like salted shrimp, coconut or versions made with the notoriously potent durian fruit.
“Customers prefer those produced handmade in the village. We don’t use chemicals, they’re just natural,” said 26-year-old Bui Minh Phi, a third-generation rice paper maker in Thuan Hung.
He can earn US$65 per day spinning the trade or double that during the busy Lunar New Year period.
It is a common sentiment in Vietnam, where many diners eschew fast food joints for homestyle restaurants serving pho noodle soup or banh mi sandwiches like their grandmothers might have made it.
Rice paper making is a matter of family heritage for many like Ha Thi Sau. On a morning in Thuan Hung, she tutored her daughter on the age-old technique she learned from her aunt: Pour the sweetened batter — a secret family recipe — onto a pan before transferring to a bamboo mat.
The operation remains a family affair: Sau’s son-in-law feeds the fire with rice husks, while her 83-year-old mother washes dishes on the riverbank.
Although other jobs are available in her village — once a rural backwater now dotted with modern cafes and mobile phone shops — she does not dream of abandoning her trade.
“I’ve been making rice paper for so long, I don’t want to leave it for another job,” she said, as the scent of coconut wafted in the air.
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