Banh com – a fine treat of Hanoi
Hanoi is famous for its speciality green rice flake cakes which are sold in Hang Than street. Hang Than is just among more than 20 culinary streets in Hanoi which has about 70 streets with their first name of Hang.
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This 300 metre long street houses more than 30 green rice flake cake shops. The Nguyen Ninh trademark is the oldest and most popular brand for green rice flake cake. The name was established in 1865 by late Tran Thi Luan and adopted it’s current name of Nguyen Ninh in 1928.
There have been 5 generations of Nguyen Ninh making green rice flake cake so far, said Nguyen Thi Hiep, a fourth generation family member.
As explained, Nguyen means origin, Ninh is called after Yen Ninh village which is now Yen Ninh street, near Hang Than. Therefore, Nguyen Ninh green rice flake cake means the cake originated from Yen Ninh village.
Nguyen Ninh’s secret of making the cake is its pure ingredients without additives and mixture. Green rice flake cake is made of green rice flakes, green peas and sugar.
Green rice flakes must be from Vong and Lu villages (in the past) or from rice land of Thai Binh (at present) and green peas are carefully selected in Ha Tay province.
As tasting a green rice flake cake, especially made by Nguyen Ninh, one can experience the full flavour of simple villages, a very different and typical Hanoi speciality.
