If rice is Vietnam’s staple crop, xôi (sticky rice) is the nation’s choice dish, as much as the famous pho (rice noodle soup), if not more so.
Illustrative image (Source: monan9.com)
It
is a breakfast favourite, and the most popular late night-early dawn snack or
meal.
It
is sold by vendors in early morning markets and it can be found in fanciest
restaurants serving traditional Vietnamese food.
There
are any number of specialty xoi restaurants, as well as push carts that stand
on street corners or bicycles that go around the streets well past midnight,
long after restaurants and other eateries have closed.
Xôi, as the name suggests, is made
with glutinous rice, steamed or cooked. There are those who love having this
regularly for breakfast and those who have it at any time of the day or night,
but almost every Vietnamese will have it at least once a month.
But
xôi is not one dish. There are many
varieties, each with its distinct taste, colour and/or flavour.
Food
expert Vo Quoc, head of Mon Ngon Restaurant and Cooking Class, said: “Each
region has its own (collection of) xôi
dishes. Vegans and vegetarians can enjoy xôi
with muối vừng (ground sesame and
peanuts) or sugar, while others have a wide range of meat choices, including xôi thịt kho tàu (sticky rice with
Chinese braised pork) and xôi with
liver pate, sausage, fried eggs, char siu, chickens or roasted piegons.”
On
full moon days, New Year holidays, weddings, death anniversaries and other
occasions, xôi is a must-have dish on
the feast’s platters.
The
ways to make sticky rice depend on the variety, family recipes or individual
creativity that housewives bring into play.
However,
the most popular method is to soak the glutinous rice in warm water for many
hours until it expands; wash and mix the rice with a little salt and other
ingredients separately; place them in an autoclave (called chồ in the North and xửng
in the South); pour boiling water into the bottom of the autoclave and place it
on a pot so that the ingredients are steamed without touching the water.
Later,
the sealed autoclave and the pot are placed on a stove and boiled over low heat
until the sticky rice is well-cooked and limber.
Now,
busy women use electric rice cookers with the steaming function, but the
majority preference is for xôi cooked
the traditional way.
Most popular
Xôi đậu xanh (green bean sticky rice) is one of
the most popular xôi dishes because
it can be served with many different ingredients, including meat. Since it is
easy to cook, it is a popular choice among housewives as well.
This
dish is made by chafing the green beans (mung beans), soaking them in water for
around five hours (often left overnight), hulling (or not), mixing them with
glutinous rice, and steaming them in an autoclave.
Other
popular xoi varieties include xôi xéo
(turmeric flavoured sticky rice served with powdered green beans and topped
with fried shallots), xôi lạc (sticky
rice with peanuts), xôi ngô (stick
rice with corn) and xôi đậu đen
(sticky rice with black beans).
Another
reason for its popularity is that while it is very tasty, it is also healthy,
starched but not fatty.
Getting colourful
Xôi ngũ sắc (five-coloured sticky rice) is
usually made by several ethnic minority communities, in the Northern region.
The
five colours of the dish symbolise five elements: yellow is the colour of land;
green the colour of wood; red, fire; white, metal; and black, water. These
communities have their own secrets, using different herbs and wild vegetables
to dye the sticky rice and create these colours.
In
the past, xoingu sac was only served on important occasions like festivals,
ceremonies and weddings. It has become a very popular daily dish now, and a
marker of the host’s hospitality.
For
making the red-coloured sticky rice, the bright red flesh of the ripe gấc (spiny bittergourd or cochinchin
gourd) fruit is used. This fruit has been traditionally used as both food and
medicine in Vietnam.
Turmeric
is used to make the yellow sticky rice, lá
cẩm (an herb) for purple, the ash of burned ginger leaves for black, and the
pandan leaf for green. The glutinous rice is soaked in water mixed with the
above ingredients.
Sticking with chicken
Xôi gà (chicken sticky rice) is
particularly liked in the central region. Visitors to Da Nang, Hoi An and Hue
also favour this dish because it is delicious and can be packed easily.
The
dish is fatty and nutritious. Chicken is boiled with a pinch of turmeric. The
chicken broth is then used to cook the glutinous rice, giving the rice its
yellow colour and its butter taste.
The
boiled chicken is shredded by hand into thin slices and mixed with salt,
pepper, sliced onions and Vietnamese mint. The dish is finally topped with
scallion oil.
This
is a balanced dish, with protein from the chicken, lipid from the chicken
broth, starch from glutinous rice and vitamins from herbs and the accompanying
salad.
Meaty variety
Xôi mặn is a Southern treat, favoured
again for its taste, nutritional values and affordable prices.
“Mặn” means salty, literally, but here it
means savory, distinguish it from the several sweet sticky rice recipes.
This
is a hearty all-in-one meal with sticky rice and various kinds of meat
including lạp sườn (Chinese sausage),
shredded chicken, liver pate, char siu, ruốc
or chà bông (dried shredded
pork/chicken), and dried shrimp.
Nguyen
Ha Ngan, 26, a HCM City resident, said she can eat sticky rice for breakfast,
lunch, dinner and as a late-night snack because of its taste and convenience.
It’s also cheap, she said. She can fill her stomach with a 20,000 VND (0.9 USD)
portion.
“My
favourite xôi shop is located on the
ground floor of the Bà Chiểu Market
which remains open from afternoon until midnight,” she said.
Sticky
rice here is served with char siu and roasted chicken which is tender, juicy
and flavourful.
The
dish is topped with scallion oil and a special sauce made by the seller herself
from juice extracted during the process of roasting the chicken. This
particular secret recipe involves a special way of mixing it with green chili
slices.
Although
styrofoam boxes and plastic is used to pack xoi now, most of the individual
sellers, in the morning in particular, offer the choice of getting your xôi fix in a banana leaf, which adds an
extra flavour to the dish.
By VNA