Bánh

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bánh is a Vietnamese term translating loosely as "cake." As such, it may, with the addition of qualifying adjectives, refer to a wide variety of distinct cakes, buns, pastries, and other similar food items from Vietnamese cuisine, which may be cooked by steaming, baking, frying, deep-frying, or boiling.

Bánh may also refer to certain varieties of noodles, such as for example bánh canh or bánh hỏi.

Each variety of bánh is designated by a descriptive word or phrase that follows the word bánh, such as bánh bò (literally "cow cake") or bánh chuối (literally "banana cake").

Bánh that are wrapped in leaves before steaming are called bánh lá (literally "leaf cakes").

The term is derived from the Sino-Vietnamese character 餅.

[edit] Varieties

There is a nearly endless variety of named dishes with the prefix bánh, and thus it is impossible to produce a complete list. What follows is a list of the most typical traditional varieties of bánh.

Bánh bá trạng (Bak Chang dumplings) - like Chinese zongzi[1]
Bánh bao^photo - ball-shaped bun filled with pork and/or other ingredients
Bánh bèo^photo - small steamed savory rice cakes
Bánh bò - "cow cake," made from glutinous rice flour and coconut milk, with a honeycomb-like texture
Bánh bông lan
Bánh bột lọc^photo - tiny rice flour dumplings stuffed with shrimp and ground pork and wrapped in a banana leaf; from Hue
Bánh cam - deep-fried glutinous rice sesame balls filled with sweetened mung bean paste; from southern Vietnam
Bánh căn^photo - a southern specialty consisting of small pancakes made with quail eggs, cooked in small clay pans
Bánh canh - thick noodle
Bánh cáy
Bánh chay - served together with bánh trôi
Bánh chưng - square-shaped steamed glutinous rice dumpling wrapped in a dong leaf (lá dong)
Bánh chuối - banana cake
Bánh cốm
Bánh cuốn - steamed rice roll
Bánh da lợn - colored steamed layer cake made from tapioca starch, rice flour, coconut milk and/or water, sugar, and other ingredients
Bánh đa
Bánh đậu xanh^photo
Bánh dứa
Bánh đúc^photo
Bánh gai
Bánh giầy, also written as bánh dầy
Bánh giò
Bánh hỏi^photo - extremely thin noodles that are woven into intricate bundles and often topped with chopped scallions and a complementary meat dish
Bánh ít - small stuffed glutinous rice flour balls
- Bánh ít trần^photo - "naked" small stuffed glutinous rice flour balls
Bánh ít lá gai
Bánh kẹp
Bánh khoai mì^photo - sweet cassava cake
Bánh khoai môn - taro cake
Bánh khọt^photo - a southern specialty consisting of small, fried rice flour pancakes
Bánh khúc^photo - glutinous rice ball
Bánh lá dừa
Bánh mật
Bánh mì - Vietnamese sandwich
Bánh nậm^photo - flat rice flour dumpling from Hue, wrapped in a banana leaf
Bánh phở - rice noodles
Bánh phồng tôm
Bánh phu thê^photo - (literally "husband and wife cake"; a sweet cake made of rice or tapioca flour and gelatin, filled with mung bean paste; also spelled bánh xu xê)
- Bánh phu thê bột bán (husband and wife cakes made with tapioca pearls)
Bánh quế
Bánh rán - deep-fried glutinous rice sesame balls filled with sweetened mung bean paste; from northern Vietnam
Bánh rế - deep-fried pancake
Bánh tẻ
Bánh tét - log-shaped cylindrical glutinous rice cake, wrapped in a banana leaf and filled with a meat or vegetarian filling
Bánh tiêu - hollow doughnuts^photo
Bánh tôm - shrimp patties
- Bánh tôm Hồ Tây^photo - a shrimp patty specialty originating from the area around West Lake (Hồ Tây), Hanoi
Bánh tráng - rice paper
Bánh tráng nướng
Bánh trôi^photo (also called bánh chay; literally "floating cake") - served together with bánh chay
Bánh trung thu - mooncake
Bánh ướt - steamed rice paper
Bánh xèo - coconut milk-flavored crepes