Sandwich Shop Goodies 2 – Bánh bía (Suzhou mooncake)
In the middle of bright yellow paste lies a crimson orange ball. The egg yolk. Salted and dried up to the size of a cherry. Or should we say it is the moon, at its fullest on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month each year.
Roughly 650 years ago, it was a bright moon for the Ming Dynasty, but not so bright for the Yuan Dynasty. The Mongolian rulers’ defeats started from a full moon day of August 1368, when the capital Dadu (present day Beijing) was captured by Zhu Yuanzhang and his Han Chinese insurrection armies. Zhu Yuanzhang then rose to the throne as the first king of the Ming dynasty, and he made sure that the Mid-Autumn Festival, which coincides with the end of the harvesting season, was celebrated throughout the country. As the story goes, such revolutionary victory could not have happened without them little mooncakes.
They were secret means of distributing messages among the resisting forces. Words were printed on each mooncake as a simple puzzle. Each mooncake in a package of four was then cut into four pieces, and the sixteen parts were arranged in a particular way to form the entire message. Afterwards, the cakes were eaten and the trace erased. I don’t know what they would do if a hungry kid got hold of a piece.
Although people aren’t sharing secret information anymore (as if anything could remain secretive under the communist watch), the mooncakes still have imprinted words on top and still come in packages of four.
The most popular kind of mooncakes have elaborate designs with golden brown crust, originating from Guangzhou. Other kinds more or less are spin-off versions of the Suzhou-style mooncake with a simple round shape, no design, flaky skin which can be peeled off by the layers, and no need for a mooncake mold.
When the Chinese immigrants settled in the Mekong delta, they introduced the round, flaky mooncakes, referred to as “pía” in Teochew dialect, to the southern Vietnamese, who quickly adopted the recipe and the trade to make it a regional specialty, the Soc Trang‘s pía. “Pía” means “bánh”, things made with flour, but the innocuous southerners took it as a name, and started calling the flaky mooncakes bánh bía. Unlike the Cantonese mooncake that is only eaten during the Chinese Mid-Autumn festival, bánh bía gets served year round, bought as gifts from travelers to Soc Trang, featured in the Khmers’ moon festival Oc Om Boc in October, and individually packaged for sale at $1.50 a piece in Vietnamese sandwich shops in San Jose.
The recipe, too, has slightly departed from its Suzhou originals. If the Chinese counterparts often contain lotus seed, red bean paste, nuts, and sometimes pork for savoriness, the Soc Trang version stays homogeneous with either mung bean paste or taro paste, which can be flavored with lard and durian to the likings. But whatever goes inside, the doughy, flaky skin of bánh bía is the unchangeable feature, distinguishing it from all other pastries.
Each pía needs two kinds of dough: the “skin dough” and the inner layer dough. The skin dough on the outside, made of flour, water and canola oil, gains its elasticity and smoothness from a little kneading, while the inner layer dough has only flour and oil and is left unkneaded to keep it thick and chewy. Later the two kinds are flattened together to make the crust, but with the inner layer dough always contained inside the skin dough, otherwise the banh bia would have a coarse surface. After baked half way, the pía is taken out and glossed some egg wash over its upper side. When fully baked, they shine a ripe yellow invitation, ready to be stamped “longevity”, “harmony”, or some other character in red.
The whole process, from making the filling paste to baking, can take up a whole day. Buying it at the store takes two minutes. If you don’t count driving time.
Address: Huong Lan Sandwiches #4
41 Serra Way, Suite 108 (across the parking lot from New East Lake Seafood)
Milpitas, CA 95035
(408) 942-7777
Monnday – Sunday: 6am – 9pm
Click here for a recipe of bánh bía (Vietnamese-adpated Suzhou mooncake)
Previously on Sandwich Shop Goodies: bánh gai (thorn leaf sticky rice bun)
Next on Sandwich Shop Goodies: bánh ú tro (Vietnamese-adapted jianshui zong)
I enjoy looking at and I believe this website got some really useful stuff on it! .
1That is the right blog for anyone who desires to search out out about this topic. You notice so much its almost onerous to argue with you (not that I actually would want…HaHa). You definitely put a new spin on a topic thats been written about for years. Nice stuff, just nice!
2I always was interested in this subject and still am, regards for putting up.
3Hello, i think that i saw you visited my blog so i came to “return the favor”.I’m attempting to find things to enhance my site!I suppose its ok to use a few of your ideas!!
4I’m not sure exactly why but this web site is loading very slow for me. Is anyone else having this problem or is it a problem on my end? I’ll check back later and see if the problem still exists.
5Real wonderful information can be found on web blog.
6Woah! I’m really digging the template/theme of this blog. It’s simple, yet effective. A lot of times it’s very hard to get that “perfect balance” between superb usability and visual appeal. I must say you’ve done a awesome job with this. Additionally, the blog loads extremely quick for me on Safari. Outstanding Blog!
7Thank you for the sensible critique. Me & my neighbor were just preparing to do some research on this. We got a grab a book from our area library but I think I learned more clear from this post. I am very glad to see such great info being shared freely out there.
8Hi, Neat post. There is a problem with your website in internet explorer, would check this… IE still is the market leader and a large portion of people will miss your excellent writing due to this problem.
9That is the suitable weblog for anybody who desires to search out out about this topic. You notice a lot its virtually hard to argue with you (not that I truly would need…HaHa). You positively put a brand new spin on a topic thats been written about for years. Great stuff, just nice!
10Wow, amazing blog format! How lengthy have you been blogging for? you make running a blog glance easy. The whole look of your site is fantastic, as neatly as the content!
11I’m really enjoying the theme/design of your website. Do you ever run into any browser compatibility issues? A couple of my blog audience have complained about my website not operating correctly in Explorer but looks great in Opera. Do you have any tips to help fix this problem?
12Thanks for your personal marvelous posting! I seriously enjoyed reading it, you could be a great author.I will always bookmark your blog and will eventually come back in the foreseeable future. I want to encourage yourself to continue your great job, have a nice evening!
13Great line up. We will be linking to this great article on our site. Keep up the good writing.
14Appreciate it for this grand post, I am glad I found this internet site on yahoo.
15A person essentially help to make seriously articles I would state. This is the very first time I frequented your website page and thus far? I amazed with the research you made to make this particular publish extraordinary. Excellent job!
16he blog was how do i say it… relevant, finally something that helped me. Thanks
17Good info. Lucky me I reach on your website by accident, I bookmarked it.
18Undeniably imagine that which you said. Your favourite reason seemed to be on the net the easiest factor to be aware of. I say to you, I definitely get annoyed even as other folks consider worries that they plainly do not recognise about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top and defined out the entire thing with no need side effect , folks could take a signal. Will likely be again to get more. Thank you
19Sweet blog! I found it while surfing around on Yahoo News. Do you have any suggestions on how to get listed in Yahoo News? I’ve been trying for a while but I never seem to get there! Thank you
20Thanks for this marvellous post, I am glad I observed this web site on yahoo.
21Hello, Neat post. There’s an issue with your web site in web explorer, would test thisK IE nonetheless is the marketplace chief and a good portion of people will pass over your fantastic writing because of this problem.
22I will right away grab your rss feed as I can’t find your email subscription link or e-newsletter service. Do you have any? Please let me know so that I could subscribe. Thanks.
23I’m curious to find out what blog platform you are using? I’m experiencing some small security issues with my latest site and I’d like to find something more safe. Do you have any recommendations?
24I just couldn’t depart your site before suggesting that I really enjoyed the standard information a person provide to your visitors? Is gonna be back regularly in order to check out new posts.
25Sweet web site, super pattern, rattling clean and apply pleasant.
26I conceive other website proprietors should take this web site as an model, very clean and superb user genial style and design.
27I am only commenting to make you understand what a terrific encounter our girl undergone reading your site. She even learned so many details, including how it is like to have a very effective helping nature to have many people easily learn about specific problematic issues. You actually did more than people’s expectations. Many thanks for delivering those essential, trustworthy, revealing and fun tips about this topic to Julie.
28I like this site very much, Its a real nice post to read and receive information.
29Hi! Do you know if they make any plugins to safeguard against hackers? I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on. Any suggestions?
30Some times its a pain in the ass to read what people wrote but this site is very user pleasant! .
31Hi, i feel that i noticed you visited my blog thus i got here to “go back the desire”.I’m attempting to find issues to improve my web site!I suppose its good enough to use some of your ideas!!
32Merely wanna tell that this is extremely helpful, Thanks for taking your time to write this.
33I’m truly enjoying the design and layout of your site. It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more pleasant for me to come here and visit more often. Did you hire out a designer to create your theme? Superb work!
34I’ve been browsing on-line more than three hours today, yet I by no means discovered any fascinating article like yours. It’s lovely value sufficient for me. In my view, if all web owners and bloggers made just right content as you probably did, the internet can be much more useful than ever before.
35Very nice post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wished to say that I have truly enjoyed surfing around your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!
36Those are yours alright! . We at least need to get these people stealing images to start blogging! They probably just did a image search and grabbed them. They look good though!
37I was reading through some of your posts on this internet site and I believe this site is rattling informative ! Keep on putting up.
38I like this web site very much, Its a really nice place to read and find information. “There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise.” by Gore Vidal.
39I’m often to running a blog and i really respect your content. The article has actually peaks my interest. I am going to bookmark your site and preserve checking for new information.
40Hiya! I just want to give a huge thumbs up for the great information you’ve gotten here on this post. I will probably be coming back to your blog for more soon.
41I have read some good stuff here. Definitely worth bookmarking for revisiting. I surprise how much effort you put to create such a magnificent informative website.
42I’m not sure where you’re getting your info, but good topic. I needs to spend some time learning more or understanding more. Thanks for great info I was looking for this information for my mission.
43Some truly nice and useful info on this web site, too I conceive the style and design contains fantastic features.
44Wonderful work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the internet. Shame on Google for not positioning this post higher! Come on over and visit my website . Thanks =)
45Merely a smiling visitant here to share the love (:, btw great style and design. “Individuals may form communities, but it is institutions alone that can create a nation.” by Benjamin Disraeli.
46I know this if off topic but I’m looking into starting my own blog and was curious what all is required to get setup? I’m assuming having a blog like yours would cost a pretty penny? I’m not very internet savvy so I’m not 100 sure. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. Cheers
47I would like to thank you for the efforts you’ve put in writing this blog. I’m hoping the same high-grade website post from you in the upcoming also. Actually your creative writing abilities has inspired me to get my own blog now. Actually the blogging is spreading its wings quickly. Your write up is a great example of it.
48Thanks for a marvelous posting! I truly enjoyed reading it, you might be a great author.I will remember to bookmark your blog and definitely will come back in the foreseeable future. I want to encourage you to definitely continue your great posts, have a nice evening!
49great put up, very informative. I’m wondering why the other specialists of this sector do not notice this. You should proceed your writing. I’m confident, you’ve a great readers’ base already!
50