Sandwich Shop Goodies 9 – Bánh bò bông (Steamed sponge muffin)
Does this happen to you often? You give a friend something to taste, he says “It’s good. What’s it called?”. You’re stumped. The English translation is easy, but it would make no sense because the name matches neither the food, the ingredients, nor the method of cooking.
It happens to me quite often, and usually I shut off the questions with “Just eat it!”. But I wonder, too. Southern Vietnamese folks have a niche for obscure naming scheme. The names could have sprouted from some jokes, some overly simplified impromptu description they thought of at the moment, some mispronounced foreign names, who knows. The result is intelligible and untranslatable, like bánh khọt, bánh tét, chả đùm. The translatable-but-not-always-understandable cases happen when they attach random verbs after the categorical nouns to make a new name, like bánh xèo – “sizzling banh”, bánh lọt – “falling-through banh”, bò né – “dodging beef”, whatever that’s supposed to mean. Bánh bò belongs to this flock. Cow bánh? Unlikely, the thing is vegan to an n. I even thought about the possibility that the name is derived from its resemblance of the cow’s tripe, but they would have called it tripe bánh then. Crawling bánh? Less unlikely, more bizarre. Turns out some grandma saw the rising dough attempt to crawl over and out of the mixing bowl and thought “Gotcha! I shall name you the Crawling Banh”. Vietnamese food is so alive.
Technically the Mekong delta cooks got this recipe from Chinese immigrants and twitched things around a little. They call it “bak tong goh” (white sugar cake) in China. So plain. Bak tong go almost always gets sold with bánh tiêu: you tear open the hollow doughnut, insert bak tong go into the cavity, and get a fried-steamed-fried triple layer galore. I’m not too entranced by this “white sugar cake” because of its sour hints, which come from fermenting the batter with syrup. The Vietnamese rendition of bak tong goh, bánh bò, does not let the batter go sour, and is thus a charm.
They shape like mini muffins, and look like fluff balls, so we call them bánh bò bông – “fluffy bánh bò”. The porous inside structure is compared with honeycombs or bamboo roots, or even crystals if you let your imagination go far enough. They’re either green or white with a coconuty sweetness, to pair with the burnt savory taste of toasted sesame, sugar and salt mix that comes sprinkling on top. They’re bouncy and chewy, and extremely light. We used to get the morning fresh batches from Ngọc Sáng bakery, 199 Ly Tu Trong, District 1, Saigon.
Now we settle for the plastic-packaged $2.50-worth bunch from Kim’s Sandwiches, 1816 Tully Rd #182, San Jose, CA. Certainly not half as good as the fresh ones, but it’ll do.
Previously on Sandwich Shop Goodies: bánh bao chỉ (loh mai chi)
Next on Sandwich Shop Goodies: bánh chuối nướng (banana bread pudding)
Hoang Tam at Playing With My Food has a nice simple recipe of bánh bò.
I have not checked in here for some time as I thought it was getting boring, but the last several posts are good quality so I guess I’ll add you back to my everyday bloglist. You deserve it my friend 🙂
1I want forgathering utile information , this post has got me even more info! .
2Some genuinely nice and utilitarian info on this web site, too I conceive the design and style has fantastic features.
3You should take part in a contest for one of the best blogs on the web. I’ll recommend this web site!
4whoah this blog is excellent i love reading your articles. Keep up the great work! You know, lots of people are searching around for this information, you could help them greatly.
5I don’t ordinarily comment but I gotta tell thanks for the post on this amazing one :D.
6I like the valuable info you provide in your articles. I will bookmark your weblog and check again here frequently. I’m quite sure I will learn plenty of new stuff right here! Best of luck for the next!
7Hi there! This post couldn’t be written any better! Reading through this post reminds me of my previous room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward this article to him. Pretty sure he will have a good read. Thank you for sharing!
8I always was concerned in this topic and still am, thanks for putting up.
9Wohh exactly what I was searching for, thanks for posting.
10I’ve learn a few just right stuff here. Certainly worth bookmarking for revisiting. I surprise how a lot attempt you set to make the sort of excellent informative web site.
11Hey! Someone in my Myspace group shared this website with us so I came to give it a look. I’m definitely loving the information. I’m book-marking and will be tweeting this to my followers! Superb blog and wonderful design.
12I don’t even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was great. I do not know who you are but certainly you’re going to a famous blogger if you are not already 😉 Cheers!
13I have been absent for some time, but now I remember why I used to love this site. Thanks , I’ll try and check back more frequently. How frequently you update your website?
14I intended to create you one little bit of word to be able to thank you yet again for those striking concepts you have featured on this page. It has been quite remarkably generous of people like you to offer openly all some people could have made available as an ebook to help make some profit on their own, and in particular now that you could possibly have tried it in case you considered necessary. The good ideas also served to become easy way to realize that other people online have the identical desire just as my personal own to realize many more concerning this condition. Certainly there are millions of more pleasant instances ahead for many who examine your blog post.
15checked matcha swap app this morning
16The other day, while I was at work, my cousin stole my apple ipad and tested to see if it can survive a twenty five foot drop, just so she can be a youtube sensation. My apple ipad is now broken and she has 83 views. I know this is entirely off topic but I had to share it with someone!
17Hi there, I found your blog by the use of Google at the same time as searching for a similar subject, your site got here up, it seems to be good. I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
18Good info. Lucky me I reach on your website by accident, I bookmarked it.
19Very interesting subject, thanks for posting.
20You have brought up a very fantastic points, thanks for the post.
21