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''Bánh chưng'' or ''banh chung'' is a traditional Vietnamese dish which is made from
glutinous rice Domestication syndrome refers to two sets of phenotypic traits that are common to either domesticated plants or domesticated animals. Domesticated animals tend to be smaller and less aggressive than their wild counterparts; they may also hav ...
,
mung bean The mung bean or green gram (''Vigna radiata'') is a plant species in the legume family.Brief Introduction of Mung Bean. Vigna Radiata Extract Green Mung Bean Extract Powder Phaseolus aureus Roxb Vigna radiata L R Wilczek. MDidea-Extracts P ...
s,
pork Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig animal husbandry, husbandry dating back to 8000–9000 BCE. Pork is eaten both freshly cooke ...
, and other ingredients. According to legend, its origin traces back to Lang Liêu, a prince of the last
king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...
of the Sixth Hùng Dynasty. He earned his place as successor by creating ''bánh chưng'' and ''
bánh giầy (often be mistaken as , or ) is a Vietnamese traditional cake. is a white, flat, and round glutinous rice, glutinous rice cake. They are wrapped in cut pieces of banana leaves. They are usually served with a type of Vietnamese sausage . can ...
'', which symbolize the earth and the sky, respectively. Considered an essential element of the family altar on the occasion of ''
Tết Tết (, ), short for (; ), is the most important celebration in Vietnamese culture. Tết celebrates the arrival of spring based on the Vietnamese calendar and usually falls on January or February in the Gregorian calendar. is not to be co ...
'', the preparation and consumption of ''bánh chưng'' are cherished traditions deeply rooted in Vietnamese culture. While closely associated with ''Tết'', ''bánh chưng'' is enjoyed year-round as a staple of Vietnamese cuisine.


Origin and symbolism

According to the book '' Lĩnh Nam chích quái'' (''Extraordinary stories of Lĩnh Nam'') published in the 14th century, the creation of ''bánh chưng'' was credited to Lang Liêu, a prince of the last Sixth Hùng Dynasty of the Hùng dynasty (c. 1712 – 1632 BC). It was said that in choosing a successor among his sons, the monarch decided to carry out a competition in which each prince brought a delicacy representing the sincerity of the ancestors on the occasion of ''Tết'', whoever could introduce the most delicious dish for the altar would become the next ruler of the country. While other princes tried to find rare and delicious foods from the forest and sea, the eighteenth prince, Lang Liêu, who was the poorest son of the Hùng king, could not afford such luxurious dishes and had to be content with everyday ingredients, such as rice and pork. He created one cake in the square form of earth called ''bánh chưng'' and one in the round form of sky called ''
bánh giầy (often be mistaken as , or ) is a Vietnamese traditional cake. is a white, flat, and round glutinous rice, glutinous rice cake. They are wrapped in cut pieces of banana leaves. They are usually served with a type of Vietnamese sausage . can ...
'' from these simple ingredients. In tasting the dishes offered by his son, the Hùng king found ''bánh chưng'' and ''bánh giầy'' not only delicious but also a fine representation of the respect for ancestors. Therefore, he decided to cede the throne to Lang Liêu and ''bánh chưng'', ''bánh giầy'' became traditional foods during ''Tết''. Lang Liêu founded the Seventh Hùng dynasty (c. 1631 – 1432 BC). Considered an indispensable dish of ''Tết'', ''bánh chưng'' is placed on the family altars to honor the family ancestors and pray to them for support in the new year. Wrapped in a green square package, ''bánh chưng'' symbolizes the
earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...
, the various ingredients of ''bánh chưng'', which come from all the products of nature, also emphasize the meaning of ''bánh chưng'' with Vietnamese people.


Ingredients and presentation

The required ingredients of ''bánh chưn''g are
glutinous rice Domestication syndrome refers to two sets of phenotypic traits that are common to either domesticated plants or domesticated animals. Domesticated animals tend to be smaller and less aggressive than their wild counterparts; they may also hav ...
,
mung bean The mung bean or green gram (''Vigna radiata'') is a plant species in the legume family.Brief Introduction of Mung Bean. Vigna Radiata Extract Green Mung Bean Extract Powder Phaseolus aureus Roxb Vigna radiata L R Wilczek. MDidea-Extracts P ...
, fatty
pork Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig animal husbandry, husbandry dating back to 8000–9000 BCE. Pork is eaten both freshly cooke ...
and
black pepper Black pepper (''Piper nigrum'') is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit (the peppercorn), which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) which is about in diameter ...
,
salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...
, sometimes green
onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' , from Latin ), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classifie ...
, and '' nước mắm'' for salty taste. In the wrapping stage, one needs ''
lá dong ''Stachyphrynium placentarium'' is a species of plant in the family Marantaceae. Its basionym was ''Phyllodes placentaria'' Lour.de Loureiro J (1790) ''Fl. Cochinch.'' 1: 13. and was subsequently long placed as various species in the genus '' P ...
'', strings split from ''giang'' ('' Maclurochloa'' sp.), one type of bamboo which has long node, and sometimes a square mold in wood so that ''bánh chưng'' can be wrapped in a better shape, ''lá dong'', which is popular only in Southern Asia, can be substituted by
banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...
leaves or even '' lá bàng''. ''Lá dong'' and ''giang'' strings have to be washed carefully in order to preserve the taste of the cake, ''giang'' strings may be soaked in water or steamed so that they become flexible enough for wrapping and tying. People often choose high-quality rice and beans for making ''bánh chưng''. The mung beans are soaked in water for approximately 2 hours and the glutinous rice for 12 to 14 hours. The mung beans are drained, cooked and mashed into a paste. The fat in the pork is preferred for ''bánh chưng'' because its fatty flavor associates well with the glutinous rice and mung beans. After being sliced in approx. half-inch thick strips, the pork is mixed with pepper, onion, salt and ''nước mắm''. Sugar can also be added to this mixture of spices. The cake is wrapped in the following order. First, the ''giang'' strings and two ''lá dong'' leaves are placed as the square base for the ''bánh chưng''. Then glutinous rice is stuffed in ''lá dong'', followed by mung bean, pork, more mung bean and finally another layer of rice so that bean and pork can be respectively in the center of the cake. The ingredients are carefully wrapped in ''lá dong'' and bound by ''giang'' strings in the square form. In order to get a near-perfect square-shaped cake, the maker can use a square mold to help in the wrapping and pressing the ingredients to fill the corners of the square mold. To keep the cake from
mold A mold () or mould () is one of the structures that certain fungus, fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of Spore#Fungi, spores containing Secondary metabolite#Fungal secondary metabolites, fungal ...
or being spoiled, ''bánh chưng'' should be wrapped as tight as possible. The prepared cakes are arranged in a large pot (with recommended spacing between cakes, using chopsticks, bamboo or other spacers). The pot is filled with fresh water and boiled for hours until they are cooked thoroughly. As the water evaporates during cooking, more boiled water should be added to keep the cakes submerged at all time. The outer-most layer of rice turns green because the rice absorbed the color of ''lá dong''. One ''bánh chưng'' is often divided into eight (triangular shaped) or nine (square shaped) pieces, usually by using the very ''giang'' string that bounded the cake. As the cake was formed from several ingredients, the taste of ''bánh chưng'' varies from part to part with different flavors of glutinous rice, pork, bean and even the wrapping ''lá dong''. ''Bánh chưng'' is often served with pickled onions or vegetables, '' chả lụa'' and '' nước mắm''. After unwrapping, ''bánh chưng'' remains edible for several days when stored in the refrigerator, while an unopened one can be kept for up to two weeks in the refrigerator. ''Bánh chưng'' can also be frozen and thawed again for consumption, though the quality is not as good as a fresh cake. ''Bánh chưng'' has the
water activity In food science, water activity (''aw'') of a food is the ratio of its vapor pressure to the vapor pressure of water at the same temperature, both taken at equilibrium. Pure water has a water activity of one. Put another way, ''aw'' is the equi ...
value aw of about 0.95 and its pH is approximately 6.4. File:Nguyen lieu banh chung.jpg, The prepared ingredients of ''bánh chưng'' File:Goi banh chung (dung khuon).jpg, Wrapping ''bánh chưng'' using a mould File:Bánh chưng.jpg, An unwrapped ''bánh chưng'', cut into eight pieces, ready to serve File:Bánh chưng và giò lụa.jpg, ''Bánh chưng'' is served with '' chả lụa'' and other dishes


History and tradition

''Bánh chưng'' is always considered an essential element of a traditional ''Tết'', which is described by a popular
couplet In poetry, a couplet ( ) or distich ( ) is a pair of successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (closed) couplet, each of the two lines is end-stopped, implying that there ...
: Women wear ''
áo dài (; , ) is a modernized Vietnamese national garment consisting of a long split tunic worn over silk trousers. It can serve as formalwear for both men and women. translates as shirt' is derived from a Middle Chinese word () meaning "padded ...
'' for their tradition. Traditionally, ''bánh chưng'' requires the preparation of many ingredients, each Vietnamese family that can afford such a preparation begins to make the cake on the 27th or 28th day of the twelfth month of the Vietnamese calendar (''tháng Chạp''). In making ''bánh chưng'', all members of the family gather to perform different tasks, from washing the ''lá dong'', mixing the pork with spices, preparing the mung beans and most importantly wrapping all ingredients into the square form and boiling the cakes. ''Bánh chưng'' needs to be carefully boiled for ten to twelve hours during which the adults and children sit together around the boiling cauldron. In the countryside, to ensure that ''bánh chưng'' is available for every family even the poor ones, a fund called ''họ bánh chưng'' is jointly set up and about one month before the ''Tết'', the accumulated capital and benefit are divided between members of the fund so that they can have enough money to prepare ''bánh chưng''. Nowadays, the tradition of self-made ''bánh chưng'' gradually declines in Vietnam when the size of a typical family is smaller and people do not have enough time for the preparation and making of ''bánh chưng''. Instead, they go to the ''bánh chưng'' shop or order cakes in advance from families that specialize in making them. Therefore, ''bánh chưng'' still appears in each family during the Tết but they are not a family product anymore. With the shift of ''bánh chưng'' making from family to specialized manufacturers, some craft villages became famous for their reputation in making ''bánh chưng'' such as ''Tranh Khúc'' village or ''Duyên Hà'' village both in Thanh Trì,
Hanoi Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Vietnam, second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red River (Asia), Red and Black River (Asia), Black Riv ...
. Each year, on the occasion of the Death anniversary of the Hung Kings, a competition of making ''bánh chưng'' and ''bánh dày'' is often organized in Hùng Temple, Phú Thọ. Participants from eight different regions including
Lào Cai Lào Cai () is a city in the Northwest region of Vietnam. It is the capital of Lào Cai Province. The city borders Bảo Thắng District, Bát Xát District, Sa Pa and the city of Hekou Yao Autonomous County, in Yunnan province of southwe ...
, Hanoi and Cần Thơ are provided with 5 kg of glutinous rice, bean, 1 kg of pork so that they can make 10 ''bánh chưng'' in 10 minutes, the product of the winning team will be present in the official altar of the festival. In 2005, bánh chưng makers in
Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025. The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...
offered Hùng Temple a pair of giant ''bánh chưng'' and ''bánh giầy'', the size of the ''bánh chưng'' measured 1.8m x 1.8m x 0.7m (71 x 71 x 27.5 inches) and weighed 2 tonnes after cooking, it was made in Ho Chi Minh City and subsequently transferred to Phú Thọ.


Variations

While being normally eaten warm or at room temperature, ''bánh chưng'' also be fried up and served in the form of a crisp pancake. It is then called ''bánh chưng rán'' or ''bánh chưng chiên'' (fried ''bánh chưng''). Writer Vũ Bằng in his book ''Thương nhớ mười hai'' (Longing of the 12 months) mentions ''bánh chưng rán'' as a delicious dish during the cold winter of Hanoi. In some regions, instead of ''bánh chưng'', people make '' bánh tét'': a cylindrical cake with almost the same ingredients as ''bánh chưng''. A similar cake as ''bánh tét'' is made in some regions in the North but with the name '' bánh tày'', ''bánh chưng dài'' (long ''bánh chưng'') or ''bánh dài''. Bánh tày is often made with a small quantity of mung bean and little or no pork, so that it can be preserved for a longer period. ''Bánh tày'' can be cut in slices and fried like ''bánh chưng rán''. The San Diu people has another variation of the long ''bánh chưng'' with a hump in the middle of the cake – hence it is called ''bánh chưng "gù"'' ("humped" ''bánh chưn''g). Besides ''lá dong'', ''bánh chưng "gù"'' is wrapped with an additional type of leaf named '' lá chít''. There are also variations of ''bánh chưng'' for vegetarians and
Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
s, such as ''bánh chưng chay'' (vegetarian ''chưng'' cake) or ''bánh chưng ngọt'' (sweetened ''chưng'' cake). Instead of being stuffed with pork these cakes are filled with
molasses Molasses () is a viscous byproduct, principally obtained from the refining of sugarcane or sugar beet juice into sugar. Molasses varies in the amount of sugar, the method of extraction, and the age of the plant. Sugarcane molasses is usuall ...
or
brown sugar Brown sugar is a sucrose sugar product with a distinctive brown color due to the presence of molasses. It is either an unrefined or partially refined soft sugar consisting of sugar crystals with some residual molasses content or produced by t ...
. In these variations sometimes the glutinous rice is mixed with
gac Gac or GAC may refer to: *Gấc, pronounced �ək̚˧˦ a Southeast Asian fruit of the species ''Momordica cochinchinensis'' *Gać (disambiguation), a common Polish place-name Acronyms Companies and organisations * GAC Group, a Chinese automo ...
, giving the cake a red skin considered more appetizing. In the countryside ''bánh chưng chay'' was once made by the poor families who could not afford pork for stuffing. They replaced pork with
cardamom Cardamom (), sometimes cardamon or cardamum, is a spice made from the seeds of several plants in the genus (biology), genera ''Elettaria'' and ''Amomum'' in the family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to the Indian subcontinent and Indon ...
, black pepper and cooked mung bean. This type of ''bánh chưng'' was eaten with molasses.


See also

* Bánh tẻ *
List of rice dishes This is a list of rice dishes from all over the world, arranged alphabetically. Rice is the seed of the monocot plants ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). As a cereal, cereal grain, it is the most widely consumed s ...
*
List of steamed foods This is a list of steamed foods and dishes that are typically or commonly prepared by the cooking method of steaming. Steamed foods * Ada – a food item from Kerala, usually made of rice flour with sweet filling inside. * Bánh – in Hano ...
*
List of stuffed dishes This is a list of stuffed dishes, comprising dishes and foods that are prepared with various fillings and stuffings. Some dishes are not actually stuffed; the added ingredients are simply spread atop the base food, as one cannot truly stuff an oys ...
* Lo mai gai *
Pamonha Pamonha () is a traditional Brazilian food. It is a boiled paste made from sweet corn whisked in coconut milk, typically served wrapped in corn husks. See also * Bollos ( Panamanian cuisine) * Chimaki, from Japan * Humita * List of Brazilian di ...
*
Tamale A tamale, in Spanish language, Spanish , is a traditional Mesoamerican dish made of ''masa'', a dough made from nixtamalization, nixtamalized maize, corn, which is steaming, steamed in a corn husk or Banana leaf, banana leaves. The wrapping ...
*
Zongzi ''Zongzi'' () or simply ''zong'' () is a traditional Chinese rice dish made of glutinous rice stuffed with a range of fillings and wrapped in bamboo leaves. Fillings can be either sweet, such as red bean paste, or savory, such as pork belly or ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Banh Chung New Year foods Steamed foods Stuffed dishes Rice cakes Vietnamese pork dishes Bánh Legume dishes Vietnamese rice dishes Glutinous rice dishes