On the ancestors’ altar in the new year, in addition to traditional cakes such as chung cake or giay cake, we also see some kinds of cakes with local nuances. Gai cake Ke Gia is a special flavor of the countryside.
Gia Village is a countryside side of Day River in Yen So Commune, Hoai Duc District – Hanoi, with the famous specialty – gai cake. Gai cake in Gia Village is appreciated by gourmets and visitors on Hanoi street food tours, as delicious as Hai Duong gai cake.
The strange name
From hundreds of years, this is an essential kind of cake in the life of local people, especially in the holidays.
Surely many people on Hanoi street food walking tour wonder why such delicious cake has such a strange name, gai cake, “thorny”? Simply, it is because the cake is made from the gai leaves from a special tree planted only in few places.
The country has many regions making gai cake such as, in the north, Ninh Giang cakes (Hai Duong), Cau Oc cakes (Loc Hoa commune, Nam Dinh city), or Central Vietnam with gai cakes in Mia Village (Tho Xuan district, Thanh Hoa), etc.
However, Gai cake in Gia Village has its own value, associated with the traditional village. And the taste of the cake is a very special taste with its characteristic color and aroma from the gai leaves in the countryside.
How to make gai cakes
Gai cake in Gia Village is delicious by the special smell of gai leaves of familiar fields. Gai leaves look like mulberry leaves, serrated, often grown in hills. According to the opinion of the villagers, gai cake is a manifestation of human harmony with heaven and earth, yin and yang so the process of making cake must be elaborate. The choice of rice and bean also have to be careful.
The rice must be glutinous rice (nep cai hoa vang), soaked in cold water until the grain of rice is soft, and then cleaned and ground into flour. The flour is put into the aluminum tray and then cut into square pieces, and placed the cake core in the center which includes green beans, curettage coconut, lard, etc. Next, the cake will be rounded and rolled in roasted sesame. The cake is passed through the wrapping process. This is also the most interesting stage in the process of making gai cake.
Cake core also is made carefully. Lard is diced and then marinated with white sugar. The fine bean must be small green bean often used to make gruel, fragrant and golden fatty when cooked. The beans are round. When tightened, they are sticky but spongy and smooth. Especially coconut. Coconut is a kind of coconut of Yen So village, which is grown and processed in the locality. Choose the old coconut, shaved off the black shell, curetted. Coconut then will be mixed well with white sugar and some jelly or lotus jam.
Gai cake is put in the mold and wrapped by hand, outside the cake is sprinkled sesame like floating flowers on the black background, making the cake more beautiful.
Gai cake in Gia Village is an indispensable gift for every person on food walking tour visiting in Yen So village (Hoai Duc district, Hanoi). The buns are also used in the festivals of the village (especially on the 10th day of the third lunar month).
In the market mechanism, there are many kinds of expensive cakes, confectionery is processed on the industry chain is quite attractive eye-catching, but gai cake in Gia Village still retain the smell of the countryside of the countryside of Doai. The gift of the countryside contributes to the identity of the country of Vietnam with a long traditional food culture.
For more information/details: Hanoi traditional food, Vietnam food tours, Vietnam cooking class