On the days leading up to the Lunar New Year of the Dragon 2024, the Quang Chau 'banh kho me' (dried sesame seed cakes) village, Hoa Chau Commune, Hoa Vang District, Da Nang has recorded a bustling vibe, which is completely different from usual, with the sounds of laughter and the sight of people coming in and out the village.

A scene of making dried sesame cakes in Quang Chau village

The smell of roasted sesame, young molasses and dried sesame cakes makes the whole area fragrant in thesse days leading up to Tet.

Quang Chau is located at Da Nang’s southern gateway, close to National Highway 1A. During the days leading up to the traditional Vietnamese Lunar New Year (Tet), the Quang Chau village has recorded the bustling atmosphere, lingering with the spring colour of the largest sesame cake making village in the former Quang Nam - Da Nang area and Da Nang today.

On the days leading up to the country’s traditional Tet, the kitchens of nearly a few dozen households in the village always operate at a full capacity to produce delicious, crispy cakes to serve the Tet market.

Elderly people in the village said that the craft of making dried sesame cakes has been around for more than 100 years. Thanks to this traditional craft, people in the village have more jobs with stable income. At the same time, it also attracts many tourists who want to chat with the bakers and gain a deeper insight into the process of making this traditional cake as well.

In the kitchen, the heat in the oven is blazing but the elderly women still chat happily while their hands are still agile to promptly complete the batches of delicious dried sesame cakes to serve the Tet market which is around the corner.

The main ingredients of the cake are rice flour, glutinous rice, roasted sesame, and sugar. At the beginning of the cake making stages, the makers will mix rice flour with glutinous rice flour, then putting the dough into the mold to shape, steaming and baking them on charcoal fire. Finally, the cakes are dipped with a layer of cane sugar, and are rolled over roasted sesame or glutinous rice and then packed.

According to locals, the cakes are required to have a crispy porous intestine, and be fragrant with roasted sesame and sticky rice. Also, the inner layer of cane sugar is flexible when breaking the cake.

The bakery of the family of Mr. Tran Tru, 67, who has been involved in the profession of making dried sesame cakes for more than 40 years, has more than 10 workers rushing to complete orders. According to Mr. Tran Chu, every year, from the 11^th lunar month of the year, bakeries in the village started producing cakes for Tet. Every day, his family's bakery produces an average of about 150 packages of cakes, equivalent to 7,000 - 7,500 cakes, to promptly supply to the Tet market.

Mrs. Nguyen Thi Nghi, 63, Mr. Tran Chu's wife, a longtime baker of Quang Chau village, said that if you want to make delicious, good-quality sesame dried cakes, you must completely use a special type of rice that can make the cake spongy and crispy and spongy. In particular, the sugar syrup must be fresh and use white sugar from the central province of Quang Ngai and sesame from the northern central province of Thanh Hoa.

“To make the cake dry and delicious, the process of sugaring is the secret to making the cake feel silky when it is broken open. Quang Ngai-sourced white granulated sugar is used to make the cake. To make it fragrant, sometimes, fresh ginger is added to the sugar. Standard dried sesame cakes must have a natural colour, eye-catching texture and the inside must have a certain porosity and characteristic fragrant cake.”,said Ms. Nghia.

Currently, the price of a small dried sesame cakes costs VND 40,000 /box (50 pieces) while large ones are set at VND70,000 /box. People often buy them as offerings for display on the altar during Tet. For tourists buying cakes as gifts, they are recommended to purchase paper-wrapped cakes at VND 60,000/package.

Mrs. Ly Thi Luong, 70, residing in Quang Chau village, went to Mrs. Nghi's oven to buy sesame dried cakes. She said that because Mrs. Nghi's sesame dried cakes are very delicious, she comes here every year to buy them as gifts for her children, grandchildren, friends and relatives in Da Nang. She has bought 700 cakes (14 packages) worth a total of VND1.3 million.

In the past, every time the spring came, the people of the Quang land made traditional cakes as offerings to their ancestors. However, making dried sesame cakes involves many difficult and complicated steps, so nowadays, many people buy cakes in ovens or at stalls for convenience in the Industry 4.0 era.

Currently, Quang Chau sesame dried cake craft village is no longer as crowded as in previous years, but the people here still painstakingly preserve the craft left by their ancestors to produce cakes with a characteristic sweet and fragrant flavour, imbued with the alluvial flavour of soil, water, sun, wind, and firewood mixed with the diligence and hard work of the people of Quang Chau's hometown.

Reporting by HOANG LINH - Translating by A.THU