Tu Le Commune, Van Chan District, Yen Bai Province attracts travellers near and far thanks to its picturesque natural charm, and especially, its mouth-watering, cherished- by- all-Vietnamese ‘Com’ (young sticky rice flakes) - an idyllic gift generously bestowed by the lush rice terraced paddy fields.

‘Com’ is made by Thai ethnic women in a traditional way from grains with highly-concentrated rice-milk at their fullest. Sticky grains are plucked off manually so that they are not broken and then dried in a large cast iron pan over a soft fire until just cooked. The cooled roasted grains are then poured into stone mortars for being pounded for 10 times. During this pounding step, all husks can be removed from the grains by winnowing. This sweetly scented food is often served with ripe bananas, red persimmons and quail eggs. Besides, it is also an ingredient used in many specialties such as including duck porridges and ‘xoi com’ (steamed green sticky rice).

Let’s take a look at nice photos, captured by our freelance photographer Nguyen Huu Thanh before a new outbreak of COVID-19 sweeping many Vietnamese localities, to gain a deeper insight into the attractiveness of ‘com’.

Young sticky rice is carefully selected.

Grains are sorted by manually smashing.

Glutinous grains are threshed with a foot-pedal stripping machine.

Sticky grains are dried in a large cast iron pan over a soft fire until just cooked.

Glutinous rice is pounded manually.

The green colour of the grains will appear following the removal of all husks.

‘Com’ is wrapped in ‘dong’ leaves to keep its softness and aroma.

Reporting by DA NANG Newspaper- Translating by T. VY, H. NGOC, T. AN