In the small cake furnaces darkened by the smoke over time, rural women are still diligently keeping the baking profession subliming in the modern rhythm of life, so that the countryside here every December is bustling to welcome upcoming Tet.

Mrs Nguyen Thi Lan, the successor of Ba Bon sesame dry cake oven in Quang Chau Village, Hoa Chau Commune, Hoa Vang District. Photo: N.H

1. Mrs Nguyen Thi Lan, residing in Quang Chau Hamlet, Hoa Chau Commune, Hoa Vang District was fortunate to have been in the profession of sesame dry cake since she has been a bride in Quang Chau Village for nearly 30 years now. Her husband’s aunt, Mrs Bon Cuong, has created the "Ba Bon" brand of banh kho me' (dried sesame seed cakes) being well-known everywhere. Mrs Lan and her husband have continued this profession and developed it on a larger scale but still retain the taste of the old cake. So far, the brand "Ba Bon" is more than 100 years old.

According to Mrs Lan, in addition to having enough staff for all stages of baking, steaming, baking, and packaging, the preparation of ingredients are extremely important. The sesame must be scrubbed clean, the flour must be ground, and the sugar must be caramelized. Besides the dry sesame cake, Ms Lan's furnace is also famous for its glutinous rice cake filled with green bean paste or with shrimp and meat, or In cake, which also causes nostalgia for those who love the taste of their homeland.

In the same vein, Mrs Nguyen Thi Nghia, a nearby Giang Dong villager who be a bride in Quang Chau village in 1978, also tinkered with the "secrets" of furnaces in the village and started her own business in 1985. The brand of "Ba Nghi" dried sesame seed cakes was present at the exhibition at a conference reviewing the 10 years of the country’s agriculture nationwide betwwbne 2008 - 2018 in Ha Noi.

The traditional baking village in Quang Chau has existed for hundreds of years, but it was sublimated in the 1980s. The whole village currently has 7 dried sesame seed cake making furnaces, but for two years now, due to the COVID-19, it has only 3 furnaces that fire all year round, namely Ba Nghia, Ba Bon and Ba Dai. There are also some other households such as Ms Le, Ms Nga, Ms Tuyet, Ms Ha...making seasonal cakes such as To cake, In cake, Tet cake mainly on the occasion of the Lunar New Year. Therefore, these days, the whole village is in the season of making Tet cakes.

The stage of baking cake on charcoal in the Ba Nghia sesame dry cake furnace. (Photo provided by the character)

2. In the days approaching Tet, you will feel somewhere in the cold of winter the sweet and aromatic sweetness of sugar mixed with roasted sesame, rice, and roasted beans from the furnaces spilt into the space of the Tet colour palette when walking on the road of Quang Chau village. At the beginning of December, villagers have started to make To cake, but this year it rains late, so they have to wait for the sun to rise to dry cakes. For dry cakes, In cakes, the furnaces are still burning red from 3.00 or 4.00 am despite rain or shine.

According to Mrs Nghia, whether or not the cakes are delicious much depends on the stage of caramelizing the sugar and kneading the dough. The flour must be sifted very finely, the caramelized sugar has just become brown and can be pulled into silk. Quang Chau sesame dry cake is famous for its delicious taste since the raw material is 100% xuyệc or xiệc rice (a kind of local rice) to make the cake puffy. Bakeries owners have to order "young rice" from farmers from the moment it blooms in the field to reserve for later use.

In the past Tet days, every house made all kinds of traditional cakes. However, these days, the old sticky rice is no longer available, so people mainly buy at the kilns owned by longtime bakers in the village. As a consequence, Quang Chau's hometown cake brand is welcomed by a large number of people at home and abroad, leading to the development of the village's traditional baking profession.

3. As shared by Mr Tran Xu, the owner of the sesame dry cake brand name Ba Nghia when asked why not raise the brand of Quang Chau sesame dry cake from a cooperative group to a company to increase production volume and participate in the big market, Quang Chau sesame dry cake is famous for being made by the hands of farmers loving the land and gardens. The company must have a production line with modern technology such as flour beater, steamer, cake dryer ... will more or less affect the traditional flavour. In addition, a model of a small furnace will promote the "secret" of each individual in creating the unique flavour of the cake village, contributing to the diversity of the culinary culture here.

Nevertheless, one of the great worries for traditional baking in Quang Chau these days is probably not only how to keep the flavour like in the old days in modernizing production but also in finding the heir since this profession is hard work in tandem with requiring perseverance and a long life with the profession.

While most young people today tend to head to the city to look for jobs, only the elderly work over the clock for keeping a traditional cake brand in the countryside consisting. It is hoped that when bamboo grows old, the bamboo spout will grow so that this countryside village will be bustling making cakes to welcome Tet every December.

Reporting by NHU HANH- Translating by T.VY