Delicacy of Hà Nội’s autumn

By Lê Hương

Young sticky rice is a delicacy of Hà Nội’s autumn, from which many popular dishes have been created and which can be seen being eaten as a snack on the streets of the capital.

Villagers in Mễ Trì Village on the western outskirts of Hà Nội have handed down the ancient ways of creating the dish over many generations.

Both old and young people have their ways to develop the products and reach further markets.

So autumn is a busy season in Mễ Trì Village.

At that time, the autumn sticky rice begins to mature and villagers harvest the young grains of rice to make this delicacy – green riceflakes or cốm in Vietnamese.

Young sticky rice can be eaten fresh as a snack. VNS Photo Hoàng Lan

The soft fragrant young rice can be eaten fresh on its own, wrapped in a leaf, or processed into other dishes like bánh cốm (sweet sticky rice cake), xôi cốm (steamed young sticky rice), cốm xào (sweetened stir-fried young rice), chả cốm (pork with young rice nugget) and mochi cốm (Japanese-style mochi with young rice).

Picture shows several kinds of cakes made of cốm. VNS Photo Hoàng Lan

Making cốm is a craft that has been handed down for hundreds of years, with more than 120 families in the village still preserving this cultural heritage.

Nguyễn Thị Tuyết, an elderly villager, has followed in the steps of her parents and grandparents, helping preserve the ancient craft to secure stable jobs and good income for her family.

In peak season between the 7th lunar month and 10th lunar month (about August to November), her family work for long hours every day from 12am till late at night.

Nguyễn Thị Tuyết is sieving roasted rice grains to make cốm. VNS Photo Lê Hương

Cốm making includes multiple working stages: harvesting young rice from the field, pulling off seeds from rice ears, roasting the grains of rice, removing hulls from them to get green soft rice.

“This job is hard,” Tuyết told Việt Nam News. “The most challenging task is roasting the grains to the point where you have to decide whether the final product is good or not. If the rice is not well roasted, the taste will fail.”

She said a secret her family has is to chose the best time to harvest the rice when its grain is not fully ripen. That means when being roasted the grain will keep its moisture inside to create softness and sweet flavour for the final cốm product.

Tuyết pours green sticky rice grains into a big pan to roast. VNS Photo Lê Hương

Tuyết said she wanted to keep the craft for her family, as it has been handed down by her ancestors.

“We have tried our best to keep it the way it has always been,” she said. “Cốm has been a delicacy of Hà Nội for very long time."

More and more younger people have also being developed their brand names for new and interesting cốm products.

A wood stove is used for roasting young grains of rice. VNS Photo Lê Hương

Tạ Đắc Nam, a young cốm maker, said: “I remember when I was small, my dad woke me up early and took me to the field. My dad cut the rice, while I caught grasshoppers. I never forget that memory, and now I’m determined to follow this job.”

Nam said at present, many machines save human labour, but important processing steps still depend on an artisanal touch.

“I want to introduce more products from cốm to the market,” he said. “The demands are high and include products like beer and wine brewed from cốm.”

Nam now advertises his Cốm Kim brand name on various social channels including TikTok and Instagram.

Cốm Mộc Lam is also a popular brand offering various products from cốm to domestic customers and Vietnamese living overseas.

Vũ Thị Phúc, founder of the brand, confirmed that young people like her have many advantages in terms of developing far away markets.

“We have young power,” she said. “We approach customers in more diverse and flexible ways.

“We use 4.0 technology to sell on multiple platforms. We sit here in the village to sell our products to clients across, even outside the country,” she said.

Phúc’s biggest problem is offering reasonable prices, while being able to pay salaries for her staffers.

Vũ Thị Phúc prepares cốm products for her customers. VNS Photo Lê Hương

The village’s cốm product is not just a delicacy of Hà Nội’s autumn, it has an important role to play in preserving Vietnamese cuisine culture.

“I have worked as a chef for many years,” said culinary expert Vũ Thị Hà.

“Hà Nội’s autumn is the season of young rice, which has been a favourite delicacy of Hanoians for such a long time. There have been many kinds of dishes made of young rice so now in Vietnamese cuisine, dishes from young rice have been much improved.”

Hà said she had brought several dishes made of young rice to other countries, where overseas Vietnamese and foreigners liked them very much.

The ancient craft of making cốm in the village has been listed as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage by the culture ministry. VNS