Experience the process of making Son Doc rice paper.
My Long rice paper craft village
From Ben Tre City, follow Provincial Road 885 to My Thanh Commune, Giong Trom District, home to the famous traditional craft village of My Long rice paper. As soon as you arrive at the craft village, along both sides of the road are rows of rice paper stretched straight out, drying in the sun, connecting from house to house.
With a three-generation tradition of making rice paper, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Huy, Nghia Huan Hamlet, My Thanh Commune, Giong Trom District, said that the rice paper here is made from ingredients such as rice, sugar, salt, sesame and, of course, thick coconut milk. Each bakery has its own secret recipe, but the most important step is still choosing the ingredients: sticky rice and thick coconut milk.
Mr. Huy shared that this job requires "staying up late, waking up early", taking care of the simplest steps. He gave detailed instructions, the pressed coconut milk must be boiled until it is really boiling, really thick. The rice for making the cake is also washed and put into the blender with the coconut milk, then black or white sesame is mixed into the flour so that the cake will be more delicious later. The rice paper oven is handmade, with a large pot of water underneath and a thick but smooth layer of cloth on top. When the water is really boiling, the flour will be poured into each ladle and must be rolled out thinly and evenly over the cloth. As soon as the cake turns clear, it must be taken out into a bamboo tube, then transferred to a woven mat made of coconut leaves (also known as a coconut mat) to be put out in the yard to dry. This is a job that always requires the skillful hands of skilled workers to determine the finished product - round - even - not thick, not thin and not stuck to the mold. Not only that, the rice paper making profession also depends on the weather, so you have to wake up late at night to roll the rice paper in time to dry it in the early morning sun. If there is not enough sun, the rice paper will be tough.
According to Mr. Huy, currently, the most concentrated bakeries are in Nghia Huan Hamlet, My Thanh Commune, Giong Trom District, and have gradually improved techniques and invested in equipment to replace some steps in the manual production process (such as washing rice, grinding flour, making cakes, etc.), in order to reduce human labor, increase output, quality, and design, contributing to increasing people's income. In particular, in addition to the traditional coconut milk cake, the craft village has also created many types of rice paper such as milk and egg yolk rice paper, etc. to meet the tastes of domestic and foreign consumers.
Son Doc rice paper making village
Son Doc rice paper making village is located in Hung Nhuong commune, Giong Trom district. Son Doc rice paper has long been the pride of the local people.
With more than 20 years of experience in making traditional rice paper products, Mr. Cao Minh Tan, Hung Nhuong commune (owner of Hai Sam rice paper establishment) said that the sticky rice used to make rice paper is a type of sticky rice, which is steamed into sticky rice and then pounded with sugar, coconut milk, etc. Previously, the pounding process was usually done by men and young people. Nowadays, the pounding process is less difficult thanks to the support of machines.
“After pounding, the dough will be rolled into a circle and dried in the sun until completely dry. Currently, the rolling process has been switched to rolling by machine to increase productivity and produce more beautiful products with uniform thickness. From there, it meets market demand and increases the competitiveness of the village’s products,” said Mr. Cao Minh Tan.
In addition, rice paper production facilities like Mr. Tan also turn to e-commerce platforms and social networks to market and sell their products. Mr. Tan said that after applying e-commerce, the facility has more customers than before. The "customer file" has increased, so currently Mr. Tan's facility operates continuously and regularly every day, with 20 regular workers and more than 10,000 cakes/day. During the Lunar New Year, the daily production volume increases 3-4 times.
Ms. Phan Thi Kim Phung in Dong Thap said that she was “addicted” to the flavor of Son Doc rice paper during a trip to Ben Tre. After that, she often researched and ordered online to enjoy. According to Ms. Phung, what made her “addicted” was that the rice paper expanded evenly, was crispy and spongy, and had the delicious aroma of coconut milk and sticky rice. When grilled over charcoal, the rice paper expanded 3-4 times larger than its original size.
Conservation and development
According to Secretary of the Giong Trom District Party Committee Nguyen Thai Binh, the rice paper and rice cracker making here is included in the list of National Intangible Cultural Heritage according to Decision No. 4069/QD-BVHTTDL dated October 30, 2018 of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Currently, My Long Rice Paper Cooperative has 150 baking ovens; Son Doc rice cracker with 51 production facilities; many facilities have achieved OCOP product certification, thereby increasing product value, reaching out to the consumer market and penetrating the consumption channel in supermarkets, markets, stores, on e-commerce platforms...
Secretary of the Giong Trom District Party Committee Nguyen Thai Binh said that in order for My Long rice paper and Son Doc rice paper products to continue to develop sustainably, in the coming time, there should be appropriate solutions, determining the scale of production, ensuring the development of craft villages, attracting people to participate in production in the direction of cooperation for mutual development; from time to time, researching the application of technology in the packaging process, improving packaging designs, and linking with product promotion.
In addition to preserving intangible cultural values, Secretary of the Giong Trom District Party Committee Nguyen Thai Binh suggested that it is necessary to develop a production chain linked to green space, clean environment, creating a tourist destination associated with other tourism activities and imbued with its own cultural identity so that visitors to the craft village can enjoy specialty cakes and experience the cake production process. This will certainly be an interesting activity for visitors when visiting the traditional craft villages of "My Long rice paper" and "Son Doc rice paper" in the coming time. At the same time, it is necessary to maintain and promote this festival every year at the appropriate time, combined with promotional activities, product consumption, and associated with honoring activities in the form of recognizing artisans of the craft village, based on specific and public recognition criteria and regulations, towards honoring typical artisans.
Article and photos: Chuong Dai
Source: https://baodongkhoi.vn/giu-lua-lang-nghe-truyen-thong-tram-nam-27062025-a148788.html
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