When the ear cake has just been carried out, still hot, lining the hand with a piece of banana leaf or using plain hand, slowly enjoying is the way to totally feel the taste of the cake which is soft, crispy, buttery, sweet, greasy and good-smelling.
Phu Tho ear cake (banh tai) is anciently Hon cake of Phu Tho village. The cake looks like an ear, made from rice, filled with pork, easy to make because of simple process, unsophisticated tools but not everyone can do.
From past to now, the rice choosing part has been influenced most on the cake quality, the rice must be good and soft. Rice for making cake is clearly washed, soaked in water in about two hours to a haft day. After that, rice is pounded in a rock mortar and made into a block of powder. This action requires people with strong hands who can hold the powder to make it very tightly sticky. Then the block of powder is put in the mortar again to pound it well.
Powder is kneaded until it’s soft enough then people start using hand to form the cakes (without a pattern). The experienced makers can form the equal cakes that like being casted in the pattern. The cake is form to have a similar shape with an ear; pork is used to make the filling. After being shaped, cakes are arranged in the pot steamed water bath. Just after 30 minutes up to one hour, a batch of cake is finished. When making ear cake, people must avoid making the powder clumping (people call this “fish eye”).
Ear cake is most delicious when being eaten right away, in rustic style. When the ear cake has just been carried out, still hot, lining the hand with a piece of banana leaf or using plain hand, slowly enjoying is the way to totally feel the taste of the cake which is soft, crispy, buttery, sweet, greasy and good-smelling.
