HCMC – Banh cong, or Vietnamese fried shrimp cake, is a rustic specialty typical of the Khmer ethnic people in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang.
Banh cong, a kind of shrimp cakes, is actually a dish of the Khmer ethnic people in My Xuyen District, Soc Trang Province. The dish has over time become popular across the Mekong Delta as well as some other localities in Vietnam.
The main ingredients of the dish are rice flour, mung beans, shrimps, and minced pork. The preparation decides how tasty the dish is. First, selected fragrant rice is soaked in water for two days and then ground into flour with a little amount of salty water. Mung beans are also soaked in water before being cooked until they become soft.
The dish’s filling includes minced pork, mung beans and eggs. Minced pork will be stir-fried with shallots chopped up to make the filling have a pleasant smell. According to some local cooks, the fried shrimp cake will be more delicious if they use shallots grown in the coastal commune of Vinh Chau in the province.
The cake mold is filled with a mixture of rice flour, mung beans, stir-fried minced pork with shallots and topped with more rice flour and a big shrimp. The whole mold is then dipped in boiling oil. When these cakes turn crispy and swell, they are ready to serve diners. The right way is wrapping a shrimp cake in a big leaf of lettuce. Next add herbs and then dip the whole thing in sweet and sour fish sauce. Enjoy!
