Traditional sweet flavor from North! (Bánh gai)

This is a traditional cake from North Vietnam. I've seen it many many times, whenever I travel to Hà nội, and when I go to a famous shop for bánh cốm (green rice cake), I saw this cake there but by some how I never bought it, or may be I did! Last week I saw it again, many stalls on the streets in Biên Hoà city!
I wonder why? Huge community of Northern people in Đồng Nai ?
This cake always catchs my attention and I don't know why! The way they put 5 cakes in one pack and  the red label on the top? The strange dried light brown banana leaves wrap? Or my curiosity to learn what's exactly inside that wrap?

            Light brown banana leaves wrap looks mysterious!  

              Bánh gai is always in a pack with 5 pieces and eye-catching red label on one side!  

Bánh gai or cake "gai", the name comes from the special powder made from the leaves called" gai" (green ramie). The flavor and the color come from that powder! I did check the picture of green ramie and some information about this plant. To my surprise, gai has been used for fabric production over 6,000 years! Wow!

Open the banana leaves, I found another wrap, smaller, square size, quite thin! Here in Vietnam we call that as a kind of cheat! Look very big, impressive from the outside then when we peel off the leaves, many layers of leaves and a tiny cake inside!

A tiny and in dark green almost black color cake! I was a bit disappointed as I expect it's bigger, the cake!
As far as I remember I probably never ate it before! In Vietnam we have some other similar cakes wrapped in leaves, filled with sweet mung bean...but what I really want to "smell" this time is the flavor from "green ramie'! This flavor is a bit pungent but however that makes cake "gai" special and became the name of the cake!

            Finally I bought a bigger bánh gai in Đồng Nai during my trip to seaside last week!  

              The inside filling is not good as the one below, but the black part is better!  

Made from high quality glutinous rice mixed with special powder from "green ramie", filled with tasty sweet mung bean, stirred-in-sugar winter melon (mứt bí đao) and lotus, bánh gai is the old traditional sweet in our food culture! The preparation requires a lot of works and skill!
It's good cake, but I do wish a bigger in size, filled with more sweet mung bean, lotus, winter melon...and topped with flavorful sesame! It would be nicer!
Famous bánh gai mostly comes from Northern provinces like Hải Dương, Ninh Giang...so please try it when you have a chance to travel there! A flavor from the old days!