Chinese sticky rice cake - "bánh Khuất Nguyên" for Đoan Ngọ festival.

I did notice this "Chinese sticky rice cake" for quite some time as I pass by the store everyday and probably because of my love to our traditional sticky rice cake. We usually call it "bánh ú" (literally "fat cake' due to its "big size", but for special occasion of the 5th of May by Lunar calendar - a Vietnamese version of Chinese Duanwu festival, the festival of the half of a year, they call this "fat cake" either "Bánh bá trạng" or more formally - "Bánh Khuất Nguyên" (after a name of the famous Chinese poet - Qu Yuan)

                   Chinese sticky rice cake or as we call "bánh ú" - the fat cake! 

I intended to buy two but when hearing the price and seeing the size of the cake, I bought only one! It was 60,000 VND for this "fat cake", to me it's quite expensive, with 50,000 VND you can buy our sticky rice "bánh chưng", bigger size and in a better shape!  When the vendor tried to explain to me in his heavy Chinese accent - "normal day we sell at 35,000 VND but today, the 5th of May, it's double because everything expensive!" Ok! I got it!

                       The cake does not have a shape of "pyramid", a typical shape for this kind of cake. 

I saw some other "fat cake" in Singapore, in Bangkok...I would love to try it here, in Saigon. Usually our similar "fat cake" has a "pyramid shape" but this one quite different, a bit flat to me! The Chinese "fat cake" should have at least 7 ingredients: peanut, green bean, Chinese sausage, pork, salted egg, dry shrimp and shiitake mushroom" but the cake I bought - the peanut seems missing and instead of that - there was 3 salted eggs. But without "peanut" I would call the cake I bought - a poor one!

                        It's quite a bit messy, a bit wet inside 

                     I didn't see or tasted any peanut, a must ingredient for this bánh ú bá trạng!

According to some recipe - the most obvious difference of Chinese "fat cake" is the peanut and the long process to prepare it, like to cook the peanut first with some flavourful Chinese medicines, and  it make the peanut tender with special scent! But here I couldn't find any peanut nor Chinese sausage!

                        couldn't find any Chinese sausage! 

                     but many salted eggs 

                   Here we go: at least more than 2 salted eggs, pork, shiitake, dry shrimp, green bean...  

Anyway, the bánh ú bá trạng was not that bad, the wrapped leaves was not too many so the real size of the cake quite ok, the taste was ok, too! But if they keep selling it at 60,000 VND, it's surely not very affordable, when you can have a better bowl of phở at the same price! Ok, let's say it's for Đoan Ngọ festival, but I could come back when they reduce to the normal day price - 35,000 VND!