Honeycomb cake filled with coconut shreds (bánh bò dừa)

Everyone of us always have something to remember from the childhood.
That "something"could be some people or some place we may never see again! Or something we, at that time, desired to obtain or just simply to taste.
When I was a kid, how much I wished to have a bicycle, and till now I still remember how my father helped me during my first ride on my new bike! It took me an evening to learn the skill!

When I grown up, being a school boy, how much I wished to have enough pocket money to buy some street snacks in front of my school. My mom rarely gave me the pocket money!

In the past it seemed we couldn't find many street snacks as today, they were only few stalls of ready-to-eat fruits, or papaya salad with beef liver, or centella health drink (nước rau má) and one of them was my favorite: honeycomb cake filled with coconut shreds!

               Rare big honeycomb cake, these days instead we find only smaller version! 

 In my mind, I still have a very clear image of the vendor of the honeycomb cake in front of my school. A dark-suntanned, tall, middle-aged man, his harsh face and always with a hat, he should be a Chinese due to the accent.
He was always silently busy to bake the cakes, to fill them with coconut shreds, to display the cakes on the shelf or to cut it into small slices. I aways only had enough money to buy a 1/8 piece of cake, but if someone bought a bigger slice, 1/4, he added more coconut...

             I love the cake texture, soft and flavorful, but specially - sweet coconut shreds! 

I love this honeycomb cake, probably because of the sweet coconut shreds, the soft, flavorful texture of the cake. It look like two parts of the round shape box - the top cover and the bottom. the vendor fills the bottom with coconut shreds and cover it with the top!

             Bánh bò dừa has two covers : top and bottom as a box of round shape! 

I have no idea where is the cake's origin. Some people said Mekong delta, because of coconut fillings...Hard to say as even the today vendors have no exact answers to this question! 

These days by somehow bánh bò dừa is much smaller, not that soft and flavorful as before...but I was lucky to see just by chance a vendor near to An Đông market - he's selling a big honeycomb cake filled with coconut shreds - as the one I used to eat in the past! 

            Filled with coconut shreds, the whole cake costs only 20,000 VND! 

 

Street snacks - my childhood's favorite - Part Three

I think every of us has some favorite snack in our childhood, how much we wish to have, love to eat, and sometime ready to fight for it! 

I remember one evening, when I was about 10 year old, before dinner, I was so upset because my mom didn't allow me to do some kid's things, in tears I said to mom :" I go away, I don't come back!". And I did. But my "go away", my "don't come back" can last only for 15 minutes, where did I go in this 15 minutes ? 

I went to a street hawker near to my parent's house to watch how he prepared "bánh tiêu" (deep fried Chinese donut) on small table and next to him - big pan with boiling oil! At that time I was always surprised how this small dough became a big donut in the oil! To me it's like a magic!

Bánh bò or honeycomb cake 

But we don't eat usually "bánh tiêu" alone, we eat with another also "magical" cake (at least to me!), "bánh bò"! I don't know how to call it in English, but at certain places they call "steamed rice cake" or "honeycomb cake"! Bánh bò literally means "cow cake" (!?) some people said this name comes from its inner texture which resembles beef liver ! Really no idea!

Honeycomb cake with deep fried Chinese donut (bánh tiêu)

Bánh bò made from rice flour, yeast, sugar, sometime with coconut milk or pandan leaf extract. This cake can be steamed or baked! I prefer steamed, less oil! I said magical because so difficult for me to make this cake perfect. It should be soft, fluffy but chewy, nice and smooth texture, nice flavor. Mine is just a disaster!