Located about 60 km far from Ho Chi Minh city, Trang Bang – a small town of Tay Ninh province has a lot of specialty foods such as cashew candy, green rice flakes, dew-wetted rice paper and soup cake. Soup cake is one of Vietnamese rice noodle soups with thick noodles, flavorful broth and various toppings. Recipes are different, they depend on local products and preferences. In Mekong Delta, soup cake’s broth cooked from whole duck is gelatinous, rice noodles has rectangle cylinder shape, toppings are duck meat, guts, blood pudding with sticky rice. In Hue, they cook soup cake with crab, toppings are crab, shrimp and fish pie. In Tay Ninh, Trang Bang soup cake or Banh canh Trang Bang is famous for clear broth, delicious toppings (boiled pork slices, blood pudding, pork leg, culantro, ground black pepper) and special thick cylindrical noodles.
The broth is cooked from pork bones, pork legs, carrot, daikon and jicama. Squid, shrimp, shallots, onions are grilled, then put into a cloth strainer and added into the broth’s pot to add more flavor to the broth. The broth must be clear and pleasant, the pork leg’s meat must be tender but not overdone. The noodles of Banh canh Trang Bang is 2 thicker than noodles of Vietnamese roll, Nha Trang rice noodle soup with fish pie, Hanoi kebab rice noodles. They must be white, tender and chewy. Before being served with broth and toppings, noodles should be boiled in boiling water for a half of minute.
Dinners usually order Banh canh Trang Bang with a roll set consisting of tender boiled pork leg slices, chewy dew-wetted rice paper, sweet, sour and hot fish sauce dip with carrot pickles, herbs and vegetables including Tay Ninh forest vegetables. Just wrap all fillings in rice paper, then dip into fish sauce and tuck in. Then use a spoon to sip the broth and eat rice noodles with toppings. Trang Bang soup cake and Dew-wetted rice paper roll are a good couple at any restaurant serving Tay Ninh specialty foods. If you have chance to visit Tay Ninh, do not miss the chance to enjoy these specialties. Or you can also enjoy them in Saigon – a paradise of foods from different regions of Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh city (or Saigon) is a non-sleeping city. While they may not be as bright and shiny as the city is covered by a new coat. It becomes more and more splendid and elegant with twinkle street lights and traffic lines. Why not experience the buzz of Saigon’s nightlife on the back of a Scooter with our Saigon Street Food Tour By Night on Motorbike?
