You might be asking, what is Bánh Căn? Bánh Căn is a popular street food in Vietnam, made of rice flour and various toppings, usually shrimp, squid, eggs, or pork, and baked using a stone oven inside molds. (shown below)
You don’t really need to buy (or make) these stone furnaces/ovens to make Bánh Căn, but I would definitely recommend it if you want to get the best taste and texture. It’s kind of like having a takoyaki pan, except a little more extreme, but similar in that you rarely use it and you have it for the “just in case”. Substitute it with something with a small circular mold if you don’t want to go the extra mile (you wuss).
ex: pan
Ingredients!
- Preparing the Batter
- Soak rice in water for around 8 hours or longer, then take cooked rice and half of the soaked rice amount in water and blend it all together.
- Toppings
- shrimp, squid, beaten eggs, or slices of pork, go wild with it, anything that you think would fit and taste good.
- Sauce
- There are various sauces that can be used to dip your crunchy, soft, and savory disc in but I’ll be teaching you a basic Nuoc Cham (translates to dipping liquid) that is available at every street food vendor selling Bánh Căn:
- fish sauce
- lime juice
- sugar
- water
- chili peppers
- Everyone has their own measurements and proportions to making their Nuoc Cham, so just mess around with it until you get something that adds a heck ton of dimensions to your basically unseasoned rice pancake.
- Scallion Oil
- Just take a neutral oil like canola or vegetable and barely heat it in a pan, and add chopped green onions and then let it cool. Bam! Easy. We will be garnishing with this after they are done cooking.
Steps!
- Preheat your cooking vessel until its really hot
- Pour your batter in and cover and let it cook until the outside is cooked, but the inside is still liquidy
- Add your topping, then cover and let cook fully.
- Scrap that bad boy out, garnish with some scallion oil, let cool and eat! (Dipping sauce mandatory)
My family is from Phan Rang, a city that is the capital of the Ninh Thuận Province in Vietnam. I went to go visit over the summer, where I went to a lot of historic sites, beaches, and tourist spots. But what I found most memorable of my trip were the local restaurants and very busy streets filled with motorcycles that make it hard to cross the streets as a New Yorker where there are crosswalks and traffic lights on every block. Something that I will never forget is eating at the restaurant where my Grandpa had eaten everyday. Waking up early to get there before they sold out, motorcycling past the beaches and buildings that are still in-progress of being built, and the wind on my face that makes the 90 degrees Fahrenheit weather manageable, and ordering 4 different types of Bánh Căn, the only thing that they sell there. No tourists in sight, and just a few people that share the same sentiment as my grandpa, that this is the best place to get Bánh Căn.
