Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese
Date:         Fri, 22 Jan 1993 11:32:06 EST
              USENET." <VIETNET@USCVM.BITNET>
From:         Son Nguyen <nguyen@AIRMICS.GATECH.EDU>
Subject:      [MISC] IF I WERE THE BA'NH CHU+NG MAKER

Hello Mr. MWC,

Calories and Cholesterol still haunt you, huh? I remember last year you
did bring this subject up on the net, but maybe you were not satisfied
with the responses???

Well, I tell you what:  A hamburger without hamburger meat cannot be
called hamburger.  If you put in it some chicken, they call it chick
sandwich or fillet, etc.

Likewise, a ba'nh chu+ng without those stuffs you've mentioned cannot
be called a ba'nh chu+ng.

I thought if you live in Xa<ng Cha^u Xi` (S.J.), you could have a whole
bunch of all kinds of ba'nh made with all kinds of nha^n (nhu+n),
so-called ba'nh U', ba'nh i'ch (i't). I mean inside plastic wrap you
will find banana leaf, inside banana leaf you will find sweet rice, and
inside sweet rice you can find nhu+n, including mu+`ng bean (Tha'i
grean beans) and/or banana, black bean, or even peanut too, ect., you
name it. If depends on what you buy, and sometime it might surprise you
because you've bought the wrong one.

I love the one with nhu+n of peanut nut (not peanut butter).  They sell
it in Atlanta.

If you're afraid of ba'nh chu+ng, don't eat it.  Give them to the
homeless Vietnamese, if there is any.

I thought that you already became a millionaire now, since the time you
got your brightest idea of inventing new "diet ba'nh"?

Well, I wish you won't be the same next year.  I mean richer, not
fatter.


Tu+. Ro

P.S. I love to try ba'nh with nhu+n of oyster and claim.  I love
seafood too.

 >
 > Every year when it's new year time, we receive at least a dozen ba'nh
 > chu+ng from our friends and relatives.  When we come to relatives to
 > wish them well, they invite us ba'nh chu+ng.  So we just keep our half
 > a dozen ba'nh chu+ng in the freezer and wouldn't eat them until...August
 > or September !
 >
 > I ponder over the legend of ba'nh chu+ng and learn that it was created
 > by the youngest son of King Vu`ng Vu+o+ng VI.  According to this legend,
 > it is made of sweet rice, then the most precious food, in the shape of
 > a rectangular.  The legend never mentions that it consists of pork fat.
 > Being so concious about my 90-60-90 figure, I hate this ingredient.  And
 > being a very good and creative cook (as often complimented by nha` to^i)
 > I wonder why they don't replace pork with chicken, beef, fish, or turkey.
 > I don't know why don't put less salt in ba'nh chu+ng for those
 > diabetic people or just fruits for vegetarians.  They could put lobsters,
 > clam, oysters for seafood lovers.  Or they could have ba'nh chu+ng tha^.p
 > ca^?m for those always want everything with tha^.p ca^?m.  They could
 > make sweet rice cake for those who don't like salty food.  That way,
 > when you go shopping, you will have to stop by the rice cakes counter for
 > a long time, wondering which ones to buy.  Now, it's just a matter of
 > how many to buy.  That takes the fun out of shopping !
 > Being so curious, I actually ask the rice cake maker at Hong Kong super-
 > market in San Jose.  She stares at me for awhile like I came from Mars
 > and asks me "are you Chinese ?".  She appears to me as an ODP person so
 > I guess she does not know much about marketting.  If only she knew about
 > that, I figure she could make a lot, I mean a lot more money.  After
 > the Gulf war, Americans are so patriotic.  They would buy any thing with
 > the label "Made in USA".  If she would print "Made in USA" in red white
 > and blue over the rice cake, I bet that it would sell like hot cakes !
 > Americans would stand up in lines waiting to try our Vietnamese ba'nh
 > chu+ng.  Hmm, what an idea !
 >
 >
 >