bánh tét — Vietnam

Bánh tét is a Vietnamese cake of glutinous rice rolled inside a banana leaf into a thick cylinder, filled with mashed mung bean and a strip of pork, then boiled in water for a long stretch until the rice turns dense and slightly translucent. Once cooked and cooled, the leaf is peeled away and the cylinder is cut crosswise into rounds. The cake is reported from across Vietnam, with savory pork and mung bean versions widely made, alongside sweeter versions filled with banana in some regions. It is closely tied to festive and family occasions, when several cakes are typically rolled and boiled together in a large pot. To prepare it, soaked glutinous rice is seasoned with salt, and split mung beans are cooked soft and lightly seasoned, while strips of pork belly are marinated with shallot, pepper, salt and fish sauce. Banana leaves are laid flat and layered with rice, mung bean, pork and more mung bean and rice, then rolled tightly into a cylinder, tied with string, and boiled in a large pot of water for several hours, with water topped up as it evaporates. The proportion of filling to rice and the exact spicing of the pork mark the main differences between households and regions: some cooks favor a generous, well-seasoned pork layer, while others keep the mung bean the dominant flavor. Sweet, banana-filled versions swap the savory filling for banana and sometimes coconut, but the rolled leaf, the cylindrical shape and the long boil remain shared across bánh tét of every kind.