If rice is Viet Nam’s staple crop, xoi (sticky rice) is the nation’s choice dish, as much as the famous pho (rice noodle soup), if not more so.
Five colours: Xi ngu sac used to be serve on special occasions earlier, but is a daily dish in the northern region now. – Photo: Monan9.com
It
is a breakfast favourite, and the most popular late night-early dawn snack or
meal.
It
is sold by vendors in early morning markets and it can be found in fanciest
restaurants serving traditional Vietnamese food.
There
are any number of specialty xoi restaurants, as well as push carts that stand
on street corners or bicycles that go around the streets well past midnight,
long after restaurants and other eateries have closed.
Xoi,
as the name suggests, is made with glutinous rice, steamed or cooked. There are
those who love having this regularly for breakfast and those who have it at any
time of the day or night, but almost every Vietnamese will have it at least
once a month.
But
xoi is not one dish. There are many varieties, each with its distinct taste,
colour and/or flavour.
Food
expert Vo Quoc, head of Mon Ngon Restaurant and Cooking Class, said: “Each
region has its own (collection of) xoi dishes. Vegans and vegetarians can enjoy
xoi with muối vừng (ground sesame and peanuts) or sugar, while others have a
wide range of meat choices, including xôi thịt kho tàu (sticky rice with
Chinese braised pork) and xôi with liver pate, sausage, fried eggs, char siu,
chickens or roasted piegons.”
On
full moon days, New Year holidays, weddings, death anniversaries and other
occasions, xôi is a must-have dish on the feast’s platters.
The
ways to make sticky rice depend on the variety, family recipes or individual
creativity that housewives bring into play.
However,
the most popular method is to soak the glutinous rice in warm water for many
hours until it expands; wash and mix the rice with a little salt and other
ingredients separately; place them in an autoclave (called chõ in the north and
xửng in the south); pour boiling water into the bottom of the autoclave and
place it on a pot so that the ingredients are steamed without touching the
water.
Later,
the sealed autoclave and the pot are placed on a stove and boiled over low heat
until the sticky rice is well-cooked and limber.
Now,
busy women use electric rice cookers with the steaming function, but the
majority preference is for xôi cooked the traditional way.
Meaty: Sticky rice with char siu and roasted chicken. — Photo: Afamily.com
Most popular
Xôi
đậu xanh (green bean sticky rice) is one of the most popular xôi dishes because
it can be served with many different ingredients, including meat. Since it is
easy to cook, it is a popular choice among housewives as well.
This
dish is made by chafing the green beans (mung beans), soaking them in water for
around five hours (often left overnight), hulling (or not), mixing them with
glutinous rice, and steaming them in an autoclave.
Other
popular xoi varieties include xoi xeo (turmeric flavoured sticky rice served with
powdered green beans and topped with fried shallots), xoi lac (sticky rice with
peanuts), xoi ngo (stick rice with corn) and xoi dau den (sticky rice with
black beans).
Another
reason for its popularity is that while it is very tasty, it is also healthy,
starched but not fatty.
Getting colourful
Xoi
ngu sac (five-coloured sticky rice) is usually made by several ethnic minority
communities, in the northern region.
The
five colours of the dish symbolise five elements: yellow is the colour of land;
green the colour of wood; red, fire; white, metal; and black, water. These
communities have their own secrets, using different herbs and wild vegetables
to dye the sticky rice and create these colours.
In
the past, xoi ngu sac was only served on important occasions like festivals,
ceremonies and weddings. It has become a very popular daily dish now, and a
marker of the host’s hospitality.
For
making the red-coloured sticky rice, the bright red flesh of the ripe gac
(spiny bittergourd or cochinchin gourd) fruit is used. This fruit has been
traditionally used as both food and medicine in Viet Nam.
Turmeric
is used to make the yellow sticky rice, la cam (a herb) for purple, the ash of
burned ginger leaves for black, and the pandan leaf for green. The glutinous
rice is soaked in water mixed with the above ingredients.
Combos galore: Xoi (sticky rice) is a common food served with a wide variety of accompaniments. — Photo: Courtesy Homecook BB Restaurant
Sticking with chicken
Xoi
ga (chicken sticky rice) is particularly liked in the central region. Visitors
to Da Nang, Hoi An and Hue also favour this dish because it is delicious and
can be packed easily.
The
dish is fatty and nutritious. Chicken is boiled with a pinch of turmeric. The
chicken broth is then used to cook the glutinous rice, giving the rice its
yellow colour and its butter taste.
The
boiled chicken is shredded by hand into thin slices and mixed with salt,
pepper, sliced onions and Vietnamese mint. The dish is finally topped with
scallion oil.
This
is a balanced dish, with protein from the chicken, lipid from the chicken
broth, starch from glutinous rice and vitamins from herbs and the accompanying
salad.
Meaty variety
Xoi
man is a southern treat, favoured again for its taste, nutritional values and
affordable prices.
“Man”
means salty, literally, but here it means savory, distinguish it from the
several sweet sticky rice recipes.
This
is a hearty all-in-one meal with sticky rice and various kinds of meat
including lap suon (Chinese sausage), shredded chicken, liver pate, char siu,
ruoc or cha bong (dried shredded pork/chicken), and dried shrimp.
Nguyen
Ha Ngan, 26, a HCM City resident, said she can eat sticky rice for breakfast,
lunch, dinner and as a late-night snack because of its taste and convenience.
It’s also cheap, she said. She can fill her stomach with a VND20,000 portion
(US$0.9).
“My
favourite xoi shop is located on the ground floor of the Ba Chieu Market which
remains open from afternoon until midnight,” she said.
Sticky
rice here is served with char siu and roasted chicken which is tender, juicy
and flavourful.
The
dish is topped with scallion oil and a special sauce made by the seller herself
from juice extracted during the process of roasting the chicken. This
particular secret recipe involves a special way of mixing it with green chili
slices.
Although
styrofoam boxes and plastic is used to pack xoi now, most of the individual
sellers, in the morning in particular, offer the choice of getting your xoi fix
in a banana leaf, which adds an extra flavour to the dish.
Central preference: Sticky rice with chicken and salad is popular in central region. - Photo: Monngon.vn
By Minh Thu/VietNamNet Bridge