FLAT RICE OF SOC TRANG PROVINCE
No one knows exactly when flat rice has existed, only knowing that when growing up, the sweet and fragrant taste of flat rice has become very familiar.
When the rain has just stopped, and the gentle wind stretches the first rice flowers, the Khmer people will race to pick glutinous rice flowers to make nuggets to offer as a gift at the beginning of the year. In order to have a delicious batch of rice nuggets, one must choose carefully the kind of delicious sticky rice at the beginning of the season. The selected glutinous rice must be the type of sticky rice with long, fragrant, flexible, red-tailed, freshly harvested seeds. Select the largest seeds and roast them evenly on a hot pan until the glutinous rice seeds are peeled and fragrant. Every once in a while, the crackling explosion is quick to pour right into the mortar. The sticky rice must be pounded with a double pestle, the more evenly, the stronger it is, the more likely it is that the seeds will peel off quickly. After pounding the nuggets, pour out the rice husks and crumbs, keeping only the thin, large, and shiny green nuggets.
According to the artisans, the profession of making flat rice has existed for a long time and has been maintained and developed to this day. However, there are no documents specifically recording this traditional profession, and this profession of making flat rice develops in the form of "hereditary" and continues to be handed down to this day.
In the past, Khmer people often eat flat rice with roasted shrimp or mixed flat rice with banana to make sure their stomach is firm. Nowadays, there are more ways to make flat rice such as "banh tet" (a special sticky rice cake, popular in the Mekong Delta region), flat rice cooked with tea, flat rice rolled with shrimp, fried nuggets… but the best is still mixing flat rice with grated coconut, a little coconut water, and granulated sugar. White. On average, with about 1kg of flat rice, it will be mixed with a grated browned coconut, coconut water, and 0.5kg of sugar. People will use a large bowl to mix flat rice with sugar and pour coconut water into it for about 30 minutes for coconut water and sugar to penetrate evenly into the nuggets, when the nuggets are a bit soft, they can be used. Before serving, sprinkle a little more grated coconut, crushed roasted peanuts or sesame seeds will increase the attractiveness and fatness of the flat rice dish. If you want to eat for a long time or give it as a gift to relatives and friends far away, people will often pack pre-mixed nuggets in banana leaves, coconut leaves like banh tet or coconut cakes, and then cook or steam them. At that time, we have flat, delicious, and strange banh tet compared to normal banh tet.
In the past, most Khmer families only knew how to pound flat rice to make offerings to the moon, then give it to neighbors or treat friends as a folk gift. But today, the sweet and fragrant taste of flat rice has made it a specialty, an indispensable gift when tourists come to Soc Trang, there have appeared more villages making flat rice to serve tourists. calendar. These include areas such as Phu Tan (Chau Thanh district), Dai Tam (My Xuyen district), Chau Hung (Thanh Tri district) ...
Especially, Phuoc Quoi craft village, Phu Tan district has existed for nearly a century. Every day, starting from 2 am to 8 am and in the afternoon from 1 pm to 6 pm, households in Phuoc Quoi craft village will work together at home or work for large nuggets. The stages to make finished products, although simple but very laborious, require workers to have health and flexibility to be able to hold the pestle, because each pestle weighs nearly 10 kg, and everyday nuggets have to give up 40-60 kg of nuggets. Every day of such work, workers will earn over 100,000 VND/day. Thanks to the development of this specialty dish, many households in Soc Trang now also have a stable income, become well off even though they have to stay up late, get up early, and spend a lot of effort when working.
In the process of integration and development today, traditional craft villages are receiving more attention from the authorities. Besides a number of establishments still operating in the traditional manual style, there are also a number of establishments that have begun to invest in modern machinery and equipment to increase production productivity, increase output, and reduce labor costs. labor and costs to increase profits. On the other hand, it is necessary to have more projects and plans from agencies and departments to promote tourism development in association with local traditional craft villages in order to preserve and promote the cultural values of the country. Khmer people in Soc Trang.