Hue Pancake

HUE PANCAKE

Banh Xeo are Vietnamese savoury pancake made out of rice flour, water, turmeric powder, and sometimes coconut milk (in the Southern regions), stuffed with slivers of fatty pork, shrimp, and bean sprouts and then pan fried. Traditionally, they are served wrapped in mustard leaf, lettuce leaves, and stuffed with mint leaves, basil, fish leaf and/or other herbs, and dipped in a prepared nuoc mam called nuoc cham (Vietnamese fish sauce thinned with water and lemon). In the Central region, the pancake is dipped in a special ‘tuong’ sauce which consists of liver, hoisin sauce and garlic.

Southern style Banh Xeo are larger compared to the small pan-fried versions in the Central regions. Called “banh khoai” or stuffed omelette, today it is one of the best known dishes from the Central region. It made with rice flour and flavoured with cumin, it is fried until deliciously crispy around the edges in pans over charcoal burners. It is filled with little mounds of pounded pork, egg, shrimps, a few bean sprouts and some mashed green beans, and then folded over. To eat it, a piece is broken off with chopsticks and wrap it in fresh mustard greens with fresh herb leaves, slices of green banana and green fig, and dip it in a sauce (called ‘tuong’) which consists of liver, hoisin sauce and garlic.

The fresh herbs, which include the spicy, red-tinged cumin leaf, help to reduce any oiliness in the fried dish, as does the sourness of the banana and fig, which are also digestive aids.

Other variation of banh xeo are banh khoai in Hue city and Nghe An province, banh cang or banh can in South C

entral region, banh khot in Ba Ria – Vung Tau province.

In Cambodian cuisine, there is a similar dish called banh chiao which is derived from Banh Xeo.

Hue Local Foods - Hue Pancake

Hue Local Foods - Hue Pancake

Hue Local Foods - Hue Pancake

Categories: What to Eat