16 October 2011 / leggypeggy

Sesame rice crackers—a status symbol in Vietnam

It all starts with sifting the sesame seeds.

We had a few days in Hoi An, on Vietnam’s central coast. It’s a lovely quaint town, known for great shopping. In 24 hours or less, they’ll make all the clothes and shoes you can possibly ever need. But if traipsing from shop to shop isn’t tempting, it can be a challenge to find enough things to do to fill several days.

Poor John and I are great wanderers and spent two days enjoying the picturesque streets and buildings. Because we try to avoid going up and down the same street too many times, we headed across a small bridge to the An Hoi islet. It has plenty of inviting little streets, and it was down one of these that we encountered the sesame rice cracker factory.

I was gobsmacked and in heaven. Nothing quite like a new food adventure to get me snapping pictures and asking questions. It all started when I saw the crackers spread out for their first drying. Then I saw two women sifting sesame seeds. Then I stopped in my tracks and tried to take it all in. Finally, we went through the main gate and managed to give ourselves a mini tour of the ‘factory’. Everyone, every step of the way, was completely welcoming.

Although no one spoke English, it was easy enough to get the gist of what was happening. The seeds are sifted. A thin batter is made and the seeds are stirred in. Batter is then ladled on to a griddle and cooked quickly on both sides—sort of like a crepe. The fires for this stage of cooking are heated by sawdust that is constantly being shovelled in by the cook.

Once cooked, the wafers are then spread out on what looks like old screen doors. I have no idea how long these discs are allowed to dry, but we arrived around 4pm and a woman was bringing some in. It was a brilliantly sunny day and perhaps she had been doing that once an hour since morning. The semi-dried discs are then brought to another area where they are browned on both sides over a charcoal fire. There were fans blowing on the fires and the cooks, either to keep the fires hot or the cooks cool.

The finished crackers are then bagged—with bags holding anywhere from 5 to perhaps 50 pieces. Sales were wholesale and I saw a few people buying numerous large bags. As an indication of our thanks, we bought a bag of 20 for the bargain price of 40,000 dong or $2.

We walked back to Hoi An, with Poor John carrying the goodies, and almost immediately it was obvious that I might as well have hung a sign around his neck that read ‘This man is a hero’.

There were smiles, waves and thumbs-up from every direction—all focused on Poor John. Locals who spoke English called out ‘Oh, you have been to An Hoi’. Others stopped to chat and explain how the crackers are used—among other things, it is an important ingredient in Hoi An’s famous soupy noodle dish, Cao Lao. We went into a bookstore and a staff member there rushed to show us a Vietnamese cookbook with another recipe calling for these crackers. Of course, I bought the book.

In several kilometres, I don’t think there was a single local who saw us who didn’t acknowledge this purchase in some way. As we walked, I also noticed that not a single shop was selling sesame rice crackers. An Hoi must be the primary source, so it must be a real novelty when a tourist tracks down the factory and makes a purchase. Even the women at reception in our hotel were impressed.

We each ate a few crackers, which are slightly sweet, for breakfast the next two mornings, and gave the last of the package to the women at reception when we checked out. No sense ruining these delicious morsels by cramming them in a suitcase.

The one thing that surprised me when we carried the crackers back from the factory was that, in spite of the huge interest shown by locals, not one foreigner asked us what they were or where we got them. It’s true they looked a bit like poppadoms. But I haven’t seen poppadoms anywhere in South-East Asia, so I’d have been compelled to ask anyway.

The slideshow (starting with the women sifting sesame seeds) is in the order of the steps described above. Because I found the whole process so interesting, sometimes I have posted more than one photo of each step. It makes me hungry to watch. Hope I can track down a decent recipe when I get home. If I do, I’ll post it here.

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