My friends from around the country who normally visit Hue city City usually call me in advance to take them to enjoy banh beo (rice cake) in Hue style prepared in small bowls.

Why does this rustic and simple food have such a strong attraction on people? Well, to enjoy delicious banh beo, diners should come to a small alley next to An Dinh Palace at the corner of Nguyen Hue and Phan Dinh Phung streets or to Ba Do or Huong Cay food shops on Nguyen Binh Khiem Street.

These shops are popular to diners. Shop owners prepare cake-making materials and start cooking once customers order food. That’s why diners always have a chance to savor hot and freshly-made cakes.

Banh beo is made from two main ingredients including rice powder and shrimp. To make the cake, people usually combine rice powder and nang powder with water to make it chewy. Then people wait for five hours to steam the mixture. After that, they put some cooking oil into small bowls, put on a steam cooker and pour powder mixture inside these bowls. A good cake should be steamed from 8 to 10 minutes.

Shrimp will be ground with spices and then fried with cooking oil. Eateries will put shrimp on the surface of the rice cake bowl and other ingredients including fried onion and pigskin. Banh beo is served to guests with a special sauce made from shrimp broth, fish sauce and fresh chilies.