Hà Giang stone cake is a cake dish traditional to the Dao ethnic group in the mountainous region of Hà Giang and is a specialty that many tourists love when visiting here. Today, let’s join Kitchen tips to learn about Hà Giang stone cake and discover a few ways to prepare dishes from stone cake.
1 What is Ha Giang stone cake?
Origin of the name
Stone cake, also known as “lua khoai” (as called by the local ethnic group), is a traditional cake of the Dao ethnic group and a specialty of the rocky mountainous region of Ha Giang.
Since ancient times, stone cake has become an indispensable dish during important occasions throughout the year such as festivals, weddings, and new rice celebrations,… and often appears in the daily meals of the Dao ethnic group in Dong Van district.
Today, thanks to the development of tourism, this traditional cake has become more widely known and gradually turned into a unique specialty that evokes nostalgia for many tourists exploring Ha Giang.
The name “stone cake” is believed to originate from the shape of the cake and its hard, stone-like texture when it is not yet used for cooking dishes.
How to make stone cake
Traditional stone cake is made from glutinous rice or fragrant ordinary rice right after harvesting. The process of making stone cake blocks is also quite elaborate.
Accordingly, the ordinary rice must be soaked in water for 4 – 6 hours to swell, then drained, and only then can it be ground into a fine powder. To give the stone cake various colors, locals will use natural coloring ingredients like purple pigweed leaves, butterfly pea flowers, and gac fruit,… to extract color and mix it evenly with the rice flour.
Next, this rice flour will be steamed until soft, then scooped out and kneaded by hand while the dough is still hot until it becomes chewy, and then shaped into cylindrical stone cake blocks about 15 – 20cm long.
The stone cake will be left to cool naturally, then the locals will slice it into round pieces or cut it into long strips.
How to preserve stone cake
In the past, when there were no refrigerators, the local people would preserve stone cake by drying the whole cylindrical cake until the surface became firm, then placing it under a rocky stream. When eating, they would go to the stream to retrieve it.
Nowadays, to meet the demand of buyers from all over the country, many households in Ha Giang have processed stone cake, then packed it in bags and vacuum sealed it, so the preservation time of stone cake will be longer and the cake still maintains its quality when sent to the buyers.
When purchasing vacuum-sealed stone cake, you should store it in the refrigerator to maintain its quality and prevent mold.
2 Suggestions for dishes with stone cake
Ha Giang stone cake can be processed into many different dishes such as grilling over fire, frying, or cooking sweet soup,… Below, TasteVN will suggest some ways to prepare dishes with stone cake.
Fried stone cake
If you have ever tasted Japanese fried rice cake and loved that chewy, fragrant flavor, then try making fried stone cake. You just need to fry the stone cake in a deep frying pan with plenty of oil, grill it over charcoal, or use an air fryer until the surface is golden and crispy.
When eating, you can dip the cake in condensed milk, honey, chili sauce, or enjoy it plain, all are delicious. Fried stone cake will have a crispy outer layer, while the inside is soft and smooth, with a nutty flavor and a light aroma of sticky rice, very tasty.
Stone cake cooked with sweet soup
Thang dền is a sweet soup of the local people and is cooked similarly to the floating rice cake or the glutinous rice cake of the lowland people. If you want to try cooking this unique dish, then cook it with stone cake.
You can cut the stone cake into small pieces or leave it as strands and then boil it until soft, then place it in a bowl, pour in some caramelized sugar water along with a few slices of ginger, and sprinkle some roasted peanuts to complete the dish of caramelized water from stone cake.
Stone cake cooked with noodle soup
Additionally, you can use stone cake instead of noodle strands to enjoy with soup, which is also very delicious. The stone cake strands will have a chewy, fragrant, and delicious texture, making the familiar noodle soup dish more unique and appealing.
Cooking tokbokki with stone cake
Since both tokbokki and stone cake are made from rice flour or glutinous rice flour, you can also substitute stone cake for tokbokki. This will surely be a twist that gives you a surprisingly unique flavor in your tokbokki. Give it a try!
I hope that the information compiled to answer the question “What is Ha Giang stone cake” above will be helpful to you. If you are looking to buy stone cake to try making a dish, don’t miss the suggestions from TasteVN.
