FechTin Go · Vietnam · Food

🐜 Ant-Egg Cake (Banh Trung Kien)

Chewy sticky-rice cakes filled with rich, nutty black ant eggs, wrapped in green fig leaves and steamed — a unique Tay specialty.

Come April and May, when the black ant eggs in the forest are at their plumpest, the Tay people of Bac Kan head into the woods to gather them for cakes. The eggs are sautéed with shallots and fat, then wrapped in upland sticky-rice dough and young fig leaves. This rare seasonal dish is tied to the indigenous knowledge of the highland people.

Flavour: Chewy and fragrant, rich and nutty

Ingredients

• upland sticky-rice flour
• black ant eggs
• fig leaves
• fried shallots
• pork fat