In Bac Lieu, there is a rustic snack that has been elevated to a specialty, which is Ngan Dua silkworm cake. The ingredients are simple and familiar, but to have a delicious cake, it also requires the ingenuity of the maker. Silkworm cake (Thick Noodles & Creamy Coconut Milk) carries the quintessence of Bac Lieu agricultural products with a rather sophisticated processing, strange but attractive taste. Visitors can encounter and enjoy silkworm cakes found in many western provinces, but to enjoy the true quality of silkworm cakes, you have to go to Ngan Dua town, Bac Lieu.

By Thomas Vietnam at vemekong.com | All Best Foods & Restaurants in Bac Lieu

1. Better to Know as a Food Lover

Find them: Bac Lieu city.

Best time: Dusk-Dawn

Don’t miss: Bac Lieu Thick Noodles & Creamy Coconut Milk

Local’s pick: Bac Lieu Thick Noodles & Creamy Coconut Milk restaurant in Bac Lieu City

Tourist’s pick: Co Nhan Bac Lieu Thick Noodles & Creamy Coconut Milk restaurant

Blog: https://vemekong.com/thick-noodles-creamy-coconut-milk-bac-lieu/

Facts: It is called silkworm cake because according to folklore, the yarn is handmade from rice flour, with different lengths that are beautiful and white, shaped like silkworms, which is a famous cake in Ngan dua town. Therefore, it is called Ngan Dua Silkworm cake.

2. Better to Know Bac Lieu Thick Noodles & Creamy Coconut Milk

In order to have silkworm cake, which is always pure white, cool and shiny, it must be made from the most delicious rice in Bac Lieu. People bring rice to soak for about 3 nights and then grind it, mix the ground powder with dilute salt water and then soak it for another two nights. Finally, there is the stirring stage, also known as the paste, which determines the specific flavor of the silkworm cake. Thanks to habits, skills and long-term experience, silkworm cake makers will know how to stir the dough properly, too hard, the cake will be easily broken, if the dough is too soft, the cake will be sticky and mushy.

Silkworm cakes must be eaten by hand to be true silkworm cakes. Because of using a hand, the stalks of the cake are uneven, of small sizes, of different lengths and lengths. It is because of this rudiment that the cake has its own soul, the diners who eat it also feel the special thing that the molded cakes do not have.

3. Bac Lieu Thick Noodles & Creamy Coconut Milk in Bac Lieu

Ngan Dua silkworm cake is a rustic snack but full of essential nutrients, many diners and people of Bac Lieu use it as a main meal when they are busy or want to change their taste. Silkworm cake has all 3 main nutritional groups: starch, vitamins, fiber from green vegetables and protein, fat from meat and pork skin. The main ingredients are mixed with a typical sauce from coconut milk, fish sauce mixed with sweet and sour spices in a unique way of Bac Lieu people. All are the perfect combination for this simple dish that will satisfy any diners who have the opportunity to enjoy.

The special thing about Ngan Dua silkworm cake is that it is served with sweet, greasy coconut milk and spicy fish sauce. The two flavors are opposite, but when combined, they create a strange mouth-watering taste. In the dish, there are also shumai balls made from bacon and pork liver. This unique combination makes the eater feel strange. Those who eat it for the first time will feel a bit different, but once they get used to it, they still want to enjoy it again and again.

Silkworm cake has a place to eat with a bowl like grilled pork vermicelli, but eating silkworm cake in Ngan Dua in Bac Lieu must be with a deep plate to be of the right quality. Because the plate is wide, diners will be able to see each ingredient of the dish such as cucumber, salad, bean sprouts, herbs, silkworm cake, skin, shumai, sauce…

Ngan Dua silkworm cake is delicious and famous, but the interesting thing is that visitors will enjoy this cake at simple, roadside shops, with sincere and simple service of the people. Although rarely appearing in luxury restaurants, it is the closeness and rusticity of silkworm cake that makes visitors love and remember Bac Lieu forever.

Perhaps with a long-standing wet-rice agriculture, our people create delicious dishes from dear rice grains. The North has pho, the South has noodle soup and the West has silkworm cake. Only from that familiar ingredient, Ngan Dua, Bac Lieu silkworm cake has conquered many diners. If going to Ngan Dua, no one tells anyone, most tourists will find and enjoy the special silkworm cake.

4. How to Make Bac Lieu Thick Noodles & Creamy Coconut Milk

Ingredients for making silkworm cake

200g rice flour

50g tapioca flour

50g glutinous rice flour

300ml coconut milk

1 tablespoon cornstarch

150g pork skin (boiled)

300g lean shoulder meat

Minced red onion, minced garlic, minced chili, lime juice, coconut water

150g of rice

Seasoning: Salt, seasoning, fish sauce, white sugar….

How to make silkworm cake

Step 1: Knead the dough

Mix rice flour, glutinous rice flour and tapioca flour together. Then, slowly pour the prepared boiling water into the dough, stir well, then knead with your hands until the mixture is uniform, smooth and does not stick to your hands.

When finished, take a sufficient amount of flour to put in the palm of your hand, then use your hands to form strands just to eat.

Note, you should cover with a little flour so that the cake fibers do not stick together.

Step 2: Boil the cake

Put the pot of water on the stove, when the water boils, drop the cake fibers in. We will boil them until they float on the surface and the dough turns clearer, then take it out and put it in a bowl of ice water right away.

Step 3: Make the sauce

First, add about 30ml of water to the cornstarch, stir until completely dissolved. Then, put the pot on the stove, add the cornstarch, coconut milk and ½ teaspoon salt mixture. Finally, cook until the mixture boils and thickens, then turn off the heat. So that’s done.

Step 4: Make the envelope

First, wash the lean shoulder meat, then marinate it with minced shallot, 1 teaspoon minced garlic, ½ teaspoon sugar, 1 teaspoon seasoning, 1 teaspoon pepper and 1 tablespoon fish sauce. Mix well and let stand for 10-15 minutes.

Heat a pan with cooking oil, when the oil is hot, add the meat and fry until golden brown. Then, pour in coconut water, rim until the water is thick, then turn off the stove. When finished, cut the boiled pork meat and skin (prepared) into bite-sized pieces. Mix the two together with the rice pudding, that’s it.

Step 5: Make fish sauce

Put in a cup of lemon juice, 70ml of fish sauce, 60g of sugar and 80ml of filtered water. Stir until completely dissolved, add ½ teaspoon minced garlic and minced chili.

Step 6: Finished Product

Arrange the silkworm cake on a plate, then drizzle more sauce on top. We can eat it with cucumber, raw vegetables, skin hearing combined with sweet and sour fish sauce. The white, supple bread is immersed in the fragrant, rich coconut milk sauce. It all comes together perfectly, making us want to eat forever.

5. Pro tips:

Here are our tips for easing your mind (and stomach) around food-handling environments that you may not be used to.

Make sure the food is freshly cooked. If you’re eating hot street food, it’s always safest (not to mention more delicious) to eat food you can see being cooked to order.

Look for lines and busy stalls. Busy street food stalls are an indicator of popularity, and their high turnover rate means the food is never sitting out for hours and developing dreaded bacteria. Yes, long lines can be discouraging when you’re hungry after a full day of exploring, but it’s not worth the risk of grabbing precooked food from the empty spot next door.

Eat when the locals are eating. The last and most important element here is when to eat. You’re likely already on a weird eating schedule while you’re traveling, but it’s important to try and adjust to the eating times of where you are. A bowl of pho might be lunch for Americans, but it’s breakfast for the Vietnamese. This ensures that you’re eating freshly cooked food and that you can find the best and most popular places to eat.

If you can’t drink the water, then you can’t eat the salad. Most people get so hung up on not drinking the water or skipping ice in drinks that they don’t think about all of the other ways in which water is used in food service. Fruits and vegetables tend to be washed with tap water in most places, rather than the filtered water that locals drink—or sometimes it’s not washed at all. If you’re really craving some produce, try fruits you can peel or cooked veggies.

Trust your gut. If you’re unsure about the food or the way that it’s being prepared, then keep moving. Eating street food all over the world doesn’t make you an expert. Every stall and every country are different, and sometimes the rules can be harder to follow. When something doesn’t look, smell, or feel right, don’t eat it! Trust your judgment. Chances are that there’s another spot close by that’s making something more delicious.

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Can Tho: Co Ut’s Cong cake, Ut Dzach Fine Rice Vermicelli, Thanh Van Grilled Pork Sausage, Crab Noodle Soup At Floating Market, Scorched Rice with Caramelized Fish Sauce, 7-Toi’s Duck Meat Pancake, Banh Mi Thuy, Banana Blossom Salad, Fried Spring Rolls, Fresh Spring Rolls, Fetal duck egg (balut), Honeycomb Cake, Mini Sticky Rice Cake, Cassava Silkworm Cake, Grilled Banana Wrapped in Sticky Rice, Khmer-style Bun Goi Da Soup, Egg Coffee, Con Son Grilled Snakehead Fish, Bun Mam – Fermented Fish Noodle Soup, Lau Mam – Fermented Fish Hotpot, Grilled Snails with Pepper, Magenta Sticky Rice Cake, Duck cooked with Fermented Tofu, Rice Noodle Pizza, Vegetarian Noodle Soup, Snails Stuffed With Pork…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Chau Doc: Chau Doc Fish Noodle Soup, Sugar Palm Fruit, Basa Fish Hot Pot, Mam (Fermented fish), Phu Huong Beef Noodle Soup, Broken Rice with Pork Chop, Long Xuyen Broken Rice, Nui Cam Pancake, O Thum’s Chicken Grilled with Lime Leaves, Stir-fried Shrimp with Sesbania Flower, Sweet & Sour Soup with Siamese Mud Carp Soup & Sesbania Flower, Caramelized & Braised Catfish, Grilled Rice-field Rat with Salt and Chili…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Soc Trang: Pia Cake, Cong Cake (Banh Cong), Bun Nuoc Leo Soc Trang’s Noodle Soup, Soc Trang’s Bun Goi Da Soup, Duck Noodle Soup with black Pepper, Curry Noodle Soup, Grilled Beef on Tile, Khmer-style Tube Cake, Khmer-style Mung Bean Cake (Banh In), Dried Radish (Xa Bau), Stir-Fried Noodles with Seafood (Mi Sua), Soc Trang’s Green Rice Flakes…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Ben Tre: Phu Le Rice Wine, Ben Tre’s Coconut Candy, Flat Banana, Coconut Rice, Snail Pancake, Sea Snail with Coconut Milk, Coconut Worm, Young Coconut Salad with Shrimp & Pork, Son Doc Puff Rice Paper…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Cai Be: Puffed Rice Cake…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Vinh Long: Elephant Ear Fish (fried giant gourami)…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in My Tho: Fried Sticky Rice, Snakehead Fish Rice Porridge, Hu Tieu My Tho (Noodle Soup), Coconut Banana Cake…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Tra Vinh: Macapuno Coconut, Bun Nuoc Leo Tra Vinh’s Noodle Soup, Tra Cuon’s Sticky Rice Cake…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Sadec: Sa Dec Noodle Soup, Sadec Crab Hotpot, Lai Vung Spring Rolls, Sa Giang Shrimp Puff Pastry, Lai Vung Tangerine…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Bac Lieu: Spicy Beef Noodle Soup, Bac Lieu’s Three-striped Crab, White Radish Pies, Bac Lieu Thick Noodles & Creamy Coconut Milk, Bon Bon Pickles…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Ca Mau: Banh tam ga cay (Silkworm rice cake with curried chicken), Grilled Vop clams with salt and pepper, Grilled Mudskipper Fish, Stone Crab Roast With Salt, Young Bee Salad, Nam Can’s Crab, U Minh Forest’s Honey, U Minh’s Fermented Fish Hotpot…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Hau Giang: Cau Duc Pineapple, Cai Tac’s Pork Organs Porridge, Hau Giang’s Bronze Featherback Fish Cake…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Ha Tien: Herring Fish Salad, Spider crab cake soup, Ken Noodle soup, Xoi Xiem (Siamese sticky rice), Steamed Noodle soup, Ha Tien Oyster porridge…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Rach Gia: Stir Noodle Soup, Kien Giang Fish Noodle Soup…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Con Dao: Bang nut jam, Vu Nang Snail, Roasted Pork Bread (Banh Mi), Coconut Ice Cream…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Phu Quoc: Phu Quoc Sim Wine, Phu Quoc Pepper, Phu Quoc fish sauce…

Hopefully, the above tips will help you to come up with a great plan for your adventure in Mekong River Delta, Vietnam. Have a safe trip!

“Sleep less, travel more, respect more” – Thomas Vietnam – Local travel expert.

Thank you