Rice cakes, pancakes and sweets of the delta

Bánh xèo is a pancake, not a sweet, but it belongs on this page because it is the cake every visitor eats. Tuổi Trẻ describes the southern version as large and full, with varied fillings and a whole basket of garden greens. The batter is rice flour with coconut milk or water, coloured yellow with turmeric; some cooks use coconut water for a richer shell. The usual filling is shrimp, pork and bean sprouts, sometimes mung beans or mushrooms.

You eat it by tearing off a piece, wrapping it in a leaf with herbs, and dipping it in sweet-and-sour fish sauce. Tuổi Trẻ names Soc Trang, Can Tho, Vinh Long, Dong Thap and An Giang among the places known for it. In Can Tho, Znews describes a version filled with củ hủ dừa, the heart of the coconut palm, together with mung beans, minced meat, shrimp and sprouts.

Bánh pía comes from Vung Thom in Soc Trang, now part of Can Tho city. Báo Quốc tế traces it to the mooncakes of the Teochew (Triều Châu) community; "pía" means cake in Teochew. The pastry is flaky and the filling soft. Fillings named in the article include durian with mung bean, durian with taro, mung bean with pineapple, red bean, black bean and lotus seed.

The craft, concentrated in Phu Tam, Thuan Hoa and An Hiep, was recognised as national intangible cultural heritage in 2020, and the cakes are sold abroad, including to the United States, Japan and Australia. Báo Quốc tế gives two different figures for the number of producers in the same article, so we do not repeat either.

Morning markets sell small cakes that rarely appear on restaurant menus. At Chau Doc, VnExpress listed bánh bò (a spongy rice cake), bánh tai yến and bánh cam (sesame balls). VNAT notes the small rice cakes sold wrapped in banana leaves across the delta. Bánh tét, the cylindrical sticky-rice cake of Tết, is sold as a souvenir in the Ba Dong area of the former Tra Vinh province under the name Trà Cuôn, according to one 2014 article.

For drinks, Tri Ton in An Giang makes thốt nốt sữa, a milk drink sweetened with palm sugar, and Cau Ke in the former Tra Vinh province grows dừa sáp, a wax coconut with dense flesh that is often blended into a smoothie.

Durian-filled bánh pía and durian coconut candy have a strong smell that some travellers and some accommodation do not welcome; choose mung bean or plain coconut if you will carry them in a shared space. Coconut candy softens in heat and can stick to its wrapper on a long, warm journey.

Fried snacks such as bánh cống are cooked in a pot of oil that may have been used all day. The Ministry of Health advises avoiding stalls where the frying oil is dark and full of residue. If you are buying packaged cakes to take abroad, check the destination country's rules on food imports before you pack.