Bắc giang
Sweet popiah – beloved childhood snack
Of all the snacks enjoyed by Vietnamese students throughout the years, the sweet and creamy bò bía ngọt (sweet popiah) is one of the most popular.
Sweet popiah is made by wrapping sugar candy, grated coconut and black sesame seeds, with rice and wheat flour paper.
The treat is based on the Chinese fresh spring roll dish called popiah, which explains the Vietnamese pronunciation of ‘bo bia’.
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Sweet popiah – beloved childhood snack. |
Similar to Vietnamese fresh spring rolls, sweet popiah also involves using rice paper to wrap ingredients. Thin paper-like crepes, made of rice and wheat flour are used, while fillings include sugar candy, grated coconut and black sesame.
The candy is the dish’s defining ingredient, made by boiling white sugar with water, and then using stretching and folding methods to mould it into small, hollow and brittle cylinders.
Despite its cheap price and seemingly simple recipe, this dish can be very 'addicting'. Its soft yet firm outer layer highlights its crunchy insides, and you can feel its sweetness slowly seep through the filling as you bite and chew the tasty treat.
Dozens of traditional foods of Vietnam, such as 'nem' (spring rolls), 'banh mi' (Vietnamese sandwich), 'banh cuon' (steamed roll rice pancakes), 'bun tron' (rice vermicelli salad with meat), iced milk coffee and lemon tea, were introduced, making a good impression on Swedish people and visitors.
Three restaurants and a coffee shop in Singapore, whose owners or chefs are Vietnamese, have been recommended by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB). The recommended list was based on criteria such as taste, price and popularity.
British magazine TimeOut has placed Ho Chi Minh City in the fourth position among its list of the world’s leading 20 cities for food.
Former English professional footballer David Beckham recently visited a Vietnamese cuisine restaurant in Macau, where he savored pho and fried spring rolls, which he described as “very good” and just what he needed.
Ho Chi Minh City ranked fourth out of the world's 20 best globetrotting foodie cities, surpassing Asian cuisine paradises Bangkok, Beijing and Kuala Lumpur, reported British travel magazine Time Out.
Source: VNS
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