White Rose

Hoi An’s Dumplings – Cauldron Cakes, also known as “White Roses,” are two types of cakes with similar ingredients and methods, often eaten together on a plate. Another is the cauldron cake made from crushed ground shrimp mixed with some pepper, garlic, onion, lemongrass, and esoteric spices. Dumpling filling is made from pork, mushrooms, and thinly sliced scallions and then stir-fried with that secret spice. Perhaps this spice is also why those dumplings – cauldron cakes are the best in Hoi An than in other places in Vietnam. Visitors can easily find “White Rose” on the menu at any restaurants in the Hoi An Ancient Town.

The cake’s dough is made from rice flour, but it is very meticulous, from choosing the rice to molding it. For the cake to taste sweet, the surface must be white and smooth, so it is necessary to select the rice carefully. It is a new type of rice, fragrant and soft, milled and filtered many times through water. The rice powder must not have bleach and not use solder. Then, the dough is kneaded into elliptical shapes; rotating a few turns will quickly produce a tiny piece of dough. From that piece of dough, they lightly roll in a circle into a pretty thin crust. Cauldron cake is made from ground shrimp mixed with pepper, garlic, onion, lemongrass, and esoteric spices.

Dumplings are made from pork, wood ear mushroom, and thinly sliced green onions and then fried with esoteric spices. After having the cake filling, people put the filling in the middle of the cake shell and then gather it into a cauldron shape and lightly contour the crust into a rose-like shape to make dumplings. Gently place the cake into the steamer for about 15 minutes; when the cake is cooked, the rice’s color is white, soft, and chewy.

rice’s color is white, soft, and chewy.

Along with the meticulous baking process, the preparation of fish sauce must also have all three flavors sour, spicy, and sweet. The sweetness is just enough, not too sour, and especially the chili in a bowl of fish sauce must be green and red peppers. With that, the new bowl of fish sauce is fragrant and bright yellow.