Bánh Tét Chuối: Vietnamese Banana Sticky Rice Cake

One of my earliest memories is of bánh tét, which we would eat for new years. Basically it's glutinous rice wrapped around a filling; which can be savoury or sweet.  Probably the most known version has yellow soya bean and pork, the glutinous rice is usually natural colouring, but sometimes can be coloured green with padan leaves.  Everything is wrapped in banana leaves and boiled for hours.. I remember my aunty saying something like 14 hours or more.



The shape is usually a round tube that is about 7cm thick.

The banh tet above is the sweet version. The filling is banana; and white in this case, but don't be surprised if you find the filling purple/blood red.. that's also banana.

I bought this banh tet at a local cabramatta grocery shop and it's much smaller and flatter; about 10cm long and not thick at all.

It is an amazing taste, the denseness of the cooked rice, which is relatively light in flavour contrasts with strong banana filling.

As a sydney food blog, I rekcon noodlies should highlight these little gems that you can pick up at the check out in most Asian and definitely Vietnamese grocery stores.

Other Vietnamese desserts:

Banh Cam: Vietnamese Orange Cake

Banh Chuoi - banana cake

Coloured rice cakes

Xoi - sticky rice dessert