Taste Ka Tum cake, remember An Giang forever

I received the Ka Tum cake given by artisan Neang Phuong with a childish joy in my heart. It is indeed a special gift containing both the love of the land and the An Giang people.

Ka Tum cake shell is knitted from young palm leaves The first time I knew about Ka Tum cake, I suddenly thought of the fairy tales that my mother used to tell me in the past. They always attract listeners right from the title. And so is the Ka Tum cake. Looking at me pinching my lips, pronouncing the name of the cake according to the tone of the language of the Khmer ethnic group, artisan Neang Phuong laughed and explained: “In Khmer, Ka Tum means pomegranate cake”. This is a sacred cake, conveying the desire for a full, affluent and full life. So only on traditional New Year days such as: Chol Chnam Thmay, Bonh Dolta, Bonh Oc-om-bok… do the Khmer people make this cake to offer to heaven and earth. And only O Lam land in Tri Ton district still makes this kind of cake, so Ka Tum becomes a “rare, hard to find” specialty in the land of An Giang jaggery. Ka Tum cakes are meticulously perfected by artisan Neang Phuong Having been taught the craft of wrapping by her mother since she was a girl, up to now, artisan Neang Phuong has been attached to the Ka tum cake of his people for 40 years. Is it because of that, that in the whole O Lam commune, no one has ever surpassed her reputation of skillful hands and good bakers. In the process of making a cake, the hardest part is making the crust, which is introduced by artisan Neang Phuong as creating a unique characteristic for Ka Tum cakes. Ka Tum cake shell is made from young jaggery leaves, cannot be made of old leaves because old leaves will be hard and hard to bend, no fragrance and green color is too dark and unsightly. The leaves after being picked up will be washed, then peeled off piece by piece and begin the process of knitting into a pomegranate shape, with flowers blooming on top. The ratio of the cakes must be the same, not the big ones, the small ones, if carelessly tied, the cake will not have its shape. So it can be said that this is the most difficult and time consuming stage. Artisan Neang Phuong who won the gold medal in the Southern Folk Cake Festival 2016 “Make this cake, every step is difficult. Peeling is already difficult and elaborate, when it comes time to put the filling, it becomes even more difficult. Even though it’s difficult to make, I still like this cake very much, because it’s beautiful, small and cute, “smiling artisan Neang Phuong. Although she is proficient and familiar with her hands, because of the small shape of the cake, the mouth of the shell is narrow, so it takes a long time to put the filling inside, so she can only make about 100 cakes a day. In the past, the Khmer people often made Ka Tum cakes with Chol Ho sticky rice, which had a very fragrant growing time of six months and even soaked the rice overnight. Now, everything “payroll” in the cake has been simplified more or less, you can use regular sticky rice combined with white beans, sugar, salt and coconut milk. After wrapping the cake, people boil it for a period of 30-45 minutes depending on how big or small the cake is. When the cake is cooked, take it out, blanch it in cold water, and let it dry. Artisan Neang Phuong fervently passed on Ka Tum cake making to the young generation of O Lam When completed, Ka Tum has a light yellow color, the cake inside is not sticky, the sticky rice is soft, smooth and fragrant mixed with fatty panther coconut milk, making visitors from far away fall in love. It is because of that wonderful taste that in the Southern Folk Cake Festival held in 2016, Ka Tum cake won the Gold medal. Realizing that traditional cultural values ​​are being cared for and promoted again, in recent years, artisan Neang Phuong has devoted himself to teaching the recipe and how to make Ka Tum cakes to the young generation of O Lam, contributing part of preserving the identity and culture of the Khmer nation.