Village of rice paper rolls

Nearly 700 years ago, the village had its birth name: ‘Afternoon!’. It seems to be an old dialect name. But why does the village have to be ‘Afternoon’ and not some other name that sounds better to it?! Perhaps the ancestors deliberately ‘puzzled’ later generations of descendants, so even if they searched all modern dictionaries, there was no mention of a word: ‘Afternoon!’.
However, from ancient times to this “present tense”, whenever the name of Chuong village is mentioned, people can imagine that it is the address of a locality specializing in the production of spring rolls. famous tradition not only of Ly Nhan district but also of Ha Nam province.

Bored of rice but born a job It was known as a purely agricultural village, but in 1347, during the reign of King Tran Du Tong, Chou village was very poor at that time, but all year round, every month, having to hang around with rice and vegetables, it became boring. Rice morning. At noon, the cake is also made from rice. At night, open the pot, and the rice is in the eye. But the habit of life, what is boring to the neck is difficult to swallow. There is a man with a gentle and pure nature who shares that feeling with the villagers of Afternoon. That is Mr. Tran Dinh Han. Just because he wanted to create a dish from the same grain of rice in the lowland countryside where he was buried and cut his navel to make it more attractive than rice, cakes and thin porridge, the man with only the grain of flour was restless and worried. endless days. Then suddenly, at one point, Mr. Tran Dinh Han’s mind suddenly came up with an idea: take the rice to soak, then drain the water and put it in a stone mortar. Packing of rice paper products. Next, the old man used a clean cloth to cover the pounded rice and filtered it into powdered water. Finally, the paste was coated on a cloth and placed on the mouth of the copper pot. The flour was steamed, then Mr. Han brought it out to dry in the sun. When that thin powder was dried, Mr. Han ordered his family to cut it into small pieces, then ordered his family to cook it. And when I eat it, it is very strange and delicious. So Mr. Han and his relatives overcame boredom. Seeing that, the people of Chieu village learned to follow suit. In addition to slicing into thin strips, Mr. Han came up with the idea of ​​​​bringing toasted dried cakes. The cake is crispy, delicious, and fatty in the mouth. People call it traditional rice paper. Mr. Han is worshiped by Chuong villagers as the ancestor of the rice paper craft. When Mr. Khan left the temporary realm and returned to the Motherland, the villagers honored him as the village’s tutelary god. The village name becomes a culinary “brand” Mr. Tran Minh Khoa, one of the “masters” of making rice spring rolls from Chuong village, confided to guests like this: “The first cake that Mr. Tran Dinh Han created, there is only one round size. , 20 centimeters in diameter, as thick as today’s pho. Then, over time, the ancestors of Afternoon village “converted” it into rice paper rolls with different sizes, shapes, and thicknesses, depending on the purpose of use such as fried spring rolls, Rolled rice paper rolls!”. The most interesting thing, from the day it appeared on the Vietnamese culinary map until now, although it is made by traditional manual methods and has not been mixed with any preservative chemicals, but rice paper rolls Afternoon village is famous for being durable with time; long-term degradation, even when stored at different temperatures and humidity. After drying a few cakes of freshly-coated and still hot cakes, Mr. Khoa suddenly could not hide his secret pride when he confessed, with his own recipe that is only passed down in the village, Banh Nem Chuong once eaten is remembered for a lifetime. , Can not forget; cannot be mixed with any other place. According to Mr. Khoa, in the past, the people of Chuong village started their work of making rice paper rolls around 5 am. Back in the day, it was “in the old days…” the dough for making rice paper rolls was hand-milled with a mortar. Until the cake is coated on the surface of the copper pot, it is still in the traditional manual way. In addition, the copper pot is heated with firewood, then with coal. So a rice paper roll was born, bringing with it the hardships and hardships of the person who made it. But now, the age of technology and machines has helped the people of Chuong village to be a bit more leisurely in the process of producing rice paper rolls with a greater number of products and better quality than the “once upon… that’s it! Each house has a secret Mr. Khoa happily shared, the process of making rice paper rolls requires careful, meticulous, thoughtful, clean and very professional to produce products that reach the “brand” of Chuong village. The first is the choice of rice. It must be the “brother” of Khang Dan rice that the people in the area cultivate to “catch the eyes” of the workers who produce rice paper rolls in Chuong village. After having the rice that “couldn’t be more satisfying”, people wash it thoroughly, drooling out the by-products. Next, soak the rice for about two hours. Mrs. Bui Thi Bich, a pure-hearted woman who is over 80 years old this year, was taught by her parents how to make rice spring rolls from the age of 6, confided: Particularly for the type of rice paper rolls for export, the soaking time takes place. less than the default “three rem”. It is thanks to the shorter soaking time than usual that the rice paper rolls made are less sour. As a result, its “output” price is always higher than the domestic market. Having fun, Bich confided: The people of Chuong village make rice paper rolls in their own way. Choosing the right type of “input” rice is already important, but the secret to preparing the ingredients after the rice has been milled into water powder plays a special role for the rice paper rolls. For hundreds of years, the people of Chuong village have never had the same recipe for the above. Because, each house, each clan has its own secret. Mr. Tran Van Loi, Bich’s son, gently added his mother’s story: One of the equally important things is the process of coating the cake, although this stage is now done very professionally by machine. modern cakes. By his special experience, one will know at what temperature boiling water will help the product to ripen. And get the bright white color, while still “preserving” the fragrance of the “brother” of Khang Dan rice. As a professional worker, Mr. Tran Van Loi is as sure as a nail that: After all, the drying process is the most difficult and strenuous because it depends on the weather. In order to have a “field in and out” thanks to the rice paper rolls, all year round the people of the afternoon village must: “Look at the sky, look at the earth, look at the clouds / Look at the rain, look at the wind, …”, otherwise they will “spoiled” only in an instant. Mrs. Bich slowly turned her teary eyes full of crow’s feet, looking into the unknown and recalling: Over the past few hundred years, the profession of making rice paper rolls of the Chu village people has experienced many ups and downs. The most difficult thing is the transition from the subsidized bureaucracy to the market mechanism. At that time, imported rice paper rolls flooded in like flood water. The goods they produced were not competitive enough, and countless households in Chuong village became depressed and thought of disbanding. But that’s what I thought would happen when someone in the village started to quit their job, causing the whole village to panic and panic. But then the market whirlwind gradually stabilized, the people of Afternoon village gradually got used to it. People clung to each other and stood up when they had recovered from a strange storm. And craft villages continue to exist, develop methodically and fundamentally until now. Tails After a few hundred years, the rice paper rolls still carry the “brand” of Chuong village. But the place name of Afternoon village is only an oral name in folklore. As for the old Chuong village of Mr. Tran Dinh Han, a rice cake maker, now part of it is in Mot village, the rest is in Nam village of Mao Cau village, Nguyen Ly commune, Ly Nhan district, Ha Nam province. Afternoon village in the 4.0 era currently has 190 households and 850 people. Of which, there are up to 150 households and about 400 people specializing in making rice paper rolls. With more than 70 tons of rice paper rolls “out of the oven” every day, the products of Chuong villagers not only have a stable market share in the domestic market but are also exported to a number of countries, such as Russia, France, and Brazil. Lan etc… His eyes suddenly became teary and with an emotional voice, Mr. Tran Van Loi confided: “In the past, every year, whether it’s highs or lows, every year on the 10th day of the second lunar month, the We, the descendants of the Chieu village people, hold the communal house festival. That is the day the descendants of the village of Afternoon expressed their gratitude to the Holy Citadel of the village Tran Dinh Han, who “birthed” the first rice paper – the “father” of rice paper rolls in the afternoon village – now – a long time ago. almost 700 years. February 10 is also the day when brothers, descendants of generations have the opportunity to meet together to discuss how to preserve, preserve and develop in a sustainable way, the basis of rice paper rolls – a cultural heritage. priceless object of the village – in the future and forever, brother!”.