If you are a true native of the Mekong Delta, you will certainly know about sweet rice rolls, also known as sweet “wet” cake (banh uot ngot). In the past, you could easily find this cake sold throughout the Western region, but today, it has become quite rare.

The name “sweet wet cake” alone suggests its flavor—sweet from the inside out, a sweetness that touches the hearts of Southerners living far from home.

The wrapper is made from a blend of flours: tapioca starch, rice flour, and arrowroot starch. This gives the shell a chewy texture somewhat similar to “pig skin cake” (banh da lon), yet it is neither hard nor too soft, with a sweetness that can be adjusted to taste.

Notably, even if kept in the refrigerator overnight, the cake retains its translucent chewiness; simply reheating it makes it taste as fresh as if it were just made.

Each thin, smooth layer is either a vibrant pandan green or a golden sugar hue, accented by the yellow-green of mung beans and the white of shredded coconut, creating a unique and attractive look. The filling consists of cooked mung beans, cooked taro, and finely shredded coconut.

Steaming the batter requires great skill to ensure the layers are as thin as possible. The most distinctive feature of these rolls is that they are so thin and translucent that you can see right through them, once earning them the nickname “wind-blown” cake.

The chewy, soft wrapper, the richness of the coconut, and the nuttiness of the mung beans and taro, combined with a bowl of fragrant toasted sesame salt, create an incomparable flavor. Sweet rice rolls can be considered a light yet attractive dish with a more delicate taste than many other sweets.

Compiled by Bang Tam