Phu Thuong sticky rice - A National Intangible Cultural Heritage
With over 600 households engaged in cooking and trading sticky rice and three individuals recognized as artisans, Phu Thuong is a rare craft village that supplies the specialty to the capital city daily.
Hanoi’s autumn is also the season for com or young sticky rice flakes. Com can be eaten directly or enjoyed with bananas like a snack. It can also be mixed with other food ingredients to create a variety of tasty dishes.
Those who have a chance to taste the five-coloured sticky rice will come to appreciate the special fragrance of the leaves that give the dish its colour, and the grains that give it its unique flavour. The dish is found only in the Northwest region of Vietnam, intertwined with family generations in the region.
Tu Le commune in Van Chan district, in the northern province of Yen Bai, has long been known for its glutinous rice, with a special taste and a unique green colour. The Tu Le young sticky rice flake festival looks to honour this unique type of rice and is a highlight of the Muong Lo culture-tourism festival.
The People’s Committee of Hanoi’s Tay Ho district has organised a sticky rice festival and a ceremony to announce the craft of cooking sticky rice in Phu Thuong village as a national intangible cultural heritage.
Five-coloured sticky rice represents the basic colours of white, purple, black, yellow, and red, carrying significance in the eyes of the Thai ethnic people and known as the “five elements theory”. Each colour symbolises a desire and aspiration of the Thai people in Muong Lo, the second-largest rice field in Vietnam’s Northwest region.
