Special handcraft products of Coconut

Coconut trees can grow everywhere in our country. However, there has long been a saying “Seeing coconut is missing Ben Tre”. Maybe coconut trees have long existed on the land of three isles and had a close attachment to the people here.

Coming to Ben Tre, visitors asre attracted by not only the delicious taste of cononut milk but also skillful handmade products of coconut. Few plants have as many practical values as coconut trees. Its seeds, leaves, trunk, leaf stem, fiber … are used to make goods for consumption and exportation.

More than 500 articles can be made from coconut such as teapots, teacups, wineglasses, bowls, chopsticks, plates, spoons, forks, ladles, flowerpots, card boxes, jewelry boxes, ashtrays, candle stands, models of cyclo, motorcycle, football cups, massage tools, dolls, wine gourds, animal-shaped souvenirs, lanterns, bags, mattresses … Each article is of various sizes and designs that can satisfy visitors’ needs. These products can be used as ornamental objects, personal accessories or housewares.

Besides family makers, private businesses, export companies scattering throughout Ben Tre, there are two main craft villages focusing on coconut handmade products in Phung (Phoenix) Islet and Oc (Snail) Islet.

From coconut sub-materials, with their creative minds and skillful hands, Ben tre craftsmen bring to life various distinctive works of art which partly promote Ben Tre image to national and international friends.

Son Doc Glutinous rice chupatty

Unlike My Long rice-paper cake Son Doc glutinous rice chupatty (Hung Nhuong commune), it’s made of glutinous rice cooked well pounded, mixed with coconut juice and spices of salt, sugar, onion the craftmen spread in out into thin round cakes Dried cake in charcoal grills can be eaten.

Due to the sticky rice pulp the cake becomes bigger, crisp soft and especially aromatic fatty flavor of coconut juice.

If you have the opportunity to come to Giong Trom area, Ben Tre province in addition to visiting the temple of commander Nguyen Ngoc Thang (My Thanh Commune), Heroic Female General Nguyen Thi Dinh (Luong Hoa Commune), the Tomb of patriotic poet Nguyen Dinh Chieu (Ba Tri District), the Temple of Lieutenant General Dong Van Cong (Tan Hao Commune) … you should visit the craft village of Son Doc glutinous rice chupatty for a couple of moments to learn and buy this special cake to enjoy or as a gift, though really rustic but absorbed in the taste of love.

My Long rice-paper Cakes

Coming to Ben Tre surely enough, you would hear the famous My Long rice-paper Cake (My Thanh commune) and Son Doc glutinous rice water (Hung Nhuong commune), a southern family-styled cake usually to worship ancestors in the traditional New Year of the nation.

My Long rice-paper Cakes

From Ben Tre city center to My Long rice-paper Cake (My Thanh commune) along the provincial road 885 about 6km, visitors will encounter a lot of facilities selling all kinds of cake next to the road side.

My Thanh commune people have taken mashed white rice, blending with coconut juice and spices of salt, sugar, … spreading it thinly and steaming it into round and lovely cakes.

Sweet rice-paper cakes when being toasted well-done, they turn to be yellow in delicate perfume, crisp to eat and very tasty to feel. Salted cakes when well toasted have a fat taste of coconut, a sweet taste of dried shrimp and eggs … Rice paper cakes for sour pork hash served with salad, boiled tiny shrimp, roast pork or shaggily fried fish will the be tasted good at the party. Wet rice paper cakes are laminated and dried, cut into pieces to be well-boiled, put some broth and ready cooked to make beef noodles, Chinese soup …

My Long rice-paper Cakes have characteristic taste, cultural, traditional and national meaning in the culinary circles, so they are known to may people. Tourists from afar, usually come to the craft village of My Long rice-paper cakes to purchase large volumes to enjoy, or to give relative.

If tourists want to visit, or find out the origin of this special cake, they will contact Nguyen Thi Kim Hoang’s workshop, Nghia Huan Hamlet, My Thanh Commune (Tel: 075.3826615) or Huynh Huu Nghia’s workshop, Nghia Huan Hamlet, My Thanh Commune (Tel: 075.3862619) they will not be wrong with other cakes.

Ngoc Chau

General information about the trade village in Ben Tre

* The bonsai village in Cho Lach: Apart from the famous delicious fruit species, Ben Tre is also known for crafts of producing seedlings, planting ornamental plants, mainly in villages like Vinh Thanh, Vinh Hoa, Phu Son and Long Thoi (in Cho Lach). Here we provide the majority of seed plants and bonsais for the nation. It is one of the key attractions of Ben Tre.

The bonsai village in Cho Lach

* The craft village of plain sticky rice dumpling pancake and rice roll "My Long Rice Roll, Son Doc Plain Sticky Rice Dumpling Pancake" in Giong Trom district, is not only popular in the province but also in the southern region. These two types of cakes have a long tradition of more than 100 years. People here have preserved and promoted Ben Tre’s secrets of producing the cakes, which we find nowhere else.

Making plain sticky rice dumpling pancake and rice roll

* The craft village producing handicrafts from coconut trees: Ben Tre people have taken advantages of all the components of the coconut tree like trunk, stem, bark, coconut shell, etc. to make many unique handicrafts, which are very much adored by visitors, and it becomes a featured craft of Ben Tre, concentrated in Phung Isle (in Chau Thanh district), Hung Phong (in Giong Trom district).

The craft village of artful handicrafts and knitting