Fried Sticky Rice – Eat Best Food in Tien Giang

You can easily find this Tien Giang specialty at restaurants in My Tho area or Cai Be island areas. This sticky rice dish is also known as dragon egg or dinosaur egg because it has a strange round shape.

By Thomas Vietnam at vemekong.com | Official My Tho Visitor Guide

1. Better to Know as a Food Lover

Find them: My Tho city.

Best time: Dusk-Dawn

Don’t miss: Fried Sticky Rice

Local’s pick: Fried Sticky Rice small restaurant

Tourist’s pick: Restaurant in My Tho

Blog: /fried-sticky-rice-my-tho/

Facts: With fried sticky rice, eat not only to be full, but to feel the work of the cook. Fried sticky rice is therefore not merely a dish, but a work of art.

2. Better to Know Fried Sticky Rice

History of fried sticky rice

Fried sticky rice has been present in the South since the 50s of the last century. The story is about a chef in Bien Hoa (Dong Nai) who accidentally dropped a small stick of sticky rice into a pan of boiling oil. Seeing that the sticky rice was puffy, tasted both soft and fragrant, he tried a few other pieces, invited the whole family to eat and everyone praised it.

From a chance fate, the chef thought of turning fried sticky rice into the main dish of the restaurant. He did not leave the glutinous rice seeds intact like making regular sticky rice, smooth them over, add a little sugar in the sticky rice for a sweeter taste, the dough after mixing is soaked in cooking oil.

According to veteran chefs in the garden of Buu Long (Bien Hoa), the fried sticky rice cake was initially only the size of a hand, but when it spread throughout the South and Southwest, the sticky rice was made bigger than a ball

3. Fried Sticky Rice in My Tho

Puffed sticky rice is considered perfect when the fried sticky rice cake must be round and evenly golden. The sticky rice cake is said to be delicious when the outside is crispy and fragrant, the inside is still supple and sweet. According to the chefs, the thin crust will help people not get bored, but to make fried sticky rice with a thin crust that is both crispy and flexible is not simple at all.

As a sweet dish, fried sticky rice is then cut into small pieces, served with roasted chicken, fried chicken wings or grilled meat. Want to be less bored, diners can eat with cucumber or herbs. As many people have had the opportunity to stand next to the pan to watch fried sticky rice "just looking at it makes me want to try a piece".

4. How to Make Fried Sticky Rice

Ingredients for fried sticky rice

300g sticky rice

90g peeled green beans

70ml coconut milk

Spices: sugar, salt, cooking oil,...

Good tip:

- To choose good sticky rice, you should pay attention to choose the type of rice with large, round grains, not broken and no strange smell.

- To choose delicious peeled green beans, you should choose ones with firm seeds, beautiful yellow color, no insects and light aroma.

- To buy quality sticky rice and green beans, please choose reputable brands and stores.

How to make fried sticky rice

Step 1. Prepare ingredients

 Soak green beans and glutinous rice for about 4-5 hours to soften the seeds.

You can also soak them in hot water for 2-3 hours to shorten the time. Then take out the basket to dry.

Step 2. Boil and mash green beans with glutinous rice

You bring boiled green beans with water, remember that the amount of water is about halfway through the beans. After 15 minutes, remove the beans to a large bowl and beat them with a spoon. If making with a large number of beans, you can use a blender to make it faster.

After grinding, you add glutinous rice and 1 teaspoon of sugar and mix well with the beans.

Hot Tip: You can completely steam the beans in a water bath for 10 minutes, if you don't like boiling.

Step 3. Steamed sticky rice

After you have mixed the ingredients of beans, sticky rice and sugar, add 70ml of coconut milk and stir well. Next bring the mixture to steam for about 30 minutes on medium high heat, remember to make a hole in the middle to let the steam escape.

Note: After about 20 minutes of steaming, remember to open the lid and stir the sticky rice.

After steaming is done, put the sticky rice in a bowl and stir well to let the sticky rice cool down. Next, you put it in a plastic bag, add a teaspoon of cooking oil and start stuffing.

Remember to knead well and knead with your hands until the sticky rice is flexible and does not stick to your hands.

Step 4. Squeeze sticky rice

To press sticky rice, you put the block of sticky rice into the mold and press it tightly, then put the sticky rice in a plastic bag and put it in the refrigerator for 4-5 hours to harden.

Note: if you don't have a mold, you can put the sticky rice in a food wrap and press it by hand. Pay close attention so as not to leak.

Then, take the sticky rice out of the refrigerator and start cutting it into a circle about 2cm to prepare for frying.

Hot Tip: Sticky rice after taking it out of the refrigerator is still quite hard, you have to let it soften for about 10 minutes, then cut and fry immediately.

Step 5. Fried sticky rice

You need to prepare an oil pan with a good amount of oil, when the oil is hot, add each cut of sticky rice in turn and fry. Remember to fry on medium heat only.

When the sticky rice is golden brown and puffy on both sides, you take the sticky rice and drain the oil.

Good tip:

- To know whether the oil is hot or not, put the bamboo chopsticks in the oil pan, if there is an oil ball, the oil is hot.

- When frying sticky rice, remember not to press the sticky rice down when it starts to rise

- You should not fry sticky rice too yellow, because doing so will reduce the deliciousness.

5. Pro tips:

Here are our tips for easing your mind (and stomach) around food-handling environments that you may not be used to.

Make sure the food is freshly cooked. If you're eating hot street food, it's always safest (not to mention more delicious) to eat food you can see being cooked to order.

Look for lines and busy stalls. Busy street food stalls are an indicator of popularity, and their high turnover rate means the food is never sitting out for hours and developing dreaded bacteria. Yes, long lines can be discouraging when you’re hungry after a full day of exploring, but it’s not worth the risk of grabbing precooked food from the empty spot next door.

Eat when the locals are eating. The last and most important element here is when to eat. You’re likely already on a weird eating schedule while you’re traveling, but it’s important to try and adjust to the eating times of where you are. A bowl of pho might be lunch for Americans, but it’s breakfast for the Vietnamese. This ensures that you’re eating freshly cooked food and that you can find the best and most popular places to eat.

If you can’t drink the water, then you can’t eat the salad. Most people get so hung up on not drinking the water or skipping ice in drinks that they don’t think about all of the other ways in which water is used in food service. Fruits and vegetables tend to be washed with tap water in most places, rather than the filtered water that locals drink—or sometimes it’s not washed at all. If you’re really craving some produce, try fruits you can peel or cooked veggies.

Trust your gut. If you’re unsure about the food or the way that it’s being prepared, then keep moving. Eating street food all over the world doesn’t make you an expert. Every stall and every country are different, and sometimes the rules can be harder to follow. When something doesn’t look, smell, or feel right, don’t eat it! Trust your judgment. Chances are that there’s another spot close by that’s making something more delicious.

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Can Tho: Co Ut’s Cong cake, Ut Dzach Fine Rice Vermicelli, Thanh Van Grilled Pork Sausage, Crab Noodle Soup At Floating Market, Scorched Rice with Caramelized Fish Sauce, 7-Toi’s Duck Meat Pancake, Banh Mi Thuy, Banana Blossom Salad, Fried Spring Rolls, Fresh Spring Rolls, Fetal duck egg (balut), Honeycomb Cake, Mini Sticky Rice Cake, Cassava Silkworm Cake, Grilled Banana Wrapped in Sticky Rice, Khmer-style Bun Goi Da Soup, Egg Coffee, Con Son Grilled Snakehead Fish, Bun Mam – Fermented Fish Noodle Soup, Lau Mam – Fermented Fish Hotpot, Grilled Snails with Pepper, Magenta Sticky Rice Cake, Duck cooked with Fermented Tofu, Rice Noodle Pizza, Vegetarian Noodle Soup, Snails Stuffed With Pork…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Chau Doc: Chau Doc Fish Noodle Soup, Sugar Palm Fruit, Basa Fish Hot Pot, Mam (Fermented fish), Phu Huong Beef Noodle Soup, Broken Rice with Pork Chop, Long Xuyen Broken Rice, Nui Cam Pancake, O Thum’s Chicken Grilled with Lime Leaves, Stir-fried Shrimp with Sesbania Flower, Sweet & Sour Soup with Siamese Mud Carp Soup & Sesbania Flower, Caramelized & Braised Catfish, Grilled Rice-field Rat with Salt and Chili…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Soc Trang: Pia Cake, Cong Cake (Banh Cong), Bun Nuoc Leo Soc Trang’s Noodle Soup, Soc Trang’s Bun Goi Da Soup, Duck Noodle Soup with black Pepper, Curry Noodle Soup, Grilled Beef on Tile, Khmer-style Tube Cake, Khmer-style Mung Bean Cake (Banh In), Dried Radish (Xa Bau), Stir-Fried Noodles with Seafood (Mi Sua), Soc Trang’s Green Rice Flakes…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Ben Tre: Phu Le Rice Wine, Ben Tre’s Coconut Candy, Flat Banana, Coconut Rice, Snail Pancake, Sea Snail with Coconut Milk, Coconut Worm, Young Coconut Salad with Shrimp & Pork, Son Doc Puff Rice Paper…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Cai Be: Puffed Rice Cake…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Vinh Long: Elephant Ear Fish (fried giant gourami)…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in My Tho: Fried Sticky Rice, Snakehead Fish Rice Porridge, Hu Tieu My Tho (Noodle Soup), Coconut Banana Cake…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Tra Vinh: Macapuno Coconut, Bun Nuoc Leo Tra Vinh’s Noodle Soup, Tra Cuon’s Sticky Rice Cake…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Sadec: Sa Dec Noodle Soup, Sadec Crab Hotpot, Lai Vung Spring Rolls, Sa Giang Shrimp Puff Pastry, Lai Vung Tangerine…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Bac Lieu: Spicy Beef Noodle Soup, Bac Lieu’s Three-striped Crab, White Radish Pies, Bac Lieu Thick Noodles & Creamy Coconut Milk, Bon Bon Pickles…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Ca Mau: Banh tam ga cay (Silkworm rice cake with curried chicken), Grilled Vop clams with salt and pepper, Grilled Mudskipper Fish, Stone Crab Roast With Salt, Young Bee Salad, Nam Can’s Crab, U Minh Forest’s Honey, U Minh’s Fermented Fish Hotpot…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Hau Giang: Cau Duc Pineapple, Cai Tac’s Pork Organs Porridge, Hau Giang’s Bronze Featherback Fish Cake…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Ha Tien: Herring Fish Salad, Spider crab cake soup, Ken Noodle soup, Xoi Xiem (Siamese sticky rice), Steamed Noodle soup, Ha Tien Oyster porridge…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Rach Gia: Stir Noodle Soup, Kien Giang Fish Noodle Soup…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Con Dao: Bang nut jam, Vu Nang Snail, Roasted Pork Bread (Banh Mi), Coconut Ice Cream…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Phu Quoc: Phu Quoc Sim Wine, Phu Quoc Pepper, Phu Quoc fish sauce…

Hopefully, the above tips will help you to come up with a great plan for your adventure in Mekong River Delta, Vietnam. Have a safe trip!

“Sleep less, travel more, respect more” – Thomas Vietnam – Local travel expert.

Thank you