Banh cam or Fried sesame balls is a popular street food and vegetarian food in Hoi An Vietnam. It’s simply made from common rice flour, glutinous rice flour, mung bean, white sesame, sugar and all fried then. Now, let’s HoiAn Day Trip Company provide all information about Banh cam or Fried sesame balls in Hoi An Vietnam.
You may also like: Specialty Food in Hoi An, Vietnam
• Content by Tam Le, founder of HOIAN DAY TRIP CO.,LTD
• Designed by Giang Cong Minh, co-founder of LS E&C LTD and his team
• Photo by Dang Cong Loi, Dao Xuan Son, Tam Le & others
Must Knows about Banh Cam (Fried Sesame Balls)
– Other name(s): Banh ran (meaning ‘fried cake’)
– Origin: southern Vietnam
– Similar dish: Jian dui or sesame balls in Chinese cuisine
– Where to find: local markets and vendors in Hoi An
– Ingredients: common rice flour, glutinous rice flour, mung bean, white sesame, sugar,
– Time: anytime during the day
– Price: 10,000 VND/cake
– Calories:
– Travel blog: https://hoiandaytrip.com/banh-cam-fried-sesame-balls-hoi-an
– Fact:
Name of Banh Cam
Banh cam or Fried sesame ball is a traditional vegetarian cake in Vietnamese cuisine. Banh means ‘cake’ and Cam means ‘orange’ in the local language. The reason is that its shape is round like an orange. Absolutely, it is not made of orange!
Ingredients & How to Make Banh Cam (Fried Sesame Balls)
Ramie leaf rice cake/dumpling (Banh it la gai) is made by common rice flour, glutinous rice flour, mung bean (green bean), sesame, and sugar. Flours, sesame and mung beans are often bought at local markets.
Here are steps to make the Vietnamese Banh cam or Fried sesame balls:
Step 1: Soak mung beans in fresh water for many hours and then boil them. Grind into fine powder by hand or machine and then mix with cane sugar to sweeten. Ground mung beans will be molded into small balls to fill the rice cake.
Step 2: Mix the common rice flour and glutinous rice flour with fresh water to make a dough. Sometimes people like adding smashing potatoes or sweet potatoes.
Step 3: Pick up a small piece of dough, flatten it and place the mung bean ball in the middle. The cake will look like a ball.
Step 4: Coat the ball by white sesame and then fry in hot oil.
How to Eat Make Banh Cam (Fried Sesame Balls) Like A Local
Local people will eat the naked glutinous rice cake (Banh it tran) without any other things.
Banh cam (fried sesame balls) is often sold in the same place with banh bo (cow cake), banh tieu (fried hollow donut), banh da lon (pig skin cake or steamed layer cake), banh xoai (mango cake), banh dau xanh (mung bean cake), etc.
Where to Eat Banh Cam (Fried Sesame Balls) in Hoi An?
To see Banh cam (fried sesame balls), visitors should go to these places:
– Hoi An Central Market
– Tan An Market
– Ba Le Market
Better to Know about Eating Local in Da Nang/Hoi An
– Local family-run restaurants always serve better local foods than tourist restaurants. Places inside small alleyways potentially are hidden gems. The price is even more affordable at these lesser known spots.
– Restaurants where you can see a queue or crowds, food or drinks there are absolutely better or safer than others. Vietnamese people also avoid places without people eating, such as roadside eateries.
– Hot foods are often safe to eat for non-Vietnamese people. Refuse cold food (especially ones sold on the street, markets) or things you don’t see people cooking.
– Make sure that you learn some basic Vietnamese words or sentences to order foods, such as xin chao (hello, hi), cho toi mot (something) (I want one…), toi an chay (I am vegetarian), khong cay (no spicy), cam on (thank you), tam biet (goodbye) or numbers (mot/one, hai/two, ba/three, bon/four, nam/five, sau/six, bay/seven, tam/eight, chin/nine, and muoi/ten).
– Ask any local people you know (tour guide, driver, hotel receptionists, bellmen, etc) to receive their recommendation for good places to eat local.
– Raw vegetables are popularly used in local dishes, such as noodles or noodle soup or sandwich. They are often washed by tap water or unwashed. If can not drink tap water, remove or refuse them. Likewise, in most iced drinks (such as coffee or herbal tea), people add ice made by tap water also.
– On the 1st day and 14th-15th days of each lunar month, Hoi An citizens eat vegetarians. Many local restaurants and street businesses will be closed by that.
– If you don’t eat pork or beef, due to diet or religious restrictions, be careful when want to try local food here, if don’t see the ingredient description. Pork and beef are very popular meats, so they will be in numerous dishes. Street vendors may say ‘no pork’ or ‘no beef’ for better business, but please check before buying!
– Consider joining a food tour guided by locals who know much better about dishes in the city, including things never mentioned in guidebooks or on the internet.
– If have an allergy (milk, egg, peanut, wheat,…), ask anybody you know before trying or search for ingredients on the internet. By the way, fish sauce is popularly used to marinate Vietnamese foods, so make sure that you know this information if you’re fish allergic.
– Food portion (or size) here is often not really big (locals prefer eating with their family at home). You may try double or some different dishes for main meals.
– If don’t see the price on the menu, please ask in advance to avoid overcharging, especially when you are not a local. In Vietnamese, how much is bao nhieu.
– Most popular cutleries are chopsticks and spoons. To know how to use it, browse here
Local Food & Street Food in Da Nang/Hoi An
– Hoi An specialty food & street food: Cao Lau Noodles, Mi Quang Noodles, Banh Mi (Hoi An Style), Pho (Hoi An Style), White Rose Dumplings, Fried Wonton, Banh Dap (Smashing Rice Paper), Cam Nam Stir-fried Baby Clams, Cam Nam Sweet Corn Soup
– Other food & street food: Banh Beo (Steamed Rice Cake), Banh Xeo (Crispy Rice Pancake), Banh Bot Loc (Tapioca Dumpling), Banh Nam,