The sweet taste of the Re cake comes from potatoes or cassava and sugar. Before peeling the sweet potatoes or cassava, the baker will soak them in water for several hours to remove their latex and dirt. They are then cut into juliennes.

These strips are mixed with a few drops of vanilla extract andfried in hot coconut oil. A huge ladle is used to press down the strips to the bottom of the pan to form a round shape. As the cakes look like re, what the Vietnamese call a bamboo basket, the cakes are named after them.

In the final step, the cakes are covered with caramel and roasted sesame.

The yellow re cakes are made from normal sweet potatoes, while the purple ones are made from the Duong Ngoc sweet potatoes.

Most bakeries selling re cakes are located in Duc Thang, Phu Thanh and Lac Dao wards in Phan Thiet City, Binh Thuan Province.

Source: Saigon Times