Dai Tam’s 'banh cong': A crispy fritter with 100 years of history in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta

From just a handful of vendors in the past, the area now has around 15 places selling the dish, mostly clustered along a short stretch near Dai Tam Market on the right side of National Highway 1 heading toward Ca Mau Province.

Banh cong is a longstanding specialty of Dai Tam, formed in a culinary space where Khmer, Chinese, and Vietnamese cultures intersect.

Some accounts trace the dish’s origins to the Khmer people, while local oral histories in Dai Tam say its predecessor was banh xay, a Teochew dish.

Most banh cong vendors in Dai Tam start selling at around 10:00 am and continue until they run out. The afternoon is perhaps the busiest time.

Many families from former Soc Trang City, now part of Can Tho City, still drive about 12km to Dai Tam to eat the fritters and buy them to take home.

Travelers along National Highway 1 also frequently stop to try the specialty.

Recipe passed down through generations in Mekong Delta

Mai, who has sold banh cong near Dai Tam Market for more than 20 years, said she does not remember exactly when the dish first appeared in the area.

However, when she was still a young woman, both her mother and grandmother were already making a living from selling it.

"By my estimate, it's been more than 100 years. The older generation taught the next generation, and that's how Dai Tam's banh cong became as famous as it is today," Mai recalled.

She now sells more than 100 fritters a day, with sales doubling on weekends and holidays.

According to Mai, making 100 fritters requires about 3kg of flour, and the whole family has to get up early to prepare the ingredients. 

She said making banh cong may look simple, but getting it right is not easy.

The batter must be made with genuine Tai Nguyen rice, she said.

The filling consists of mung beans and finely minced pork mixed with shallots, along with naturally sourced tiny freshwater shrimp.

One of the trickiest parts is getting the ratio of soybeans to rice right when grinding the batter.

Too much soybean can cause the batter to stick to the mold during frying, making the fritter difficult to remove and prone to breaking apart.

The dish takes its name from the cong, the small metal mold used to shape and deep-fry the fritter.

For Mai, the mold itself has a story to tell.

Mai noted that some of the small, blackened molds she is using are even older than her children, and that she has used some of them for nearly 20 years.

New molds cannot be used immediately. They have to be soaked in hot oil for several months so the batter will not stick during frying.

'The more you eat, the more you crave it'

Once all the ingredients are ready, Mai lights the stove and heats a large pan of oil before opening for business.

When the oil is bubbling vigorously, she pours a small amount of batter into a cong, adds mung beans and minced pork, then covers the filling with more batter.

Finally, she places two shrimp on top.

Each fritter is deep-fried for about 20 minutes before being removed from the oil, drained and served.

Freshly fried banh cong has a crisp, golden exterior.

As diners bite into it, the flavors of shrimp, pork, mung beans and fragrant shallots come together.

Quoc, who lives in Ca Mau, said his love for Dai Tam's banh cong is so strong that whenever he travels to Ho Chi Minh City, he chooses National Highway 1 instead of the expressway so he can stop for the dish. 

"The batter here has a very distinctive flavor. The more you eat, the more you crave it,” he said. 

“The vegetables served with it are also unusual. Besides lettuce, mustard greens and herbs, there is also cabbage.

“Wrap the fritter in those vegetables and dip it in sweet-and-sour fish sauce, and it's hard to describe how delicious it is.” 

According to Quoc, banh cong is now sold in many places, but Dai Tam remains the best place to enjoy it. 

A banh cong currently costs VND15,000 (US$0.57) each, making it an affordable snack. 

Two or three fritters are enough to fill most people up.