Poor quality offerings to Hung Kings

15:42' 18/04/2008 (GMT+7)
The giant banh chung and banh giay
VietNamNet Bridge – HCM City’s giant traditional cakes (banh chung and banh giay) offered on the Hung Kings’ death anniversary 2008 were reported to be very poor in quality. The city’s authorities have asked cake makers to review the whole process of production and transportation and punish any violator.
HCM City people donated a pair of huge banh chung (square glutinous rice cake) and banh giay (glutinous rice dumpling) for the death anniversary of the Hung Kings, believed to be the founders of the Vietnamese nation. The cakes passed over 2,000km to reach the midland province of Phu Tho on April 14.
According to cake makers, the banh chung was 2 tonnes in weight. It was made of 900kg of glutinous rice, 200kg of green beans, and 100kg of pork while the banh giay was 1 tonne in weight.



According to the Vice Head of the Hung Kings Anniversary Organising Board, organisers planned to share the cakes among pilgrims after the cakes were offered to the Hung Kings on April 15. However, as the cakes were mouldy, they were not sliced for sharing but moved to the People’s Committee of Hy Cuong commune, Phu Tho province.



On April 16, under the witness of tens of local residents, the two giant cakes were sliced. The banh chung was mouldy and fermenting while the banh giay was mouldy-green. The banh giay was made with spongy pieces covered by a thin layer of powder.



Nguyen Huu Trung, Deputy Director of the Dam Sen Cultural Park, the cake maker, said the banh giay was announced to be 1 tonne in weight but this was the total weight of both the cake and the iron frame and support. The cake was actually 500kg only.



Trung said the spongy pieces were used to make the shape for the cake and the hot weather made the cake mouldy. He also said that the banh giay should not have been cut up to share with pilgrims because it was a glutinous powder block which should be seen as a symbolic traditional offering rather than a real cake.



However, as the media reported the poor quality of these offerings, HCM City authorities on April 17 asked the cake maker, Dam Sen Cultural Park, to review the production and transportation process of the cakes to find out the reason and punish wrong-doers.