Bánh


In Vietnamese, the term bánh translates loosely as "cake" or "bread", referring to a wide variety of prepared foods. With the addition of qualifying adjectives, bánh refers to a wide variety of sweet or savoury, distinct cakes, buns, pastries, sandwiches, and other food items, which may be cooked by steaming, baking, frying, deep-frying, or boiling. Foods made from wheat flour or rice flour are generally called bánh, but the term may also refer to certain varieties of noodle and fish cake dishes, such as bánh canh and bánh hỏi.
Each variety of bánh is designated by a descriptive word or phrase that follows the word bánh, such as bánh bò or bánh chuối. Bánh that are wrapped in leaves before steaming are called bánh lá.
In Vietnamese, the term bánh is not limited to Vietnamese cuisine: it applies equally to items as varied as fortune cookies, pudding, caramel custard, and sacramental bread.
In some cases, the word can also refer to inedibles that have a cake-like shape, such as car tires, bath soaps, and compressed tobacco wheels.

Varieties

There is a nearly endless variety of named dishes with the prefix bánh. What follows is a list of the most typical traditional varieties of bánh.

Noodles