The thin noodles hold a special place in Vietnamese culinary culture and are an indispensable course at Tet (Lunar New Year) feasts and on other significant occasions.
Cu Da’s even, thin vermicelli comes in smooth white and shiny yellow versions.
The main ingredient, cassava starch, is soaked in warm water and filtered to make a soft paste. The paste is boiled, rolled out in thin sheets and dried outdoors. The sheets of vermicelli are then cut into long, thin strips and dried some more. Drying time depends on the weather.
Visitors to the village on a sunny day can see not only the French-influenced architecture, but also cassava vermicelli drying on bamboo screens everywhere in the village, reminiscent of a silk production process. The residents of Cu Da, who have preserved the village’s time-honored traditional craft, generate stable incomes from producing hundreds of tonnes of vermicelli each year for domestic use and export.
Can Dung