Or maybe it’s banh bot lot. I see spelled it both ways on the 'net.
It’s a Vietnamese steamed dumpling, but in my mind it’d be more fair to say it’s a Vietnamese tamale.
I was yelping a Vietnamese duck restaurant that I like and that I plan to visit at lunchtime today. Looking at all the yelp photos, I saw banh bot loc pictured, though I don’t remember it being on the menu before. Maybe it’s described on a specials board on the wall and I couldn’t read it because it was in Vietnamese.
At any rate, they intrigue me and I’m going to try them today. Google says tapioca flour dough is wrapped around some tasty filling like a couple of shrimp or some seasoned ground pork, then the whole dumpling is wrapped in banana leaves and steamed. The tapioca dough changes from opaque white to almost completely transparent, and it becomes gelatinous and chewy. I like this texture, at least in the big tapioca pearls in pearl tea, so I’m going to try this dish in a few hours.
Has anyone else ever tried banh bot loc?
Years ago I could spend hours and hours eating nothing but different kinds of dumplings at Chinese/Vietnamese/other-Asian-country restaurants. I used to go to one in Las Vegas’s Chinatown that had like 4 or 5 ladies with carts loaded with dumplings who would just wander the room, dishing things out as people called for whatever particular dumplings they had. Good times!
That’s dim sum, and extremely good it is! It’s hard to know when to stop when they keep bringing by more goodies.
The banh bot loc was addictive. It was transparent and chewy, and embedded in the center was a small shell-on shrimp and a little chunk of fatty pork belly, both of which had been stir-fried in a spicy sauce prior to embedding in the dough. Vietnamese dipping sauce with little red chili slices was served on the side.
As I said, I like gelatinous chewy foods so this was right up my alley. I have to go back for more!
There’s no one here at work I can drag along on my foodie expeditions, and my husband will only tolerate so many lunches at out-of-the-way Asian joints. I have to go solo most of the time.
