Ban Pho Village

Early morning in Bản Phố, and the smell of leaf yeast drifts out of a Flower Hmong kitchen. Steam rises evenly from a wooden steamer, thin and white. Inside is a batch of corn, steamed through and waiting to ferment. Outside, the plateau is cold. Peach, pear and plum trees stand still with the season, and terraced fields step down beneath the mist.

Bản Phố is a commune in the Bắc Hà area, on the Bắc Hà plateau. The plateau lies in Lào Cai Province. Local writing often calls this plateau the white plateau. From the center of Bắc Hà it is not far, and the commune's villages are scattered across the hillsides.

The community here is mostly Hmong. People often call them the Flower Hmong, after the patterns on the women's clothing. For generations they have lived tied to their cornfields and to a traditional craft, the making of corn liquor.

To speak of Bản Phố is to speak of that craft. The liquor of Bản Phố owes its character to the yeast. The Hmong here ferment their liquor with yeast made from the seeds of the hồng mi, a grass that grows in the high mountains and belongs to the millet family. The seeds are dried and ground fine, then mixed with a few forest leaves, following a family recipe, and shaped into cakes of yeast. This is what sets the liquor apart. The yeast is not bought ready-made. It is made from wild plants of the forest.

Local yellow corn is steamed in the wooden steamer and left to cool. Then the yeast is sprinkled over it, and it is sealed in large jars before it is distilled. The distiller goes by the fire, by the smell, and by the stream of liquid running from the spout of the still. There is no measuring machine, only skill and time.

The village of Bản Phố 2 is linked with the Sunday market of Bắc Hà. It is also linked with the Hoàng A Tưởng Mansion. Together they make one cultural route across the plateau. In 2019, Bản Phố reached the national standard for new rural communes. Still, the hearth and the wooden steamer in every house stay as they were.

Every season in Bản Phố has its own story. From late winter into spring, peach, pear and plum blossoms open on the hillsides. In summer, the corn turns green in the fields. In autumn, corn dries yellow on the porches, ready for the next batches of liquor. In winter, the kitchens fill with steam and the smell of leaf yeast.

In the middle of the village, the daily rhythm of Flower Hmong life can be heard. There is the fire crackling under the steamer, the yeast being pounded in the yard, and the distilled liquid dripping steadily. Each batch of liquor holds a season of corn, a season of blossom, and a whole life tied to the mountain.

Leaving Bản Phố, a person carries away a corner of a kitchen full of steam, and leaves a plateau of white pear blossom behind. On those hillsides the leaf yeast still rises, the corn still turns yellow on the porch, and the smell of corn liquor still drifts out of the kitchens.