Five-Color Sticky Rice

The Vietnamese name for this sticky rice counts five colors: xôi ngũ sắc, five-color sticky rice. The Tày and the Nùng are two peoples of northern Vietnam with closely related languages and similar cultures. On the day of Thanh minh, they call the tray khẩu nua đăm đeng, which means red and black sticky rice. That name only counts to two.

Many families add green, purple and yellow to the tray. But red and black, the two colors held in the name, are on every tray.

The Tày and the Nùng of Cao Bằng and Lạng Sơn have made sticky rice in many colors for a long time. They make it for festivals and for Tết, the Lunar New Year festival in Vietnam. On happy days and on sad days in the family, they set it on a tray as an offering to their ancestors. At the Thanh minh festival, that tray can never be left out.

Every color starts with glutinous rice. Many families take it from sheaves of rice that have hung above the kitchen fire for months. The colors, though, have to be gathered. Most come from plants grown right in the home garden. Black alone needs the leaves of the sau sau, a tree that grows in the forest. The sau sau is a kind of sweet gum tree.

Under the sau sau trees, the adults go to pick leaves. They choose leaves of middle age, neither too young nor too old, at the height of their scent. Back home, they slice the leaves very fine, pound them in a mortar, and then dry them in the sun.

When the time comes, they boil the dried leaves to draw out their color. They let the water cool before they soak the rice in it. Lying in that water, the grains slowly turn a deep green. The longer they soak, the softer the sticky rice will be.

Even then, the rice is not black. Only when it is steamed through do the grains show a glossy black. The soaked rice is green, and the cooked rice is black.

One person from Trùng Khánh in Cao Bằng says that of all the colors, the black rice is the hardest to make. The villagers there choose trees with deep green leaves and red young shoots. They pick the leaves in the third month. Some trees give leaves that make the rice black and fragrant. Others do not. Only practiced hands can steam a batch that comes out glossy black, with every grain firm. No one knows who first made black sticky rice. The old teach the young.

People in Cao Bằng see different things in the black on the tray. Some think of the hard days of those who grow the rice, and of the years when the harvest failed. Others think of the devotion that children and grandchildren hold for their ancestors.

Red can come from the leaves of the magenta plant, or from the fruit called gấc. Some compare that red to a glowing kitchen fire, with the family gathered close around it.

Red and black are enough for the name. The tray is not complete yet.

The cooks pick magenta plant leaves and bring them home to boil. The magenta plant can give a purple water, a red one, and sometimes even a black one. Purple is the most common. In Cao Bằng and in Lạng Sơn, the Tày and the Nùng see purple as the color of faithfulness, of a love that holds firm.

For yellow, some families wait for the phón flowers. Just after spring begins, the phón opens in small white clusters, fragrant and a little sharp. They bring the flowers home, drop them into a pot of warm water, and boil it a while. Slowly the water turns bright yellow. The flowers are white, yet the water is yellow. Once the flowers are strained out, the rice goes in to soak.

Other families use old turmeric roots, or gardenia fruit. Whether it comes from a flower, a root or a fruit, yellow is always a wish that the children and grandchildren will have plenty.

Green comes from a few pandan leaves. The cooks cut the leaves, pound them to a pulp, mix them with water and stir. Strained, the water runs a fresh, bright green.

White alone needs no leaves at all. Plain sticky rice is white already. Some say the white on the tray looks like early morning dew on the mountains.

With all the colored waters ready, it is the rice's turn. The cooks wash the rice very clean and divide it into portions. Each portion soaks in its own color for many hours.

Steaming is the most important step, and the place beside the fire belongs to the adults. Some families steam each color on its own. Others mix the colors together in one steamer and steam them all at once.

With chopsticks, the cook pokes a few small holes in the rice so the steam can rise evenly through it. The cooks say the colors hardly bleed into one another. When the rice is cooked through once, it is left to cool a little, then steamed again for a short while. The second steaming makes the rice softer, while every grain stays dry.

Next, the cooks press the sticky rice into small bowls and turn it out in tall little mounds. The grains are glossy, not wet, and they stay soft even when cool.

On the tray, the mounds stand close together, red beside black, purple beside yellow. Any color can be changed, but every tray keeps red and black.

The family prepares the whole offering tray the day before. The next morning is the third day of the third lunar month. It is the Thanh minh festival of the Tày and the Nùng. Many other people visit their grandparents' graves on different days, sometimes waiting until the end of the year. The Tày and the Nùng always go on the third day of the third month.

The Kinh are the majority ethnic group of Vietnam. On that day, many Kinh families have bánh trôi and bánh chay, small dumplings of glutinous rice. In Cao Bằng, the trays of these two peoples hold xôi đăm đeng instead.

Children and grandchildren who work far away arrange to come home in time for this day. Brothers, sisters and relatives seldom gather in such numbers.

While it is still early, the family carries the offering tray up the hill. In Cao Bằng, the ancestors usually rest on the slopes of hills and mountains. There, the adults first light incense to ask permission of the local earth spirit. They cut back the grass and clear the ground around the grave. They also light a stick of incense for the graves nearby.

In front of the grave, the adults lay out the sticky rice, pour wine, and invite the ancestors to come. On each grave they plant a colorful pole, in some places with a bunch of paper flowers. The pole shows that this family has come and finished tidying up.

The children follow their parents up the hill too, so they learn where their forebears rest. The elders sit beside them and talk about those who have passed away. Then they urge the children to study hard and work hard.

When the ancestors have been invited, each family sits down to share the blessed food. The adults divide the mounds of sticky rice into small portions, one for each person. Then families visit one another and talk.

The day before, by the fire, the tray was counted in colors. This morning, on the hillside, it is counted in people. The grown child who works far away is sitting here. The little grandchild has come up the hill. The elders have just finished talking about those who no longer sit among them. The Tày and the Nùng believe that today the ancestors come home too, to meet their descendants, beside the red mounds of rice and the black ones.