How does a small, dried disc of rice suddenly transform into a large, crispy, golden cake?
The answer lies in a remarkable combination of traditional craftsmanship, starch transformation, dehydration, and thermal expansion.
The process begins with glutinous rice steamed over a wood fire. Once cooked, the rice is transferred to a large wooden trough, where artisans rhythmically pound it with heavy wooden mallets. This intense mechanical action breaks down the cooked grains and develops a cohesive, elastic starch-rich dough.
To work with the incredibly sticky mixture, the craftsmen prepare a natural release coating using beeswax and tea seed oil. This helps prevent the dough from sticking to the wooden tools as it is pressed into smooth discs.
Another version uses steamed rice that is pressed into wooden molds while the individual grains remain more recognizable, creating a different texture.
The shaped rice cakes are then dried in the sun.
This stage is crucial. Removing most of the moisture turns the soft rice cakes into firm, shelf-stable discs while leaving a small amount of moisture within the starch structure.
Then comes the dramatic transformation.
When the dried rice disc enters hot oil, its remaining moisture rapidly turns into steam. Because the surrounding starch has already formed a rigid structure, the expanding steam pushes outward through the material, causing the rice cake to rapidly expand and become light, porous, and crispy.
In just seconds, a dense little disc becomes a dramatically larger golden snack.
It is a beautiful example of how traditional food makers used mechanical force, starch chemistry, dehydration, and heat to create remarkable textures long before modern food-processing equipment.
Traditional recipes and techniques vary by region, and the exact method shown here represents one style of traditional rice-cake preparation.
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