Rượu nếp

Background

Rượu nếp is prepared by fermenting glutinous rice with yeast and steaming it in a banana leaf. Its color depends on the rice variety used: deep purplish-red or yellow. The dish is considered either a pudding or a wine based on its consistency; thicker versions are eaten with a spoon, while more liquid ones are drunk. Many Vietnamese people regard rượu nếp as a healthful food, believing it wards off or kills parasites.

Although most typical of northern Vietnam, rượu nếp and its brown-colored variant rượu nếp than are available in Ho Chi Minh City, at the market near the residential quarter where northern Vietnamese people live. In Vietnam's Central Highlands, a similar communal rice wine called rượu cần is drunk through long reed straws from large earthenware jugs, and may be made from ordinary rice, glutinous rice, cassava, or corn with leaves and herbs. Another variety, rượu nếp nương, comes from glutinous rice grown in mountainous areas of northwest Vietnam. A similar southern dish, cơm rượu, consists of white glutinous rice balls in a mildly alcoholic rice wine.