Still Life No.1

Việt lore has it that bánh chưng was created by Lang Liêu, the 18th and poorest in a long line of princes in the 6th Hùng dynasty.

To pick his successor, the king asked the princes for a Tết dish worthy of their ancestors. Stacked against exotic offerings by his brothers, Lang Liêu’s bánh chưng impressed the king with its simplicity and locavore sensibility: A square of glutinous white rice tightly packed around mung bean paste and slivers of fatty pork, wrapped in banana leaves, and steamed until it has the consistency of a cake. In offering up Earth and Sky (bánh giầy or bánh dầy), Lang Liêu inherited the throne.