Royal Menu Item · Crispy Rice Pancake
Bánh Khoái
Photo: Charles Haynes / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
Its name is often translated as 'happy pancake', and in Huế it's dipped in a thick peanut-and-liver sauce rather than the thin fish-sauce dip used for bánh xèo.
A turmeric rice-flour batter is poured into a small, very hot pan with shrimp, pork, and bean sprouts and fried until the edges crackle, then served flat rather than folded, with a rich dipping sauce of fermented soybean paste, pork liver, and sesame that's distinct to Huế. It's smaller, thicker, and crunchier than its southern cousin bánh xèo.
Why it's made this way: Huế's cooks lean on the city's imperial-capital pedigree for many of its signature dishes, and bánh khoái — especially the famous version sold near the old Citadel's Thượng Tứ gate — is often included in that lineage, though the precise history of its royal-court ties is not well documented.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3443 dishes from 118 countries.
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