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A rice cake may be any kind of food item made from rice that has been shaped, condensed, or otherwise combined into a single object. A wide variety of rice cakes exist in many different cultures in which rice is eaten. Common variations include cakes made with rice flour, those made from ground rice, and those made from whole grains of rice compressed together or combined with some other binding substance.
Types of rice cake include:
Burmese cuisine has a variety of snacks and desserts called mont made with various types of rice, rice flour and glutinous rice flour. Sweet Burmese mont are generally less sweet than counterparts in other parts of Southeast Asia, instead deriving their natural sweetness from constituent ingredients (e.g., grated coconut, coconut milk, glutinous rice, fruit, etc.). [1] [2]
Rice cakes are a common snack in the Philippines and Filipinos have created many different kinds. In Filipino, these rice-based desserts are also known as kakanin, which means "prepared rice." It is derived from the word kanin which is the Filipino word for rice. Rice cakes were also formerly known by the general term tinapay (lit. 'fermented with tapay '), but that term is now restricted to mean "bread" in modern Filipino. [17] Nevertheless, two general categories of rice cakes remain: puto for steamed rice cakes, and bibingka for baked rice cakes. Both are usually prepared using galapong , a viscous rice paste derived from grinding uncooked glutinous rice that has been soaked overnight. Galapong is usually fermented, as the old term tinapay implies. [18]
Some examples of traditional Filipino dessert rice cakes include:
Some of these rice cakes can be considered savory. Putong bigas, the most common type of puto, for instance, is traditionally paired with the savory pig's blood stew dinuguan . Bibingka galapong can also be topped with meat or eggs. Aside from these, non-dessert rice cakes eaten as accompaniment to savory meals also exist, the most widespread being the puso.
In Indonesia rice cakes can be plain and bland tasting, and are often treated as a food staple, as an alternative to steamed rice.
Numerous types of Indonesian kue (traditional cake) are made using glutinous rice or rice flour. They can be sweet or savoury. Varieties include:
Steamed rice cake in an earthenware steamer was the oldest principal food for Koreans before sticky rice took over upon the invention of the iron pot. [22] Now, there are hundreds of different kinds of Korean rice cake or "tteok" eaten year round. In Korea, it is customary to eat tteok guk (tteok soup) on New Year's Day and sweet tteok at weddings and on birthdays. It is often considered a celebratory food and can range from rather elaborate versions or down to the plain-flavored tteok. Rice cakes are chosen for particular occasions depending on their color and the role they play in Korea's traditional yin-yang cosmology. [23]