Rice paper

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Rice paper is a product constructed of paper-like materials made from different plants. These include:

Contents

Rice paper plant

In Europe, around the 1900s, a paperlike substance was originally known as rice paper, due to the mistaken notion that it is made from rice. In fact, it consists of the pith of a small tree, Tetrapanax papyrifer , the rice paper plant (蓪草). [1]

The plant grows in the swampy forests of Taiwan, and is also cultivated as an ornamental plant for its large, exotic leaves. [3] In order to produce the paper, the boughs are boiled and freed from bark. The cylindrical core of pith is rolled on a hard flat surface against a knife, by which it is cut into thin sheets of a fine ivory-like texture.

Dyed in various colours, this rice paper is extensively used for the preparation of artificial flowers, while the white sheets are employed for watercolor drawings. Due to its texture, this paper is not suited for writing.[ citation needed ]

Mulberry paper

This "rice paper", smooth, thin, crackly, and strong, is named as a wrapper for rice, and is made from bark fibres of the paper mulberry tree. It is used for origami, calligraphy, paper screens and clothing. It is stronger than commercially made wood-pulp paper. Less commonly, the paper is made from rice straw.

Depending on the type of mulberry used, it is named kozo (Broussonetia papyrifera, the paper mulberry), gampi (Wikstroemia diplomorpha), or mitsumata (Edgeworthia chrysantha). The fiber comes from the bark of the paper mulberry, not the inner wood or pith, and traditionally the paper is made by hand.

The branches of the paper mulberry shrubs are harvested in the autumn, so the fibre can be processed and the paper formed during the cold winter months, because the fibre spoils easily in the heat. The branches are cut into sections two to three feet long and steamed in a large kettle, which makes the bark shrink back from the inner wood, allowing it to be pulled off like a banana peel. The bark can then be dried and stored, or used immediately. There are three layers to the bark at this stage: black bark, the outermost layer; green bark, the middle layer; and white bark, the innermost layer. All three can be made into paper, but the finest paper is made of white bark only.

If the bark strips have been dried, they are soaked in water overnight before being processed further. To clean the black and green bark from the white bark, the bark strip is spread on a board and scraped with a flat knife. Any knots or tough spots in the fibre are cut out and discarded at this stage.

The scraped bark strips are then cooked for two or three hours in a mixture of water and soda ash. The fibre is cooked enough when it can easily be pulled apart lengthwise. The strips are then rinsed several times in clean water to rinse off the soda ash. Rinsing also makes the fibre brighter and whiter—fine kozo paper is not bleached, but is naturally pure white.

Each bark strip is then inspected by hand, against a white background or lit from behind by a light box. Any tiny pieces of black bark and other debris are removed with tweezers, and any knots or tough patches of fibre missed during scraping are cut out of the strips. The ultimate goal is to have completely pure white bark.

The scraped, cooked, and cleaned strips are then laid out on a table and beaten by hand. The beating tool is a wooden bat that looks like a thicker version of a cricket bat. The fibres are beaten for about half an hour, or until all the fibres have been separated and no longer resemble strips of bark.

The prepared fibre can now be made into sheets of paper. A viscous substance called formation aid is added to the vat with the fibre and water. Formation aid is polyethylene oxide, and it helps slow the flow of water, which gives the paper-maker more time to form sheets. Sheets are formed with multiple thin layers of fibre, one on top of another.

Vietnamese rice paper

Rice paper Rice paper.jpg
Rice paper

"Rice paper" is created from the process of creating rice noodles and pho, one of the specialties from rice of Vietnamese people. Bánh tráng originates from the Southern provinces. The Northern and Central provinces also created many other types of rice paper with different names. Rice paper has many types from traditional rice paper, coconut milk rice paper, coconut rice paper, mango rice paper, pandan leaf rice paper, etc.

Edible rice paper is used for making gỏi cuốn or chả giò in Vietnamese cuisine, where the rice paper is called bánh tráng or bánh đa nem. Ingredients of the food rice paper include white rice flour, tapioca flour, salt, and water. The tapioca powder makes the rice paper glutinous and smooth. It is usually sold dried in thin, crisp, translucent round sheets that are wrapped in cellophane. The sheets are individually dipped briefly for a few seconds in warm or cool water to soften, then wrapped around savoury or sweet ingredients.

Edible paper is used in the home baking of foods such as macarons and is often sold separately as colored sheets that are either plain or printed with images, such as bank notes. [4]

See also

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramie</span> Species of plant

Ramie, Boehmeria nivea, is a flowering plant in the nettle family Urticaceae, native to eastern Asia. It is a herbaceous perennial growing to 1.0–2.5 m tall; the leaves are heart-shaped, 7–15 cm (2.8–5.9 in) long and 6–12 cm (2.4–4.7 in) broad, and white on the underside with dense, small hairs—this gives it a silvery appearance; unlike stinging nettles, the hairs do not sting. The true ramie or China grass is also called Chinese plant or white ramie.

<i>Washi</i> Japanese paper traditionally made from mulberry tree bark

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bánh tráng</span> Edible Vietnamese culinary wrapper

Bánh tráng or bánh đa nem, a Vietnamese term, sometimes called rice paper wrappers, rice crepes, rice wafers or nem wrappers, are edible Vietnamese wrappers used in Vietnamese cuisine, primarily in finger foods and appetizers such as Vietnamese nem dishes. The term rice paper wrappers can sometimes be a misnomer, as some banh trang wrappers are made from rice flour supplemented with tapioca flour or sometimes replaced completely with tapioca starch. The roasted version is bánh tráng nướng.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rice noodles</span> Noodles made from rice

Rice noodles, or simply rice noodle, are noodles made with rice flour and water as the principal ingredients. Sometimes ingredients such as tapioca or corn starch are added in order to improve the transparency or increase the gelatinous and chewy texture of the noodles. Rice noodles are most common in the cuisines of China, India and Southeast Asia. They are available fresh, frozen, or dried, in various shapes, thicknesses and textures. Fresh noodles are also highly perishable; their shelf life may be just several days.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rice noodle roll</span> Cantonese rice dish

A rice noodle roll, also known as a steamed rice roll and cheung fun, and as look funn or look fun in Hawaii, is a Cantonese dish originating from Guangdong Province in southern China, commonly served as either a snack, small meal or variety of dim sum. It is a thin roll made from a wide strip of shahe fen, filled with shrimp, beef, vegetables, or other ingredients. Seasoned soy sauce – sometimes with siu mei drippings – is poured over the dish upon serving. When plain and made without filling, the rice noodle is also known as jyu cheung fun, literally "pork intestine noodle", a reference to its resemblance of a pig's intestines. There is no official recording of the history of rice noodle rolls; most cookbooks claim that it was first made in the 1930s. In Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, people called the dish laai cheung because it is a noodle roll that pulled by hand.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Japanese tissue</span> Thin, strong paper made from vegetable fibers

Japanese tissue is a thin, strong paper made from vegetable fibers. Japanese tissue may be made from one of three plants, the kōzo plant, the mitsumata shrub and the gampi tree. The long, strong fibers of the kōzo plant produce very strong, dimensionally stable papers, and are the most commonly used fibers in the making of Japanese paper (washi). Tissue made from kōzo, or kōzogami (楮紙), comes in varying thicknesses and colors, and is an ideal paper to use in the mending of books. The majority of mending tissues are made from kōzo fibers, though mitsumata and gampi papers also are used. Japanese tissue is also an ideal material for kites and the covering of airplane models.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bánh cuốn</span> Vietnamese stuffed rice noodles

Bánh cuốn is a Vietnamese dish originating from Northern Vietnam.

<i>Bánh</i> Traditional Vietnamese confectionary

In Vietnamese, the term bánh translates loosely as "cake" or "bread", but refers to a wide variety of prepared foods that can easily be eaten by hands or chopsticks. With the addition of qualifying adjectives, bánh refers to a wide variety of sweet or savory, distinct cakes, buns, pastries, sandwiches, and other food items, which may be cooked by steaming, baking, frying, deep-frying, or boiling. Foods made from wheat flour or rice flour are generally called bánh, but the term may also refer to certain varieties of noodle and fish cake dishes, such as bánh canh and bánh hỏi.

<i>Chè</i> Type of Vietnamese dessert

Chè is any traditional Vietnamese sweet beverage, dessert soup or stew, or pudding. Chè includes a wide variety of distinct soups or puddings. Varieties of Chè can be made with mung beans, black-eyed peas, kidney beans, tapioca, jelly, fruit, and coconut cream. Other types are made with ingredients such as salt, aloe vera, seaweed, lotus seed, sesame seed, sugar palm seeds, taro, cassava and pandan leaf extract. Some varieties, such as chè trôi nước, may also include dumplings. Chè are often prepared with one of a number of varieties of beans, tubers, and/or glutinous rice, cooked in water and sweetened with sugar. In southern Vietnam, chè are often garnished with coconut creme.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paper</span> Material for writing, printing, etc.

Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses, or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through a fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distributed on the surface, followed by pressing and drying. Although paper was originally made in single sheets by hand, almost all is now made on large machines—some making reels 10 metres wide, running at 2,000 metres per minute and up to 600,000 tonnes a year. It is a versatile material with many uses, including printing, painting, graphics, signage, design, packaging, decorating, writing, and cleaning. It may also be used as filter paper, wallpaper, book endpaper, conservation paper, laminated worktops, toilet tissue, currency, and security paper, or in a number of industrial and construction processes.

The Bánh tráng phơi sương is a special food of Lộc Du, Trảng Bàng District, Tây Ninh Province, Vietnam. It is a flexible two-layer rice paper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of paper</span>

Paper is a thin nonwoven material traditionally made from a combination of milled plant and textile fibres. The first paper-like plant-based writing sheet was papyrus in Egypt, but the first true papermaking process was documented in China during the Eastern Han period, traditionally attributed to the court official Cai Lun. This plant-puree conglomerate produced by pulp mills and paper mills was used for writing, drawing, and money. During the 8th century, Chinese paper making spread to the Islamic world, replacing papyrus. By the 11th century, papermaking was brought to Europe, where it replaced animal-skin-based parchment and wood panels. By the 13th century, papermaking was refined with paper mills using waterwheels in Spain. Later improvements to the papermaking process came in 19th century Europe with the invention of wood-based papers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cassava-based dishes</span> Foods prepared with cassava

A great variety of cassava-based dishes are consumed in the regions where cassava is cultivated, and the ingredient is included many national or ethnic specialities.

Milk rice paper is a special type of the Vietnamese culinary rice paper, which was originated from Ben Tre province.

References

  1. 1 2 "通草奇画", 探索·发现 (139), CCTV, 2011
  2. "rice paper". Answers Corporation. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  3. George W. Staples and Derral R. Herbst. 2005. "A Tropical Garden Flora". Bishop Museum Press: Honolulu, HI, USA.
  4. "Funny Money Edible Paper - Frankies Candy Bar". Archived from the original on 2014-08-10.