Banh can

The dish and how it is cooked

The batter is made from rice, soaked and ground together with some cooled cooked rice, mixed with water, turmeric and a little peanut oil or pork fat^[1][2][3]. It is poured into a wheel of small, round fired clay or cast iron moulds heated over charcoal, each mould oiled first to stop the cake sticking, then topped with a filling before it sets, commonly quail egg, chicken egg, shrimp, squid or minced meat^[1][2][3]. The cakes are served in pairs, dressed with scallion oil, and dipped in a fish sauce mixture, sometimes a fermented anchovy sauce or a thin fish broth, with shredded green mango, herbs and lettuce on the side^[1].

The result is a cake with a firm, lightly crisped surface and a soft centre, eaten hot from the mould rather than reheated^[1][3]. It is treated as a food for any time of day, though particular streets and shops keep it to a single sitting, morning or evening, rather than selling it all day^[3].

The Cham origin claim

Both the Vietnamese and English Wikipedia articles describe banh can as originally a dish of the Cham people, with the English article specifically naming the Cham of the province of Ninh Thuận as its source^[1][2]. Neither article gives a date for when the dish began or when it spread beyond Cham communities, and no other fetched source supplies one; the claim is recorded here as a widely repeated attribution rather than as an established date.

The Phan Rang and Nha Trang versions

The dish remains most closely associated with Phan Rang, in the part of Khanh Hoa that was Ninh Thuận province until 2025, and with Nha Trang further along the coast, and it is also eaten in Đà Lạt and in Lâm Đồng province, which absorbed the former Bình Thuận in the same year^[1][2]. No fetched source describes a specific difference in batter, mould or topping between the Phan Rang and Nha Trang versions.

Sold where and how

In Nha Trang, banh can has been sold on Hoàng Văn Thụ street in the mornings only, and on Tháp Bà and Nguyễn Trãi streets at other times of day, at prices of 18,000 to 25,000 VND recorded in 2015^[3]. The English Wikipedia article also records chả, a Vietnamese pork pâté, chillies and minced mango among the side dishes offered alongside the dipping sauces, wrapped together with herbs and lettuce rather than eaten separately^[2].