At Bánh Tét Tư Đẹp on Trần Quang Diệu Street, each cylindrical rice cake, once sliced open, reveals an unusual deep purple cross-section — glutinous rice naturally dyed with cẩm leaves (lá cẩm), wrapped around mung bean paste and pork belly. Each bite is soft and glutinous, with a savory, slightly sweet filling. This shade of purple represents a Cần Thơ innovation on the traditional rice cake, and it's also one of the rare stories in Vietnam's bánh tét lineage where an inventor's name is clearly recorded.
What is purple bánh tét, and how well documented is this story?
The Chinese Wikipedia entry for 'Vietnamese bánh tét' covers the lineage of the southern cylindrical rice cake (bánh tét), traditionally wrapped in banana leaves to give it a green color. What makes this Cần Thơ version special is that it uses natural cẩm leaf dye instead of the traditional method, giving the glutinous rice a deep purple hue. Multiple reports, including the national mainstream newspaper Thanh Niên, document that the inventor was a Cần Thơ woman named Huỳnh Thị Trọng (known as 'Sáu Trọng'), who first developed this purple-dyeing method in the 1960s, and it later spread across the western provinces.
Worth noting: among the 14 dishes in this guide, this is one of the rare items with a clearly documented Cần Thơ origin, where different media accounts largely agree with one another — unlike several other dishes in this guide that have contested origins or gaps in the sourcing. The timeline of 'invented in Cần Thơ, in the 1960s, by Mrs. Huỳnh Thị Trọng' is consistent across multiple reports, making it relatively solid and reliable. Tư Đẹp is a shop with more than thirty years of history in the area, carrying on this dyeing craft.
How to eat it like a local
Notable shops and local knowledge
Tư Đẹp, in An Thới Ward, Bình Thủy District, is the area's representative old shop, in business for more than thirty years, carrying on the purple-leaf dyeing craft first developed by Mrs. Huỳnh Thị Trọng. This rice cake has since spread across the western provinces, but the thread of Cần Thơ as its birthplace is, among the dishes in this guide, one of the more consistently verified stories — safe to cite with confidence.
Prices and Hours
- A stick of purple bánh tét costs about 30,000–60,000 VND (roughly NT$37–73) depending on size — a good single-serving portion.
- Most old shops are open all day; for souvenirs, choose a freshly made batch with intact packaging from that same day.
- Try saying: 'Cho tôi hai đòn bánh tét lá cẩm.' (Give me two sticks of purple bánh tét.)
Things to Keep in Mind
- This is one of the rare items in this guide with a clearly documented and consistently verified origin story — feel free to confidently share the 'invented in Cần Thơ' story with your travel companions.
- If bringing it home, check customs regulations on meat products (the filling contains pork) to avoid it being confiscated at the border.
- Best eaten fairly soon at room temperature; if you need to carry it a long distance, ask the shop whether vacuum-sealed packaging is available.
A shade of purple dyed from cẩm leaves is the most tangible flavor legacy Mrs. Huỳnh Thị Trọng left to Cần Thơ. Half a century later, this purple rice cake remains one of the few things this city can trace back with real clarity and pride.