The origin of Golden Dragon mung bean cake

Besides specialties such as Thanh Hà lychee, Kẻ Sặt gấc rice crackers and Ninh Giang gai cake, Hải Dương is also famous for its irresistible mung bean cake. The birth of this traditional cake is tied to a legend about Emperor Bảo Đại.

On one occasion, as he passed through Hải Dương, Emperor Bảo Đại was offered a cake made from mung beans by the local people. He found it delicious and praised it lavishly. After returning to the palace, he issued an edict commending Hải Dương mung bean cake, the edict bearing the image of a “Golden Dragon” — the symbol of imperial authority. From then on, Hải Dương mung bean cake came to be known as “Golden Dragon mung bean cake.” To this day that name remains a distinctive mark setting the cakes of “xứ Đông” (the Eastern land) apart from mung bean cakes made in other provinces.

Today, Hải Dương is home to more than 50 mung bean cake producers, and Việt Hương — with over 20 years in the craft — is proud to have won customers’ trust: trust in a brand that preserves traditional values while constantly improving itself and its products to bring this delicacy to an ever-wider range of consumers.