Nguyen Thi Dut, who has been making banh trang phoi suong – which, despite its name, is a kind of rice paper – for 30 years, says: “It takes time and careful effort to make this special cake. The process includes several steps of steeping and grinding rice, adding salt to the powder and coating before finally drying the cakes under the sun and leaving them in the dew to soften.”

Banh trang Trang Bang is made from high-quality white rice, and is thicker than any other rice paper made around the country.

Despite being very dry, it is soft enough to be rolled with shrimp, meat, salad, coriander, herbs, chili and dill.

The flavor of the rice paper, together with the stuffing inside, makes for a delicious treat.

It is usually dipped in fish or soy sauce.

Though famous internationally, the art of making banh trang phoi suong might well be dying out since a family earns very little by making it despite the hard work involved.

To make 1,000 cakes, a 10-member family has to work from dawn to late into the night but still earns just VND300,000.

Phan Van Tro, a village official, says: “Most of the families that have made the cakes for the last 30-50 years are living in old, ramshackled houses. None of them has become rich.”

“We feel sad to see the young generation take up other jobs since they realize it has just cultural value and cannot support them,” he says.

But Trang Bang still has over 360 families making banh trang phoi suong.