To cook the dish, Muong people collect ginger leaves or galingale leaves. They wash the leaves and then grind them to extract the juice which is then poured into the raw rice. Another way, which might be considered better, is to boil the ginger and galingale juice first (with some water).
When the liquid is boiled, they can add the rice and continue to boil for 2 minutes. When the rice is cooked, it will have a bluish color. Muong people usually wrap the cooked Non Rice in Dong Leaves and press each piece of rice into a square shape.
When eating, we can feel the sweet taste of newly gathered rice blending with the taste of ginger and galingale to create a strangely attractive flavour.
Despite the shape of the small pieces of rice, people do not call this dish a cake but rather name it simply as Non rice. This is a popular cuisine of the Muong ethnic group in the annual festivals. According to their belief, after the harvest, the new rice must be worshiped before people can eat it. Otherwise, the next harvest will be a total failure.
