Many people today would find it hard to “stomach” sorghum. However, in the scarcity of the subsidized economy era, sorghum was still an acceptable part of the daily meal…
Eating rice mixed with sorghum is an unforgettable memory for many Vietnamese from the subsidized economy era. However, not everyone knows exactly what sorghum is or where it originates from.
According to sources, sorghum is indeed millet or grain sorghum, a drought-resistant plant that was widely cultivated by the Soviet Union, India, and several countries friendly to Vietnam before the 1990s for its grains.
The appearance of the sorghum plant closely resembles that of corn, but it produces clusters of small grains resembling beans at the top. Sorghum grains have a very hard shell, making them difficult to cook directly.
In addition to the sorghum grains mentioned above, whole unprocessed wheat and barley imported from the Soviet Union are also called sorghum grains, serving the same purpose.
To be used as food for humans, sorghum must undergo grinding to remove the husk and fermentation. However, the sorghum grains that reached the Vietnamese during the subsidized economy era often did not go through this process.
To consume unprocessed sorghum grains, people had to soak them in water and cook them for a long time. Because they could not be fermented, sorghum grains were quite tough and hard compared to rice. To make them easier to eat, people mixed sorghum with rice. Additionally, sorghum grains were also ground into flour.
Many people today would find it hard to “stomach” sorghum. However, in the circumstances of scarcity back then, sorghum was still an acceptable part of the daily meal…
