HCMC - Colorful, diverse, and elaborately prepared Tet feasts are recreated at the Vietnamese Tet Festival at Le Van Tam Park.
The Tet trays are constantly changed by day during the festival. This is an image of the traditional Tet tray of the Central region, consisting of 21 dishes, made by culinary artist Nguyen Ho Thi Anh, with artist Ho Dac Thieu Anh as advisor. Ms. Thieu Anh shared that the artisans of Hue want to bring traditional flavors to the festival so that visitors from all over, especially the young generation, can visualize how sophisticated and elaborate the traditional Central region trays were.
"The highlight of the Dragon Year feast is the dishes shaped like the four sacred animals: Dragon, Unicorn, Turtle, and Phoenix, symbolizing peace and progress. The four dishes are turtle-shaped rice, unicorn salad for the king, five-color phoenix patties, and fig and dragon fruit salad," said Ms. Thieu Anh.
In addition, the tray also has elaborate dishes typical of the Central region such as shrimp spring rolls, sour beef and pickled onions, mai flower spring rolls or white sticky rice with pork.
The Central culinary space is also attractive with the display of Buddha's hand jam and flower jam. Buddha's hand jam is special because it is stewed whole fruit, completed within half a month. Artisan Thieu Anh said that to make whole Buddha's hand jam, the fruit must be soaked in salt water for at least a week to remove all the bitterness in the skin. Then peel, boil, soak in sugar, dry in the sun during the day and in the dew at night, stew the whole fruit until the Buddha's hand has the right clarity.
The cuisine of the Central region during Tet is also attractive to diners because of the aroma of banh thuan. The artisans make this cake at the festival, serving it to guests for free.
Ms. Nhi Nguyen, from Binh Dinh, shared that when she arrived at the festival, she immediately went to the area recreating the old Tet. The banh thuan dish at the festival reminded Ms. Ly of the days before Tet when she went back to her hometown to help her mother make cakes and sell them at the market.
"Every year my family makes banh thuan, the aroma of this cake is very familiar to me. This is a specialty of Binh Dinh and many provinces in the Central region. This cake has simple ingredients from tapioca flour and chicken eggs, but the important thing is to watch the fire so that both sides are even so that the cake will expand and not burn," said Ms. Ly.
The Southern Tet feast is called Saigon Connection, consisting of 16 typical dishes of ethnic groups living in the South such as Chinese fortune cake, Cham specialty beef sausage and Vietnamese dishes. Chef Doan Thi Huong Giang, culinary consultant for the Southern Tet feast, said that during the 4 days of the festival, the feast will change according to the theme. The first day is the connection feast, the second day is the reclamation feast, returning to the past of early Saigon, the feast mainly consists of boiled dishes. The third day is the feast of modern Saigon with dishes combining the cultures of many countries and the last day is the vegetarian feast.
The Western cuisine area also has a traditional cake counter. Visitors can try Western specialty cakes. The colorful and eye-catching cake trays include sponge cake, palm sponge cake, pig skin cake, and banana cake.
Food stalls also dominate the festival. Unlike some recent festivals, the Vietnamese Tet festival focuses on interaction with visitors. Chef Le Minh Canh’s Quang Nieu noodle stall has a space for visitors to experience making handmade noodles.
Another area to experience Tet culture is the Chung cake wrapping booth. After wrapping, the cakes are boiled in a large pot using a wood stove nearby. This is the traditional Chung cake of Phu Tho province, which is said to have been offered to King Hung in the past. The sticky rice chosen to make the cake must be the golden sticky rice or velvet sticky rice, creating a distinct aroma. Chung cake has no additives or preservatives.
The stall serving Southern dishes stands out thanks to the Western-style vermicelli with fish sauce. Standing about 15-20 meters away, you can clearly smell the characteristic fish sauce. The soul of this dish is linh fish sauce or sac fish sauce, decorated with yellow dien dien flowers - a common spice in hot pots and broths of Western people. Toppings include seafood and meat. Those who like to eat it will find the fish sauce fragrant, while some people find this dish unpleasant.
Diners can enjoy the Northern flavor at the festival with bun cha nem cua be. Nem cua be has a typical ingredient of crab caught from the seas of Hai Phong. Unlike the usual cylindrical, elongated spring rolls, nem cua be is wrapped in a square shape. The festival’s food portions are packaged for take-away, each portion ranges from 40,000 to 50,000 VND.
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