HO CHI MINH CITY – Colorful Tet trays, diverse dishes, elaborately prepared, are recreated during the Vietnamese Tet Festival at Le Van Tam park.
The Vietnamese Tet Festival is taking place at Le Van Tam Park, District 1, lasting from January 18 to 21. The highlight that attracts visitors is the space displaying Tet feasts and recreating the ancient Tet culture of three regions. Here, there are three restored ancient houses, inside decorated with altar decorations, wooden tables and chairs and Tet feasts offered to ancestors.
In the picture is the Trang An Tet feast with more than 15 traditional dishes familiar to the people of the North. A typical Northern Tet feast cannot lack banh chung, pot of braised fish, boiled chicken bamboo shoot soup, pork sausage, pickled onions, and gac sticky rice.
Tet feasts are changed continuously every day during the festival. This is a picture of a traditional Tet feast in the Central region consisting of 21 dishes, made by culinary artist Nguyen Ho Thi Anh, with artist Ho Dac Thieu Anh as the consultant. Ms. Thieu Anh shared that the artisans of Hue want to bring traditional flavors to the festival so that visitors from all over and especially the young people can imagine how delicate and elaborate the dishes of the ancient Central region are.
“The highlight of the Dragon Year feast is the dishes shaped like the four sacred animals Dragon, Unicorn, Quy, and Phung with the meaning of peace and advancement. Those four dishes are golden turtle rice shaped like a turtle, unicorn salad for the king, Five-colored phoenix patties and fig mixed with dragon fruit,” Ms. Thieu Anh said.
In addition, the feast also includes deliciously prepared dishes typical of the Central region such as spring rolls with ground shrimp, sour beef cubes, spring rolls with apricot blossoms or white sticky rice with meat.
The Central region’s culinary space is also attracted by the display of Buddha’s hand jam and flower-colored jam. Buddha’s hand jam is special because it is boiled whole and completed within half a month. Artist Thieu Anh said that to make whole fruit Buddha’s head jam, the fruit must be soaked in salt water for at least a week to lose all the astringency in the skin. Then peel, boil, soak in sugar, dry day in the sun and dry in dew at night, simmer the whole fruit until the Buddha’s hand is clear enough to meet the standard.
Central region’s Tet cuisine also attracts diners to linger and experience thanks to the aroma of banh chung. Artists make these cakes at the festival, serving guests for free.
Ms. Nhi Nguyen, from Binh Dinh, shared that as soon as she arrived at the festival, she immediately entered the area recreating the old Tet. The banh chung at the festival reminded Ms. Ly of the days before Tet when she returned home to help her mother make cakes and sell them at the market.
“Every year my family makes banh chung, the aroma of this cake is so familiar to me. This is a specialty of Binh Dinh and many central provinces. This cake has simple ingredients from flour and chicken eggs, but it is important. You have to watch the fire so that both sides are even so the cake expands and doesn’t burn,” Ms. Ly said.
The Southern Tet feast is called Saigon Connection, including 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 Southern Tet feasts, said that during the four days of the festival, feasts will change according to the theme. The first day is a connecting meal, the second day is a reclaimed feast, going back to the early days of Saigon, the feast is mainly boiled dishes. The third day is a modern Saigon feast with dishes combining cultures from many countries and the last day is a vegetarian feast.
The Western food stall also has a folk cake stall. Visitors can try Western specialty cakes. The colorful cake tray is beautifully decorated, including beef cake, palm beef cake, pork 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 making counter has space for guests to experience making handmade noodles.
Another area to experience Tet culture is the banh chung wrapping area. After being wrapped, the cake is boiled in a large pot using a wood stove placed nearby. This is a traditional banh chung of Phu Tho province, it is said that in the past it was used to offer to King Hung. The sticky rice chosen to make cakes must be yellow-flowered or velvet sticky rice, creating a distinct fragrance. Banh Chung has no additives or preservatives.
While the Tet feasts are for display, visitors can enjoy many traditional dishes from three regions during the festival. In the picture is a Quang Nieu noodle dish with the destiny of promoting the traditional craft village culture that is gradually disappearing in Quang Nam.
The stall serving Southern dishes stands out thanks to its Western fish sauce noodle dish. Standing about 15-20 meters away, you can clearly see the characteristic fish sauce smell. The soul of this dish is Linh fish sauce or colorful fish, adorned with yellow sesban flowers – a spice often found in hot pots and broths of Westerners. Toppings include seafood and meat. Those who like to eat it will find the fish sauce fragrant, while some people find this dish to have an unpleasant smell.
Diners can enjoy the flavor of the North during the festival with crab noodle soup and spring rolls. Crab spring rolls have a typical ingredient that is crab caught from the waters of Hai Phong. Unlike regular spring rolls that are cylindrical and elongated, crab spring rolls are wrapped into squares. Meals during the festival are packaged to take away, each ranging from 40,000 – 50,000 VND.
Barbecue stalls also participate in this year’s festival. Diners can try grilled octopus and squid, the price ranges from 120,000 VND each. In addition, there are snail dishes, the price ranges from 50,000 VND per portion.
After the festival honoring Vietnamese cuisine held in October 2023, the organizing committee of the Vietnamese Tet festival said it would limit grilled skewers and fried fish balls. The space for guests to sit and eat is airy and spacious because it is located in Le Van Tam park. There are many trash cans around the dining area and there are regular cleaning staff.
($1~24,000 VND)
Photo,Video: Internet (Vinlove.net)