Vietnamese tradional food in Tết Holiday
21/04/2024When the weather is colder and drizzle starting to sprinkling down from cloudy sky. Peach flower (Hoa Dao) and Ochna integerrima begin to brighten up the whole country. It is time to talk about Tet (Vietnamese New Year).
Vietnamese Lunar New Year or Tet Holiday, is the most important celebration in Vietnamese culture. It takes place from the first day of the first month of the Vietnamese calendar (around late January or early February) until at least the third day. Vietnamese prepare always special holiday food for Tết . These foods include bánh chưng, bánh dày, dried young bamboo soup (canh măng), giò, and sticky rice. The Time Journeys would like to introduce you 8 unique Tet foods.
*** 1. Five-fruit tray (Mâm ngũ quả) symbolizes Viet Nam’s traditional culture on Tết
Vietnam welcomes the New Year according to the lunar calendar (Lunar New Year Day). It is the most important festival of the year. Among the many thing to decorate ancestral altars for the Traditional New Year, a five – fruit tray can not be missed on the altar during Tet.
The people prepare a five – fruit tray derives. The five fruits are symbolic of the five basic elements of oriental philosophy: metal, wood, water, fire and earth. However they must be of a different color as the five-fruit tray also plays an important role in decoration for Tet.
- In the Northern Vietnam: the fruits must be carefully selected and well organized on the tray. Popular choices are banana, pomelo, apple, mandarin, chili and the “Buddha’s hand” fruit. They putting a bunch of bananas in the bottom to create a frame, then putting a pomelo on the top of the bananas and other fruits are organized around. Sometimes they can put more than 5 fruits onto the tray to make more abundant.
- In the Centre Vietnam: The people here don’t pay much intention on the visual of the tray. The people usually features local fruits as dragon fruit, pineapple, orange, watermelon.
- In the Southern Vietnam, the five – fruit tray has names consists of 5 words “Cầu sung vừa đủ xài”. So Popular choices are papaya, coconut, mango, custard apple, dragon fruit. Besides the people oftern display pineapples and two watermelons on the altar to wish for lucky.
*** 2. Square Cake (Bánh Chưng/ Chưng cake) and Vietnamese tube sticky rice cake (banh tet)
Square Cake is traditional Vietnamese rice cake for New Year which food comes to the mind first when talking about Tet. Which make from glutinous rice, pork, bean and other ingredients. Then packed neatly inside dong leaves, there’s some obvious difference between them. Banh chung is an iconic Tet food in Northern Vietnam. Meanwhile banh tet usually represents Southern Vietnam. Their shape of Banh Chung and Banh Tet are different. Banh chung is square as it symbolizes the earth while banh tet is tube-shaped. The making and eating of bánh chưng during this time is a well-preserved tradition of Vietnamese people. Beside the tết holiday, bánh chưng is also eaten all year round as Vietnamese cuisine.
*** 3. Boiled chicken (gà luộc)
Boiled chicken is popular and easy to make for Tet food. The boiled chicken has color of pale yellow. The boiled chicken lay on the altar to pay homage to their ancestors before eaten. After the chicken is cut to smaller parts and often eaten with a tiny dish of salt, thinly-sliced lime leaves, lemon, chili
*** 4. Vietnamese sausage (Giò lụa)
Giò lụa is the most common type of sausage in Vietnam Cuisine. Giò lụa appears in almost every Vietnamese traditional events and parties. Specially during Tet Holiday. It made of pork, pepper Vietnamese fish sauce and traditionally wrapped in banana leaves.
The pork has tobe pounded until it becomes pasty, then it will be mixed with the other ingredients. Then the mixture is wrapped tightly within couple layers of banana leaves. To cook pork sausage properly. Gio is filled with boiled meat.
*** 5. Vietnamese spring roll
Vietnamese Fried Spring Roll (“Nem Ran” by northerners and “Cha Gio” by southerners) is a Vietnamese dish traditionally. It is a simple-to-make dish, which has become a familiar dish to many families in Vietnam, especially on Tet holiday.
Ingredients used for the fried spring roll are different. Depending each local but usually it comprises of lean minced pork, sea crabs or unshelled shrimps, edible mushroom, dried onion, duck/chicken eggs, pepper, salt and different kinds of seasoning. There are also special variants of the traditional pork-based roll, such as Crab spring rolls or Nem Cua Be.
***6. Dried bamboo Shoots Soup (canh măng)
Every meal in Vietnam includes a shared bowl of soup and Tet meals are no exceptions. A bowl of dried bamboo shoots soup is delicious dish in most Tet Holiday. It has unique flavor from the soft of dried bamboo shoots and pork ribs, sweet taste of hot broth.
The dried bamboo shoots will be soaked in warm water, boiled for 2 – 3 days, washed, remove old parts and cut into slices. Before cooking, people can stir-fried the bamboo shoots with cooking oil, onions. People can use chicken’s neck, wings, legs or pig’s leg to simmer with bamboo shoots. The leg will be cut into small pieces in order to make it easier to eat. Put all above bamboo shoots into stewing pot of pork ribs, pig leg. Then continue stewing until bamboo shoots, ribs and pig leg are soft. Put dried bamboo shoots, pork ribs, pig leg into a bowl and pour hot broth. Sprinkle onion, coriander. It is ready to enjoy.
*** 7. Pickled onion, pickled cabbage and pickled small leeks (Dưa hành và củ kiệu)
Pickled onion is one of the indispensable dishes services in Tet Holiday. For many Vietnamese pickled onions have been a cannot be missed dish during Tet Holiday. Although not every people in Vietnam is able to eat these pickled things. Vietnamese pickled onions also serve as a natural medicine for better digestion after high protein meals. The typical aromatic, crispy and sour taste of pickled onions going with fat jellied meat and tasty sticky rice cake awakens the Tet atmosphere in every family meal.
*** 8. Candied fruits (Mứt)
Tet Holiday is the occasion of visiting the families and friends in several times a day. It is polite to have some light snacks to serve the guest during their visit. So each family set a candied platter fruits in their living room like the five-fruit tray, candied fruits often vary a lot in terms of the component. Vietnam is a tropical country and candied fruits are made of different type of fruit. The most popular ones are coconut, carrot, star fruit, lotus seed, ginger or kumquat. They are very colorful and fun to eat, especially for kids.
So here you have it, the 7 most popular foods that you shall encounter when traveling to Vietnam during Tet. We hope you enjoy this post and we will come back next week with more Tet-ness.
*** 9. Mung bean pudding (Chè kho)
Many Hanoian generations, mung bean pudding has become a familiar dish which always presents on the ancestors’ altar at New Year’s Eve. Mung bean pudding is not a delicacy but a dessert, its ingredients contain a precious medicine for gastrointestinal diseases – the cardamom.
Cardamom is a highly aromatic spice that is most commonly planted in mountainous provinces of Viet Nam, its flavor is slightly sweet and hot, very suitable to combine with a wide range of other ingredients from poultry, vegetable to cake. And in the dish of mung bean pudding, the hot cardamom goes perfectly with the cool mung bean.
Mung bean pudding is made from dried mung bean, sugar, grapefruit extract and cardamom following a secret portion that only skillful and experienced cookers know and that is the reason why ancient mothers always took this dish to test the ingenuity of their future daughter.
*** 10. Red Sticky Rice (Xôi Gấc) is An Essence of Vietnamese Tet
Vietnamese Red Sticky Rice (Xoi Gac) is a traditional dish usually served at special occasions such as Lunar New Year. This dish is incredibly simple with just two main ingredients: sticky rice and gac. The rice itself is white and the red color comes from the fruit. Red color symbolizes good luck, and that is why Vietnamese people like to include xoi gac in their Lunar New Year banquets.
