VI
EN
The New Year's Eve dinner is a very warm and intimate time, bringing people together to reminisce about the past year and discuss plans for the new year. Therefore, deep within the subconscious of every Vietnamese person, no matter the region or place, the New Year's Eve dinner always symbolizes family bonds and holds sacred significance in every Vietnamese family.
Traveling across Vietnam during Tet (Lunar New Year), we encounter diverse culinary landscapes across the three regions: North, Central, and South. Due to external factors such as geography, climate, and culture, each region has its own variations of dishes. While not overly extravagant in terms of ingredients, these dishes are distinct, unique, and appealing.
An exquisite and skillfully prepared feast from Northern Vietnam.
As a region where many emperors once established their capital, the Tet feast in Northern Vietnam always reflects sophistication and skill. It emphasizes both visual appeal and a harmonious combination of soups and dry dishes, meat and vegetables.
Traditionally, a New Year's feast in Northern Vietnam consisted of four bowls and four plates, symbolizing the four pillars, the four seasons, and the four directions. Wealthier families might have six or eight bowls and plates, symbolizing prosperity and good fortune.
The Tet feast in Northern Vietnam is diverse and colorful.
Nowadays, despite the busy pace of life, traditional dishes are indispensable at the New Year's Eve dinner and the three days of Tet (Lunar New Year). Banh chung (sticky rice cake) is a must-have not only in the traditional Tet cuisine of Northern Vietnam but also throughout the country. The green banh chung is considered the soul of the traditional Tet, representing the essence of nature through the skillful hands of the people.
The green sticky rice cake (Bánh chưng) encapsulates the soul of the Vietnamese people.
Each dish is beautifully presented, with a harmonious and diverse array of colors: golden-brown chicken garnished with shredded lime leaves, vibrant red glutinous rice, translucent jelly-like meatballs, a balanced broth, crisp kohlrabi or papaya salad, and crunchy pickled vegetables. Alongside these, the soups are equally rich and varied: vermicelli soup with chicken offal, braised pork trotters with bamboo shoots, meatball soup… Every dish is full of flavor, evoking fond memories of the Tet holiday in one's hometown.
Each dish is rich in flavor, evoking fond memories of the Tet holiday in one's hometown.
The flavor of thrift and sharing on the Tet feast table in Central Vietnam.
People in Central Vietnam are meticulous and detail-oriented, so their Tet (Lunar New Year) dishes are also carefully prepared. Looking at and enjoying the Tet feast of the people here, one can almost sense the essence of frugality and sharing.
The ancestral altar is never without incense smoke during holidays and Tet (Lunar New Year), especially on the first day of the year, when people in Central Vietnam will definitely offer vegetarian dishes. Items such as raw vegetables, spring rolls, noodle soup, white rice, stir-fried dishes, braised meat, and occasionally braised or curry fish, boiled chicken... are meticulously arranged on small plates.
Because the weather in Central Vietnam is quite harsh, with some years being hot and sunny and others cold, the dishes mainly need to be able to withstand the weather.
In addition, people in Central Vietnam also make banh tet, a cake with a flavor very similar to banh chung. Besides that, there are many other types of cakes placed on the Tet feast table such as banh to, banh in...
Banh tet, a traditional cake from Central Vietnam.
The Tet (Lunar New Year) cuisine of this region is incomplete without fermented pork rolls (nem chua) and meat marinated in fish sauce (thịt ngâm mắm). Especially in the ancient capital of Hue, where many dishes from the royal court are still preserved, the Tet feast is even more meticulous and elaborate. Dishes like fermented shrimp and sliced pork, grilled beef rolls (nem bò lụi), shrimp cakes (chả tôm), and fig salad (gỏi vả) are always present. Some places also add other specialties such as beef stew (bò nấu thưng) and braised lean pork (thịt nạc braised).
"Chả phượng" - a dish fit for royalty during Tet (Lunar New Year) in Hue.
While Northern Vietnam has pickled onions, pickled vegetables are a characteristic feature of Tet in Central Vietnam. Made with simple, easy-to-prepare ingredients like carrots, papayas, and shallots, they are pickled in a sour and salty brine, creating jars of pickled vegetables full of color and flavor.
While Northern Vietnam has pickled onions, pickled vegetables are a characteristic feature of Tet in Central Vietnam.
The simple and unpretentious charm of the Tet feast in Southern Vietnam.
Southern Vietnam is renowned for its tranquil atmosphere and its simple, generous people. Blessed with abundant natural resources and a blend of diverse cultures, the Tet (Lunar New Year) feast in the South is always varied, complete, and less constrained by rigid forms.
The culinary culture in Southern Vietnam, both on ordinary days and during Tet (Lunar New Year), is generally simpler compared to Northern and Central Vietnam.
Perhaps that's why the culinary culture of Southern Vietnam, both during everyday life and Tet (Lunar New Year), is generally simpler than that of Northern and Central Vietnam. Banh tet (sticky rice cake), braised pork, and bitter melon soup are three characteristic dishes of Tet in the Southern region.
In Southern Vietnam, there is still a folk verse that is passed down:"The birds sing three times by the river / Hurry and choose your sticky rice before the winter ends and Tet comes."During Tet (Vietnamese New Year), people in the North eat banh chung (square sticky rice cake), while people in the South eat banh tet (also known as banh don).
Southern Vietnamese bánh tét (sticky rice cake) comes in a variety of sweet and savory fillings and vibrant colors, reflecting the generous and open-minded nature of the land and people of this region.
A dish that is indispensable during Tet in Southern Vietnam, regardless of whether the family is rich or poor, is braised pork with eggs – also known as braised pork with coconut milk. This dish is a harmonious combination of yin and yang, with square pieces of braised pork and pristine white eggs submerged in sweet coconut milk, symbolizing the wish for a complete and prosperous new year.
Braised pork belly - an indispensable dish on the Tet holiday table of people in Southern Vietnam.
Bitter melon soup stuffed with meat or snakehead fish is favored with the wish to overcome the worries of the old year and welcome a peaceful new year. In addition, there are many salads to counteract the richness of the meal, such as lotus root salad, chicken salad with perilla leaves, dried shrimp and pickled shallots...
People in Southern Vietnam often show their reverence for their ancestors by offering heartfelt gifts on the spring festival, savoring the salty, sweet, sour, spicy, and bitter flavors of each dish, all while enjoying a family meal together on the first day of the year.
People in Southern Vietnam believe that bitter melon soup helps to ward off the hardships of the old year and welcome a new year filled with good fortune and happiness.
