IV. Some Traditional Vietnamese New Year Food In South:
Similar to the custom in many places, Southern people also have some typical dishes bearing their cultural identity in the first days of the New Year. On Tet holiday, besides preparing goods, decorating the house to welcome the New Year, people in the South do not forget to prepare traditional food for the family and to worship ancestors in New Year days, wishing luck and peace for the whole year. Here are some typical Vietnamese new year foods that people in the South never forget to prepare on Tet holiday.
1. Banh Tet – Sticky Rice Cake (Tet Cake):
If Northern people always make or buy Chung Cake on Tet holiday, people in the South never forget Tet Cake (sticky rice cake in cylinder shape). Tet Cake in the South is also wrapped in cylinder shape as those in the Central, but there are 2 kinds of Southern Tet Cake: sweet and salted ones. The sweet Tet Cakes are stuffed with banana and green bean while the salted ones are stuffed with green bean and pork. The Southerners start making Tet Cake from 10 days before Tet and use them to worship the ancestors or give relatives, friends as a Tet present. In the first New Year days, Tet Cake acts as a main dish in the whole meal to welcome New Year, served with dried shrimp and pickled scallion heads.
2. Thit Kho Trung, Nuoc Dua – Pork Braised With Egg And Coconut Water:
On Tet holiday, most women prepare a pot full of pork braised with eggs for their family. From some days before Tet, housewives go to the markets and supermarkets from the early morning to buy the best lean and fat meat mixed, eggs, and coconut water to prepare for their family a pot of braised meat and eggs. Making Chinese braised meat is not too difficult. Lean and fat meat mixed will be cut into large pieces, marinated with spices for about 30 minutes. Boil the eggs and remove shells. Place the pot on the stove; boil fresh coconut water and cold water. Then put the pork into the pot, cook until the meat becomes soft, and then put the eggs into the pot, add more spices, and simmer until the meat becomes very tender. The pork braised with egg and coconut water is considered delicious and eye-catching if the sauce in the pot is gold as the color of cockroach wings.
