Traditional dishes on Tet holiday in northern Vietnam

Banh Chung

Chung cake is an indispensable dish during the Lunar New Year of every Vietnamese family. Having a long history in Vietnamese culinary culture, banh chung represents the earth, it is the cake that Prince Lang Lieu of the 16th Hung Dynasty created, in order to express gratitude to his father and the earth. .

In the Vietnamese mind, the small square ball is no longer simply a dish, but has become a beauty of Vietnamese people, associated with a long-standing national legend and carrying many profound meanings about the universe. , human life. Whenever Tet comes in the spring, Vietnamese people, no matter where they go, never lack the green Chung cake in the traditional Tet tray. Every house has a couple of pairs of cakes to worship their ancestors. It can be said that banh chung in the Vietnamese mind is the tradition of "drinking water, remembering the source", a typical national dish, the feeling of eagerness in childhood to watch a cozy pot of cake, or simply a meal. warm family reunion in the first days of the new year.

Usually, Vietnamese families have the habit of wrapping cakes on the 27th and 28th, this is the time to finish work after a whole year of hard work to prepare everything for Tet. This is an opportunity for grandparents, parents and children to gather together in front of the vibrant atmosphere of spring, banh chung is not only meaningful in terms of nutrition, but it is also a beauty in the spiritual life of our nation. With extremely nutritious ingredients such as glutinous rice, green beans and pork ball, provide us with a lot of nutritious micronutrients and vitamins for the body to cope with the winter cold on Tet holiday. Specifically, green beans contain heat-clearing substances, detoxifying and reducing swelling, making banh chung with a light taste to help balance the fat of meat and sticky foods. Besides, glutinous rice provides a large amount of starch and is a very good food for the liver.

Banh chung has become a cultural feature, a traditional and long-standing dish in Vietnam. This unique feature has contributed to beautify the image of Vietnam in the eyes of international friends. Anyone who is far from home also looks forward to coming home to the pot of banh chung every New Year's Eve to welcome the new year.

Boiled chicken

We are no stranger to the image of boiled chicken appearing on the offerings. On New Year's Day, the chicken is even more carefully prepared with the image of a chicken holding a rose in its mouth. Chicken carries many good meanings according to the concept of the ancients in folklore. Among the 12 animals of the zodiac, the chicken is a symbol of integrity and strength. In literature, chickens are said to possess 5 great virtues: Van, Vo, Dung, Nhan, and Tin.

When boiling chicken, the first step is extremely important. If the chicken is boiled when the water has boiled, the chicken skin will be suddenly peeled off and crushed when the chicken skin is suddenly heated up. Therefore, it is necessary to put the chicken in the pot as soon as the water is cold so that the water covers the whole chicken (remember to keep the belly side down). By doing so, the chicken will be cooked from the inside and not blackened during the boiling process. Put the chicken in the pot, pour cold water over the chicken body. Heat to a simmer. Do not let it boil, because if it boils too much, the chicken skin is easy to crack. At this point, skim off the foam and leave it on for about 7-8 minutes.

Bake 1 ginger, 1 onion, smash it into the chicken broth and then boil it again (if you don't want to add onions or ginger, you can skip this step). If it is a young chicken, then boil for 5 more minutes, and a little older chicken, boil for 10 more minutes. Then, turn off the heat, cover the pot, soak the chicken in water for another 5 minutes.

The first important thing to have a beautifully cut chicken dish, the piece of meat is not crushed is that you need a big, sharp butcher knife. First, use a knife to cut the chicken thighs along the armpits to the back of the chicken so that the chicken thighs are rectangular. The wings are also cut under the armpits but slightly offend the breast (chest) a little to make the wings more delicious. Then continue to cut the throat, cut the boiled chicken in half, then cut each cut. If you want to cut the chicken without breaking it, when you cut the chicken, remember to cut it firmly and the rectangular or parallelogram chicken pieces are the best.

Onion melon

The Vietnamese Tet tray has many dishes, sophisticated, simple, from delicious sorghum to extremely rustic dishes. One of the rustic dishes but with a special position, rarely lacking, is the pickled onion dish that we still call pickled onions, which was summed up by his father in the folk song: "Melon meat with onions and onions mixed in a couple of sentences" red / Green rice cake firecracker tree.” Onion pickle is an indispensable dish in the New Year's tray, next to banh chung, spring rolls, bamboo shoot soup. is to reduce boredom for Tet trays, especially banh chung.

On the tray, the plate of pickled onions and onions is modest in the corner of the tray, perhaps also because it is a cheap dish, but it is the most sophisticated and expected. Pickled onions do not need to eat much, just dotted, but thanks to it, people enjoy it delicious during Tet. There are also times when guests come suddenly, the host does not have time to prepare anything, only a few simple dishes with a green banh chung, a plate of pickled onions. At this time, pickled onions are both a condiment and a main dish. Its sour and salty taste spreads into the taste buds making diners nod.

Onion melon is a simple, rustic but extremely unique dish from the fermentation to the way of enjoyment, the traditional meaning, but according to medicine, it is also a spice to help people digest well and feel more appetizing. after consuming protein-rich foods.

It looks simple, but salting onions is not everyone's ability to make delicious pickles. Pickled onions must be cooked without water, ivory white, crispy without pungent, sour but not harsh. When choosing onions for salting, people often choose small onions, do not choose large onions, it will be difficult to salt and difficult to eat with other dishes. The sweet and sour taste of onion melon and fatty meat is enough to wake up the taste buds and wake up the atmosphere of Tet coming all over the country. That has become a habit in Vietnamese Tet culture. Sometimes people who go far away crave a bit of Tet holiday, come back to their homeland just to eat banh chung with sour and salty pickles and onions. Just that is enough to feel the taste of home. Just like that, I can see the love of the homeland, simple but strong and attached.

Gio Lua

Gio lua is a traditional dish of Vietnamese people, especially on Tet holidays. Gio lua (Northern) also known as spring rolls (Southern) is a popular folk dish in daily meals as well as in ancient Tet trays and important offerings.

In the past, lean pork was often pounded by hand to make raw ham. Meat choose lean butt or loin just cut from pig, still hot, do not wash water, filter quickly to remove all fat, tendon, fiber, cut into square pieces, put in stone mortar about 400-500g each batch and use wooden pestle (formerly usually made of jackfruit wood) to pound. The pounding man is a person with good health, or holding two pestles in his hand, pounding continuously, evenly and with endurance, sounding like the sound of a mattress. The finished raw spring rolls are wrapped in banana leaves. The outer ring is an old banana leaf, the innermost lining is a pale yellow silk-colored young banana leaf. The spring rolls are tightly wrapped with a tight layer of banana leaves (many people also wrap more plastic or paper on the outside of the banana leaves to avoid the water in the pot seeping into the spring), gently rolling to make the spring rolls round.

Spring rolls are boiled in water. The process of boiling spring rolls is also very important, the water in the pot must be very boiling before dropping the pork belly vertically, submerged in water. Spring rolls must be boiled just enough, neither too hot nor too young. Gio lua is considered delicious if it meets the following criteria: the pork belly is ivory-white, slightly turning pink, the surface is thin, and it is not dry, hard or pulpy. Gio lua is delicious when it has a characteristic scent of boiled meat and fresh banana leaves, with a rich sweetness when eaten.

Xoi Gac

Vietnamese people still think that red is the color of happiness, the color of spring, a symbol of good luck and good fortune. Moreover, the red color of Gac fruit is the natural color brought by the earth and sky, so it will create a harmony and convenience for the new year. At the year-end meal or on the tray of offerings to the ancestors on the first day of the new year, Vietnamese people often prepare a plate of sticky rice with gac as a belief that they will have many blessings and good luck for the whole year.

There are many types of sticky rice processed by Vietnamese people. From sticky rice dishes that are commonly sold every morning such as sticky rice, peanut sticky rice, sticky rice with green beans, to sticky rice that is only cooked on the occasion of an anniversary, traditional holidays such as five-color sticky rice, mixed sticky rice. .. However, only xoi gac becomes a traditional dish in the Vietnamese Tet tray.

As a food during Tet holiday, Gac sticky rice is usually prepared very elaborately. From the selection of Gac fruit to make it red, fragrant and delicious, to how to make sticky rice, make sticky rice and put it on the altar... all are carefully and meticulously made by mothers and fathers. Xoi gac has the aromatic taste of glutinous rice grains, bright red color, and contains enough fleshy, fatty, greasy ... very typical from Gac fruit. This sticky rice dish not only brings a strange and delicious taste during Tet, but also conveys a spiritual value for the Vietnamese traditional New Year.

In addition, on the traditional New Year's Day, Vietnamese people also use gac jam or use gac fruit to wrap banh chung... as if they want to create red color for good luck in the new year.

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