Hanoi (VNA) – During the Lunar New Year (Tet) festival, each ethnicgroup in Vietnam has its own culinary specialties that reflect the culture oftheir people and are used as offerings to worship their ancestors.

Most Kinh (Vietnamese ethnic majority) people start preparations a monthbefore the festival.

Many people usually cook nine dishes: banh chung (square sticky ricecake), dua hanh (pickled onions), gio nac (boiled lean porksausage) and gio thu (boiled pork head sausage), thitdong (frozen meat), nem ran (spring rolls), canhmang (bamboo shoot soup), canh bong tha (dried pig skin soup),boiled chicken, and che kho (sweet green bean paste).

These carefully cooked traditional dishes are put on the homealtar to worship their ancestors during Tet festival.

Of all the dishes, banh chung is the soul of Tet, reflecting thequintessence of heaven and earth through the skilled hands of humans. To makethe cake, the most fragrant and fibrous sticky rice are chosen and the cakes oftenhave pork, green beans, dried onions and pepper in the centre.

The cakes are often eaten with pickled onion because its sour and lightpeppery flavour helps digestion. Meanwhile, gio nac and giothu have remained on the offering food tray at Tet from the pastto the present.

Nem (spring rolls) is a popular dish in the north that always has a placeon a Tet food tray because it is so flavourful and healthy. It ismade out of minced pork, carrots, wood ear fungus, green-bean sprouts, beanglass noodles and other ingredients. The fried rolls are then dipped into abowl of sauce of mixed fish sauce, sugar, lemon or vinegar, chili and mincedgarlic.

The Tet food tray of northerners never lacks a big bowl of canhmang kho (dried bamboo shoot soup).

Ethnic groups, such as the Mong, Thai, Muong, Tay, Nung, Dao, and Co Tu,have their own New Year dishes. 

For Mong people, their Tet tray should include dishes such as pork,wine, round cakes made from glutinous rice and maize cakes.

Fried fish is the specific dish of the Thai. They believe the stream deity willprotect them from danger.

The Nung ethnic people often make banh khao from dried glutinous ricepowder, minced pork fat and sugar to worship their ancestors. The elderly saidthe sweet fat in the cake would prevent unlucky happenings in the New Year.

Meanwhile, the Co Tu in Tay Nguyen (the Central Highlands) make their ownwine known as ruou Ta Vat and ruou can to welcome Tet. Allvisitors at New Year are invited to enjoy these wines.

Each Dao household has its own thit lon chua (sour pork), locallyknown as o sui, in New Year holidays. Ingredients include pork, salt, andcool rice. The dish should be eaten with la lot (wild lolot leaves)and la prang lau (a kind of wild leaf), and dipped in a bowl of mixedlemon and chili. 

Tay people welcome Lunar New Year with a roast piglet. They often chooselocal piglets with small bones, firm and lean meat weighing from 20kg to 30kg.People often put mac mat (a kind of wild leaf and fruit) mixed withspices in the pig’s belly and cover the skin with honey. They then roast it oncharcoal for three hours until well done. The food is dipped in a sweet andfragrant sauce gotten from the pig’s belly./.