Tet is coming. If you take a tour along Vietnam these days, you will be a bustling air of Tet preparation. There are many dishes associated with the holiday including candied ginger and coconut, braised pork, and preserved pineapples, but the most iconic and essential of all is the square and squat bánh chưng (Chung Cake). It is a traditional and irreplaceable Vietnamese food.
Chung Cake – Vietnamese cuisines for Tet
How to make a “Banh Chung”?
In contrast to the fast food in modern life, the process of making Chung cake is time-consuming and requires the contribution of several people. Main ingredients are glutinous rice, pork meat, and green beans wrapped in a square of bamboo leaves that will give the rice a green color after boiling. The sticky rice must be very good and was soaked in water in the previous day. Rice cake is wrapped in square shape, and the wrapping power must be neither tight nor loose. Then the cake will be boiled in about 12 hours by wood. The Green Chung cake has nutrition with an original tasty flavor and may be kept for a long time. Eating Chung cake with vegetable pickles will bring you unforgettable taste!
Process of making Banh Chung
In the traditional conception of Vietnamese people, making banh chung is a opportunity for the union of family members. Sitting round warm fire, family members tell one another past stories and are ready for a new year with best wishes. Up to now, making banh chung is not very popular in urban area because of the business. However, the worship ancestors with banh chung doesn’t change. This is an evidence of the Vietnamese loyalty and deep gratitude to ancestors.
