Vietnamese cultural beauty through the New Year feasts of three regions of Viet Nam

The New Year feast of the Northern

In 3 regions, the North's New Year feast has normatives and still keep tradition more than any region. Northern New Year's feast focus on form. It is also fussy in the way of processing traditional dishes.

The more modern life is, the more diversified exotic cuisine is made. But there is indispensable traditional dishes. Northern New Year feast is very subtle. It is also the harmonious combination of dishes, between water and dry dishes, between meat and vegetables.

Northern New Year feast is the harmonious combination between dishes, flavors.

The most important feast on New Year's feast is chung cake. This meal always present on the altar or in any banquet of the North region. Chung cake is the soul of  Viet Nam Lunar New Year. It shows the essence of  heaven and earth through the skillful hands of Vietnamese.

Chung cake is an indispensable dish in banquet of the North region.

The most common water dish is organ of pig (a thing like a ball) and mushrooms soup. The other dishes are also common soup with grinded pork and mushrooms or vermicelli and chicken or pork and taper. Dry food also includes various kinds of sausage. They are the most important characteristics of  Northern trays. The common types of trays is gio thu, gio lua. These sausages on a platter are often cut into 8 thick slices. According to rule, there will have 4 plates spread out on trays to look fuller, desire prosperous new year.

Regulations of decorating a feast by Northerners usually very strict and must comply with all rules. The feast has at least four plates and four bowls not counting plates of steamed glutinous rice and bowls of sauce. The well-off families can display up to eight plates, eight bowls. Especially on New Year feast must always have a plates of Gac and steamed glutinous rice to desire luck in the new year.

The New Year feast of the Southern region

In contrast to the cold weather of the North, Tet holiday in the South always has sun, even little hot. Furthermore, the South are more abundant commodities. Formerly it is the land of the immigrants so the Tet feast of the Southern is richer than the North about dishes but less than about the form.

The new year feast of the Southerners has abundance and diversity

If chung cake is the soul of the North, Tet cake is an indispensable gift on the new year trays of the South. Tet cake of the Southern varies in both flavor and color.

Each Tet cake has a different combinations of materials, shape and colors. That may be  the Tet cake with the sticky rice outside mixed with grated coconut, black beans, Cam leaf, leaf of pineapple ... to create Tet cakes with eye-catching colors. 

The types of kernel inside Tet cake are also extremely rich, from green beans with fat traditionally to bananas, mixed, salted egg with green bean ... Sometimes Tet cakes are designed so that they can cut into many roll and make apricots, the word of Phuc or Tho ...

In addition, an indispensable dishes in Tet Festival of the south is kho tau. Meat is the type of bacon which cooked with duck egg and coconut water. The standard of this dishes is the meat should be soft but not crushed, served with pickled from bean sprouts.

Stewed Kho qua is also a typical dishes in Tet festival of the Southerners. They eat this dish in New Year with a wish all the miserable of Old Year went over, brings luck for their life in new year.

Nem bi, pig’s tripes , stuffed pork, fresh sausage, salad with shredded chicken milling onion, cu kieu, dried shrimp are also Tet dishes. If you are tired of fat dishes, they can  grill a fish (ca loc) or steam it to use with roll wrapper, green vegetable. It the very easy way to eat.

The New Year feast of the Central region

The Central region has harsh climate all year so the central’s feast pay more attention to the ability to preserve.

The feast of the Central region is usually simple and show economical spirit clearly.

The food on the platter usually put in small bowls or average plates, but a cuisine has many ways to eat.

The food are commonly found in the central feast including cool dishes such as cha phung, nem, tre ..., pickles (pickles onion instead of the North) and hot dishes such as nem lui, grilled beef with chilli, citronella ... The main dishes for using with rice are pork, roast chicken, fried, cooked beef, beet cook with lean pork, lean meat cook with fish sauce, hon ... And usually no shortage of stewed pork soup, tet cake ( a similar cake with chung cake).

Tre usually appears on the new year feast of the Central region

Perhaps, nowhere has many desserts like Central region. They include cakes such as jam, To cake, In cake, biscuits, tapioca cake, It cake, dried green bean cake, Bay Lua cake, green rice flakes ... The sweet cakes are very sweet, processes by steaming, baking or drying very carefully so you could use them in some months and not to worry about their quality.

In addition, there are dishes such as beef, pork dipping sauce on the New Year feast of Central. They have the habit of eating with roll dishes so there always present indispensable dishes like girdle cakes, vegetables on the New Year's feast.