The meaning of Banh Toet on Tet

Besides banh Chung, wrapping and cooking Banh Tet has long become a traditional customs in the New Year's day of the Southern people.

No one knows when banh Chung and Banh Tets have become the typical and indispensable dishes in every national New Year. If there is banh Chung in the North, then in the South there will be banh Tet. Each type of cake has its own way of wrapping and its special meaning in the traditional Tet holiday of the nation every spring.

The meaning of Banh Toet on Tet

The Banh Tet is indispensable in Tet days. It is wrapped in many layers of leaves like the image of a mother wrapping a child. People eat Banh Tet as a way to think of a mother, like sisters born to support each other. Besides, Tet is a chance when people always have a dream of happy and peaceful life. Green Banh Tet with yellow pistil reminds us of a peaceful life, the green of rice fields, the life of husbandry. Although Banh Tet and Banh Chung have different ways of wrapping the cake, in fact, the inside of the cake has a common point: enhancing human labor, the harmony of yin and yang, heaven and earth, human and nature, and as a reminder always addressed to our ancestors.

(Source: Internet)

Banh Tet is interesting in its packaging and unique in its taste

Like Chung Banh, Banh Tet package materials also include familiar ingredients from the country such as sticky rice, green beans, pork ... Banh Tet is wrapped in banana leaves, not dong leaves like Banh Chung, Banh Tet is wrapped in a round package, while Banh Chung is in a square package.

To have a delicious cake taste, wrapping must be done carefully and meticulously right from the preparation stage. Sticky rice must be delicious, not mixed with non-glutinous rice. Green beans cooked with shells. Dried coconuts to get the juice. Pineapple leaves crushed and filtered to mix with glutinous rice, cook with coconut milk to get the fragrance. The bacon is just cut into a rectangle along the length of the cake, marinated with a little salt and sugar before filling.

(Source: Internet)

The step of making Banh Tet also needs careful preparation. When the water is boiled, put the cake in layers, fill it with water and ignite. During the 8-hour cooking process, always add water when it is nearly empty, keep the soup on fire so that the cake is cooked evenly from the inside.

Finished cooking cakes are skillfully cut into slices when offered to ancestors during Tet, when served with stewed meat, pickled cucumber tubers.