If you could only use a few words to describe your Southern dish, what would they be? For some people, the answer is clear: rich, flavorful, and sweet! We have gotten to know more about Northern and Central Lunar New Year foods in the previous articles, so let’s head down to our last stop: Vietnamese Southern Foods
Have you ever tried delicious Vietnamese Southern foods?
We all know that regional cuisines differ according to the climate and local products. So, Vietnamese Southern foods have an abundance of rice, fresh fruits, veggies as well as coconuts reflected in the dishes of this region, which tend to emphasize sweeter flavors.
Diverse Natural Resources in South Vietnam result in food flavor richness
The warm weather and fertile soil of Southern Vietnam create an ideal condition for growing various fruits, and vegetables, and raising livestock. As a result, food in Southern Vietnam gets a more vibrant flavor profile with the generous use of garlic, shallots, and fresh herbs.
Additionally, thanks to the widespread use of coconut and sugarcane, sugar is added to more food here than anywhere else in the country giving the dishes a distinctly sweet taste—just like how sweet and friendly Southern people are.
BÁNH TÉT (Tet cake or Vietnamese round glutinous rice cake)
If bánh chưng is an indispensable part of Northerner’s Tet, bánh tét plays the same vital role in Central and Vietnamese Southern food. Year after year during the Tet holiday, Southern families enjoy this Tet cake, the central dish of the Southern Tet celebration.
According to Southern people’s belief, bánh tét is a symbol of a prosperous life. That’s why it is considered a New Year specialty although it’s available throughout the year.
As we have talked about Central bánh tét in the previous article. In this article, I’m going to introduce you to something totally new! The Southern version of bánh tét isn’t well known by foreigners. This sweet and vegetarian dish is called bánh tét ngọt.
Basically, bánh tét ngọt is the ordinary bánh tét but filled with vegetarian ingredients like banana, back mung bean, and mung bean instead of pork.
The process of making bánh tét is time-consuming and provides an opportunity for family members to catch up, bond, and revel in the holiday spirit. In preparing this dish, glutinous rice must be carefully chosen and washed before being stir-fried with coconut milk and some salt.
Then the hardest part comes, filling the cake. The exact taste of the cake’s insides is up to you. This could be savory or sweet depending on the taste of each family.
Watch how Vietnamese people make their special Bánh Tét:
Bánh tét ngọt also differs from region to region, as locals tend to base their recipes on what natural ingredients are close at hand and put their own hallmark spin on bánh tét. For example, Can Tho is famous for its unique bánh tét lá cẩm (violet Tet cake).
This bánh tét’s sticky rice is soaked in purple water colored by lá cẩm (magenta leaves), which gives the cake a more eye-catching, charming purple appearance. Inside the cake, there are tasty ingredients such as mung bean, black mung bean, and sometimes salted egg yolks.
All are tightly and beautifully wrapped in banana leaves. The cake is cut into pieces, which show the dark purple of the banana, the yellow of the green bean, and the orange of the egg. The flavor of glutinous rice cake is tender and tasty.
Some just make Tet cakes for family consumption and gifts, some make them for businesses, and some have become artisans by elevating their Tet cake making to a craft.
CỦ KIỆU TÔM KHÔ (Pickled scallion heads served with dried shrimp)
If Central people like to savor bánh tét with dưa món (pickled vegetables), Southern people love to enrich their sense of taste with pickled scallion heads and dried shrimp. Even as early as mid-December, the housewives have already bought scallion heads in preparation for Tet. This rustic yet simple-looking dish, contrary to popular belief, requires an extra meticulous cooking process.
First things first: scallion heads are soaked for hours in water. Then the roots are carefully washed and then exposed to the sun until their leaves turn dry and wilt. Next, all the scallion heads are put into a clean jar. One layer of sugar is covered with one layer of scallion heads.
After placing all the ingredients together, one must leave the jar in a dry area for about 10 days until the scallion heads are slowly fermented and eventually are ready to be taken out.
Finally, one serving dish of củ kiệu isn’t complete without some dried shrimp on top. Make sure to prepare more dried shrimp in advance for our littlest diners. I assure you kids will definitely be fond of this savory, sweet, and sour dish.
And there it is! Your Vietnamese Southern Foods for the Tet feast is halfway finished!
THỊT KHO TÀU / THỊT KHO HỘT VỊT (Pork braised with eggs and coconut water)
This Vietnamese dish of braised pork with egg and coconut milk is best cooked by the Southern people. Just like other Southern housewives, my mom, a true Southerner, would prepare a giant pot of pork braised with eggs, enough for the whole family to eat during Tết.
Two days before the Lunar New Year’s Eve, my mom would go to the nearby markets early in the morning to choose the ingredients: the best meat, eggs, as well some coconuts for her giant pot of thịt kho hột vịt.
Making Southern thịt kho hột vịt is not too challenging if you just follow some tips. After watching my mom make it for years, here are some good tips that I can offer.
In order to make the most delicious braised pork dish, you must choose the ingredients wisely. Pork belly must contain both fat and lean meat, or it will get unsuitably dry during the long cooking storage.
This meat must be cut into large pieces, and marinated with spices, and fish sauce for about 30 minutes. While waiting for the meat to become thoroughly soaked, boil the eggs and remove the shells.
To start, heat up your pot, then boil fresh coconut water and add cold water if needed. Then put all the marinated pork into the pot, and cook until the meat becomes soft.
Now it’s time for the next step, putting the eggs into the pot. Finally, season it to match your family’s taste and simmer the food until the meat becomes super tender.
The finished dish of pork braised with egg and coconut water is considered properly done if it has these two qualities: an eye-catching and distinct golden brown color and well-seasoned, tender meat.
This is a dish where cooks have some leeway to give it their own style and spin. For example, some Southerners love to dry pork belly in the sun before braising and some others like to braise their protein with scraped coconut meat. But my mom’s recipe is done without either step. This dish is best paired with pickled scallion heads and a fragrant hot bowl of rice.
CANH KHỔ QUA DỒN THỊT (Bitter melon stuffed with meat soup)
You might be wondering why superstitious people like the Vietnamese would choose a bitter dish for their very first start of the year. This might surprise you, but canh khổ qua dồn thịt is a significant part of Southern Vietnamese spirituality.
It may look simple on the outside, but bitter melon stuffed with meat contains many spiritual elements according to the Southerners’ belief system. In Vietnamese, “khổ” means “hardship”, and “qua” means “pass”.
So basically, Southern people eat this dish on the first days of the New Year with the hope that unlucky things in the old year will pass and that they will welcome a peaceful new year.
To see how is Tet being experienced in a Vietnamese family, check this video now.
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