Taste of Banh Mi in Vietnam cuisine

Banh Mi or bread arrived in the South of Vietnam in 1895 along with the French. From the first French bakery, the Vietnamese learned the secret of baking bread and turned it into a special of Vietnam cuisine.

Banh Mi in Vietnam cuisine

Banh Mi is not only served alone, but Vietnamese often increase ingredients in the baguette such as pork, bacon, eggrolls, pork paste and vegetables or mustard-a Vietnamese cuisine. The interfusion between Vietnamese and French cuisine has created a Vietnamese specialty – Vietnamese Banh Mi.

Listed among top 10 best street foods around the world by the National Geographic magazine, 5 unbelievable sandwiches from around the world voted by Huffingtonpost.com, written by numerous magazines, that is the Vietnamese Banh Mi or Vietnamese bread. It is available in the US for years and people love it. It is described as Vietnamese snack consisting of baguette bread filled with meat, vegetables and chili.Banh Mi officially became an English word in Oxford dictionary on March 24, 2011. Banh Mi has now helped Vietnamese cuisine become a permanent position to the world culinary map.

Banh Mi is a common fast food in Vietnam because people can eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. With various kinds of Banh Mi from traditional to fresh bread, Ho Chi Minh is often dubbed as the city of Banh Mi, because it is quick and light snack. Banh Mi has become a good friend of Ho Chi Minh City residents during the day. Bakers therefore crushed over dozens of Banh Mi to serve the taste of customers. Banh Mi arrived in Ho Chi Minh City at the end 19th century. Afterwards, the taste of Banh Mi became interfusion between French and Vietnamese culinary art.

In the old times, people often ate bread with pork. But today, it is difficult to find a real Vietnamese traditional store serving bread with pork which is cooked by traditional way like Sau Le bakery.  This store also adds many other kinds of ingredient but they keep the traditional way of cooking pork to sell with bread. Pork meat lean is the main ingredient using Banh Mi stuffing. It is marinated and cooked for hours to create the distinctive taste. Sau Le Banh Mi bakery has been in Ho Chi Minh City for years now. Baking is not only a job to make a living, the third generation of the Sau Le family wants to maintain traditional Banh Mi culture in Ho Chi Minh City.

With hundreds of bread types, ABC bakery could be called the home of bread.  The bread here is diversified from baguette, sandwiches to sweet bread. Quynh Hoa Banh Mi store is well-known in town by the diversification of filing for decades.  Customers coming here are not only impressed by quality of bread but also the friendliness of the seller. In Ho Chi Minh City, queuing up for bread is like a long standing tradition. No matter how many loaf of the bread they want to buy, people here don’t mind waiting a long line to get the favorite bread. Bread here includes 8 different types of fillings: pork, pressed meats, pork floss, sausage, another type of red pressed meats and 3 types of ham.

Along with Ho Chi Minh City, the port city of Hai Phong also owns a specialty, a very special kind of Banh Mi. This city still retains the tradition of Banh Mi Vietnam, but has also changed to serve different flavor enjoyed by local people. Almost three in the morning is the busiest time of the day for every bread maker in Hai Phong city when they get up and prepare the making bread. Mr. Cuong has been a baker in Hai Phong for 65 years now and is the inventor of Banh Mi stick. Mr. Cuong is the only Banh Mi stick in Hai Phong that has passed bread recipe down to next generation.

Doing exercises in the early morning, then buy some bread for breakfast, this has become a daily habit for the local people. Banh Mi often goes with pate. Mr. Cuong’s wife has 40 years of experience making pate. Pate is made from liver and fat creating the fragrance flavor. Different from the traditional Banh Mi, the filling of this special Banh Mi in Hai Phong City consists of only pate. In his free time, Mr. Cuong often helps put pate into the bread. They have done this job for the last 50 years and are good examples of couple keeping the local tradition. For Hai Phong people, eating some load of the special kind of Banh Mi becomes the daily habit. Customers ranged in all ages.  Whether bread is in the North or in the South, bread has always been an indispensable part of Vietnamese cuisine. Vietnamese love eating bread and it take place in the diversity and the taste of bread they made.  

Source: VTV4 – VTV.vn

Chung Cake – soul of Vietnamese Tet holiday

For all globetrotters, traveling is not simply just going sightseeing, but also is enjoying unique local cuisine of places where they come to. Recently, Vietnam is appealing more tourists to pop in. In Vietnam travel, tourists are attracted not just by its wonderful landscapes and seascapes, but also profound cultural identity and diverse cuisine. One of the most unique and outstanding dishes of Vietnamese cuisine is Bánh Chưng or Chung Cake.

Boiled Chung Cake

Chung Cake is a traditional cake of Vietnam. The cake implies gratitude of later generations to their forefather and hometown. Ingredients of Chung Cake include sticky rice, green bean, pork, dong leaves, and other additional spices as salt and pepper. Chung Cake is often made on traditional Tet Holiday of Vietnamese people and Hung King Festival (on the 10th day of the third lunar month). Chung Cake has the oldest history in traditional Vietnam cuisine. It is mentioned regularly in historical documents. The traditional cake has a significant position in the heart of Vietnamese people. The cake originated from a legend relating to Lang Lieu Prince, son of the 6th Hung King. The legend recalls the next generation about the national tradition. It is also a meaningful explanation and origin of Chung Cake, Day Cake in Vietnam culture, simultaneously, the importance of rice and nature in Wet Rice Civilization. According to today popular opinions, along with Giay Cake, Chung Cake reflects the ancient Vietnamese people's opinion about the universe. The cake is in green and square shape, which reflects the image of earth in the religion of ancient Vietnamese people and other ethnic groups in Asia.

Chung cake

Existing since the 6th Hung King's Empire, Chung Cake has been going with national history and become the soul of Tet Holiday in Northern Vietnam. Once visiting Vietnam during Vietnam Lunar New Year, tourists will see on the feast of local people, there are Chung Cake laid on. These cakes seem to recall Vietnamese people about the legend of Banh Chung and Banh Giay which symbolize the opinion bout the universe of ancient Vietnamese people. 

Definitely, in cultural Vietnam tours, travelers have a chance to discover many interesting things about the traditional food. Old Vietnamese people, who underwent Tet holidays between 40s and 50s of the last century, often pine for traditional Tet with Chung Cakes carefully made. Their ingredients were chosen from dong leaves and sticky rice to green bean, thin and small bamboo strips. During war time in Vietnam, to raise troops to fight the enemy, northern people spend out of food for front line. Thus, Banh Chung was simpler, but more valuable than any thing. Those who underwent Tet during war time and subsidy period, Chung Cake evoked unforgettable memories.

Making Chung Cake

Todays, young generations still inherit and bring the traditional custom into play. Although the young live in big and modern cities, they try to spend time on sitting and waiting for boiling these Chung Cakes, along with chatting with their family. In spite of being sold at supermarkets, stores or other services, in the countryside, the taste Chung Cake is also felt somewhat over the pot of Chung Cake. The present-day atmosphere of Tet still sees the image of Vietnamese women busy during Tet with works of washing the dong leaves, soaking rice, wrapping cakes, while, the children are sitting around a large pot of rice cakes and look after it overnight. For many generations, Banh Chung is the joy of the New Year's reunion. Beautiful thick and square cakes are displayed on the altar dedicated to worship ancestors. There are small cakes made for children as a New Year gift. Yet, today, the method of cooking the cake in somewhere is modernized. Yet, when New Year and spring come, Banh Chung still reminds Vietnamese people about traditional national values.

Chung Cake

Today, ingredients of making Chung Cake remain unchanged: sticky rice, green bean, pork and dong leave. Chung Cake will be more delicious if its ingredients are prepared carefully. Traditional Vietnamese Tet Holiday and images of green Chung Cakes are long-lasting traditional Vietnam culture. Chung Cake evokes Tet Holiday and vice versa. Perhaps, the combination becomes a cultural symbol of Vietnam. Therefore, the work of making Chung Cake when New Year comes is a fine cultural custom of Vietnam. The website National Geographic recently released top 10 unique traditional dishes in the world, including Chung Cake and Giay Cake of Vietnam. The site also described about traditional Tet in Vietnam. Tet Holiday is the most important occasion in Vietnam. It marks the appearance of spring and new hopes. Vietnamese traditional Tet is also the occasion to reunite family members. Everyone often eat melon seeds, marmalade and rice cakes during Tet.