To Hue people Tet’s feast is the symbol of traditional custom, gathering and happiness. A week before Tet holiday you could feel the Tet spirit everywhere. Hue people think dishes for ancestor worshiping or offering for guest during 3 days of Tet must have been made by themselves, rarely be bought from market. Tet is also an occasion for Hue women show her adroitness in cooking. They are very happy watching their parents, husband, children and friends enjoy their dishes in New year feasts.
Before Tet holiday every family prepare food and find a way to keep them in good condition for a week later. Dishes for Tet holiday are divided to two types: Salted recipes such as: pork sausages, jelly meat, spring roll, fermented pork roll… Sweet dishes are many kinds of jam.
Around the date of 27 – 28 (according lunar calendar) people prepare to making Tet , Chung and other cakes. They only make some of Chung cake for worshipping, Tet cake is majority. Tet cake is wrapped by banana leaf, the inside ingredients are rice, mung bean and pork meat, its form like pork sausages roll. When eating you have to take off the banana leaf cutting to slices. Chuon village is famous for Tet cake because they have the special sticky rice called Tay makes this specialty have the soft and special flavor.
Beside Tet and Chung cakes Hue people enjoy others such as: Su Se (Husband - wife), Mang (Bamboo shoot), Sen chay (Lotus), Dua man ( Coconut)…
Su Se ( Husband – wife) cake is made from tapioca flour with green bean (after boiling with sugar or coconut milk) , wrapped by coconut leaf then steamed. Sen chay (Lotus) cake is made from lotus seeds boiled with sugar, then rolled to thin layers, toasted. Dua man (Coconut) cake is made from well brayed sticky rice which then boiled with sugar or coconut milk, rolled to thin layers, cut to square pieces, cover them with roasted sesame and wrapped by plastic paper. Mang (Bamboo shoot) cake is made from fresh bamboo shoot which then cut to fiber and boil with sugar and sticky rice flour. After that it is cut to pieces, cover by Hoang Tinh (Polygonatum kingianum coll hemsl) flour, wrapped by plastic paper.
The salted dishes was prepare cautiously few days before Tet holiday. In this occasion, salad is also an importance dish which includes pineapple, turnip which is cut to thin layers then mixed with chilli, garlic, carrot, papaya, fermented egg – plant, fish sauce and sugar. This kind of salad have been made few weeks before Tet holiday then other meals as: grilled chopped shrimp, Nem bo lui (a kind of brayed pork mix with garlic and fibre of pig skin then roast), pork sausages…
Wine made from sticky rice is very famous in Hue, it often bury underground for a long time to get the sweetness. During Tet holiday Hue people like drinking tea which used to be scented with many kind of flower such as: jasmine, lotus, chloranthaceae…
There are hundreds of jams for Tet holiday but the most popular is ginger jam comes from Kim Long village. They buy young ginger, take off its bark, soak into alum water, wash then cut to slice, boil two or three times. In the finally time boil it with sugar. Hue women make dishes for Tet holiday meticulously like caring their beauty.