Hanoi (VNA) - Tet custom demands different sortsof cake to offer to the earth, heaven and ancestors. 

Apart from banh chung (square cake), there aremany other delicacies that have become popular over a thousand or more years.They include phu the cake, muot rolls, and sung trau (buffalo horn) cake.

Phu the cake

A well known specialty of Bac Ninh province’sDinh Bang ward, phu the cake, must be on the Tet offering tray, at weddingparties or other major festivals. When spring comes, the cakes are presented inpairs to present to married couples.

Le Thi Hien, 86, from Dinh Bang, told Viet NamNews that the making of phu the began in the Ly Dynasty in 1009. 

People make the popular cake all year round,Hien said, and there are many legends surrounding it. When King Ly Anh Tongwent to the warfront, his queen at home missed him so much, she made a cake andsent it to him. The king enjoyed the cake so much and named it phu the (husbandand wife) cake.

There is also the story about a trader who hadto travel far. His wife made the cake for him to take along, saying that“although far away, my love for you is as sweet as the cake."

Another story: while joining a festival of DoTemple, which falls on 14-15-16 of the third lunar month, King Ly Thanh Tongand his queen had been offered specialty cakes by a Dinh Bang young person. TheKing and Queen enjoyed the cake so much and named it phu the.

Ever since, the cake has been a sign offaithfulness, so the cake is often present at wedding parties wishing a youngcouple living to live with each other “until death do us apart”, said Hien.

She said to make a tasty cake, makers use nepcai hoa vang (special fragrant glutinuous rice) ground into powder and mixedwith ingredients such as white sugar, green thread papaya and banana oil,vanilla, com flavouring and danh danh (a wild seed) juice all moulded carefullyinto a dough.

The cake’s interior is filled with green beans,white sugar and coconut juice and thread, Hien said, adding that makers usedong leaves (used to wrap banh chung, square cake) to wrap the cake beforesteaming it and tying them together in pairs with pink bamboo string. Thisrepresents a wish that the couple be tied forever.

Nguyen Thuy Duong from Hanoi said she oftentravelled to Dinh Bang to buy phu the cakes for Tet. “All my family members,including my grandparents, love the cake." 

Muot rolls

Banh muot, something like the famous steam riceroll of Thanh Tri district in Hanoi, carries the special flavours of Nghe An.

Phan Thi Nhan, 72, from Nghe An’s Quynh Doivillage, said she remembered when she was a little girl, she and her sistersoften waited for their mother returning from the market to bring them with muotrolls which covered with yellow dried onion wrapped in green banana leaves. 

The rolls - as long as an adult’s finger - aredipped in a bowl of sauce made from fish sauce, lemon, sugar, and chili. “Weoften competed to get the rolls because they are so delicious,” said Nhan.

The rolls are made of tam thom (fragrant rice)and are used to offer visitors, for family gatherings, death anniversaries,wedding parties and, of course, Tet. They are often eaten with broth made fromsteamed beef, chicken or pig’s leg and green bean sprouts, salad and fresh mintherbs from the garden.

Sung trau cake, Co Tu style

For the Co Tu ethnic group, sung trau ( buffalohorn shape) cakes are always be available at Tet. No one forgets to make thecake to worship deities and their ancestors, said Co Tu an elder from Ko Sang.

The Co Tu call the cake Avi cuot, but the namesung trau is more popular and easier to remember.

“The Co Tu place much importance on the buffalo.For example, without a buffalo, a wedding is not perfect, so people make sungtrau cake to worship the deity and ancestors at Tet,” Sang said.

To make the cake, people have to use traditionala special glutinous rice known as "proong" and use la dot (wildleaves) to wrap them. The cakes are then tied in pairs soaked in water for twohours before boiling them for another three hours.

The cake is attractive and fragrant. “The cakesares made without dumpling so it can be kept for a month or more,” said Sang,adding that the cake was used at rice festivals, parties for bumper crops andto welcome visitors.

“I often make them for my grandchildren to taketo school or give to my husband who works in the high mountains,” saidSang.-VNA