Buổi 44: Speaking – Rau củ quả, nấu ăn & một món ăn truyền thống

Bài mẫu do khóa học viết; mô tả ở mức phổ thông, cách làm mỗi gia đình mỗi khác.

I’d like to talk about bánh chưng, a square sticky rice cake that’s closely associated with the Lunar New Year in Vietnam.

It’s made from glutinous rice, mung beans and pork, which are wrapped together in large green leaves and tied with string into a neat square shape. The cakes are then boiled for many hours – in my family, we usually keep them simmering overnight – until the rice becomes soft and slightly sticky. When you cut one open, you can see the layers: green on the outside, white rice, yellow beans and the pork in the centre.

People mostly eat it during Tet, often with pickled onions, which balance the richness of the cake. These days, you can buy it in supermarkets all year round, but most families still prefer to eat it at New Year, and some still make their own.

For me, it’s important because of the memories attached to it. When I was a child, my grandparents, my parents and all my cousins would sit together wrapping the cakes, and we’d stay up late watching the fire. Making them was as important as eating them. Even though my own family now usually buys them, the taste still reminds me of those evenings and of the idea that New Year is a time to be together.