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Eye-Catching Lunar New Year Cakes of the Chinese Community in Vietnam
Sugar cakes, prosperity cakes, fortune cakes and more are the Lunar New Year cakes of the Chinese community in Vietnam that are drawing attention these days. With their unique shapes and deep meanings, they have become a popular Tet choice among Vietnamese people too.
Like the Vietnamese, the Chinese community cooks savory dishes and offers fruit to their ancestors at Lunar New Year. They also use sweet cakes in unique, eye-catching shapes as offerings to the gods and ancestors, each with its own meaning. Today some markets in Vietnam sell these cakes in the days leading up to Tet, drawing crowds of shoppers.
Saigon's Chinatown sells traditional New Year cakes
Saigon has a neighborhood where the Chinese community lives. The most famous is Cho Lon in District 5, home since the 18th century mainly to Hokkien and Teochew people who live and work there.
When you visit this Chinatown, you'll find a strongly Chinese atmosphere in everything from the architecture and food to the temples and goods on sale. Every Lunar New Year, Cho Lon is packed with shoppers buying Tet goods for their families, and the traditional Chinese New Year cakes sold right here in Vietnam always catch people's eye.
Chinese New Year cakes in Vietnam impress in both looks and taste
During the holidays, Chinatown is decorated with lanterns that fill the streets with red and gold. Shops start selling both Vietnamese Tet sweets and distinctly Chinese New Year cakes for people to choose from.
Sugar cakes: a traditional Chinese New Year treat
Along the streets of Cho Lon's Chinatown, you'll see boxes of sugar cakes in all sorts of colors and shapes on sale at Tet. They are made from blocks of sweet sugar molded into colorful shapes such as lotus flowers, pomelos, tangerines, peaches of immortality and dragons, closely tied to Chinese worship customs.
Sugar cakes come in all sizes, depending on each family's needs. They also keep for a long time, about 1 year, so you can display them on the altar for a long while without worrying about them spoiling.
Today, these traditional Chinese sugar cakes carry auspicious meanings, so Vietnamese people often buy them to pray for peace and good luck in the new year. They are quite affordable, from just 5,000 VND for small ones to over 20,000 VND for large ones, so people can buy them to make the ancestral altar more festive.
Prosperity cakes: wishing your family wealth and luck in the new year
The name alone is enough to pique Vietnamese interest in this traditional Chinese New Year cake. Also known as pomegranate cakes, they are made from wheat flour or rice flour kneaded with malt syrup. The filling of peanuts and slab sugar mixed with glutinous rice flour is shaped into balls, coated in sesame seeds, shaped into petals on top and then fried until firm.
The Chinese community usually offers these cakes on the full moon, New Year's Eve, and to ancestors, heaven and earth, praying for wealth, luck, happiness and many descendants in the new year. You can buy them at any cake stall in Cho Lon for just 5,000 - 10,000 VND each. They taste rather sweet, but because they look so beautiful and unique, people mainly display them on the altar and take them down after Tet.
Fortune cakes (fa gao): a distinctly Chinese New Year cake
Fortune cakes are another Chinese cake that Vietnamese people love. They are spongy, rather like Vietnamese sponge cake or banh bo. The main ingredient is fermented rice flour, which is steamed or baked until the cake splits open into four sections like a flower.
In Chinese, the cake's name is a homophone: the way it "blooms" open symbolizes growing fortune and prosperity in the new year. The Chinese community usually offers fortune cakes to ancestors, heaven and earth at New Year to pray for luck, prosperity and success in life and work. They keep for 1-2 months, so they can be taken down after Tet. Each costs 20,000 - 30,000 VND, quite reasonable for bringing luck and peace to your family.
Banh to (nian gao): an essential Chinese New Year cake
Among the traditional Chinese New Year cakes Vietnamese people love, banh to can't be left out. This flat cake is made from fine glutinous rice flour mixed with sugar syrup and sprinkled with a little sesame, which gives it its distinctive touch.
It shares its name and ingredients with the banh to of Quang Nam. However, the Chinese version differs in color and decoration: it is usually made in yellow and white with red characters printed on top, while the banh to of Quang Nam in Central Vietnam comes in more colors and more varied decorations.
In Chinese, this cake is also called "sticky cake", because its soft, smooth texture sticks together, reflecting the wish that the family who eats it will always stay close. The Chinese community also hopes the new year will be better than the last, so banh to is never missing from their New Year offering trays. Around Cho Lon's Chinatown, it sells for just 5,000 - 10,000 VND each.
Although these are New Year cakes of the Chinese community in Vietnam, Vietnamese people love them for their shapes, colors and above all their meanings. For a unique New Year offering tray and to welcome good fortune in the new year, consider the cakes above.
Hà.R (Compiled)
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