Monday, December 8, 2008

Bánh Tét

When I go to my mom’s, not only does she cook for me but she also has treats for me in her deep freeze. One day, she got a bánh tét that she re-steamed, sliced up and fried for me for lunch. Bánh tét (like bánh chưng) is made for Tết (Vietnamese New Year). Since I missed Tết because I was actually in Vietnam in February, she wanted to share her homemade bánh tét.


Bánh tét has a filling of pork in the middle, then mung beans and the exterior is made of rice. All this is wrapped in banana leaves and steamed. The only difference between bánh tét and bánh chưng is their shape; the former is cyclindrical and the latter is square.

Even though you can eat this simply heated, I like it best fried. The edges get crispy. I like to eat it with dưa món (Vietnamese pickles in fish sauce). This time, my mom had some pickled papaya, which was dried by my aunt in Vietnam and smuggled into the US via my grandmother. If you’re looking for a recipe, you will have to wait for Tết. Meanwhile, you can just enjoy these pictures!


The crispy and salty papaya.

4 comments:

Cu Lan said...

Another difference between banh Tet and banh Chung is that banh Chung is traditionally wrapped with Dong leaves and not Banana leaves. Banh Tet can have sweet filling (ie. banh tet chuoi) but banh Chung is strictly savory.

I love fried crushed banh chung for breakfast with dua mon as well =).

Nice to meet you and I love your blog, btw!

Miss.Adventure said...

I didn't know this! Thanks for reading and nice meeting you also!

Amy Nguyen said...

Hi,

I am getting ready for Tet and was looking for Banh Tet recipes to surprise my parents, do you have a recipe that you can share? I believe the trick is wrapping it into a cylinder shape, I guess it can get messy :(

Miss.Adventure said...

Amy,
Sorry, I won't have a recipe this year. Maybe next year! I remember my mom laying the white rice grains onto the banana leaf and the yellow mung beans in the middle. Then you just have to be dextile and roll it into a cylinder!