Banh tet, sweet and savory
Bánh chưng and bánh tét to the Vietnamese Tết are like turkey and ham to the American Thanksgiving. The holiday feast just wouldn’t feel right without them. Although I have blogged about these sticky rice squares and logs before, the lunar new year has come back, and so are they. Sticky rice can be uberfilling in large quantity, and like all festive food, it’s not recommended that you feast on these dense beasts day after day, as satisfaction would turn into tiresomeness. But once a year, or maybe twice, a couple slices of banh tet sound so much more interesting than cereal, rice, even noodle soup.
Banh chung and banh tet have rather similar ingredients, especially when they’re made by Vietnamese Southerners. Both are wrapped in leaves (although slightly different kinds of leaves), and boiled for hours in water that is sometimes spiced with lemongrass. After cooking, a heavy weight is put on banh chung to drain the water, while banh tet are rolled around to perfect the cylindrical shape. I remember we used to hang pairs of banh tet in my grandfather’s kitchen, taking one down everyday during the week of Tet to whip out a nice settling meal with thịt kho trứng (pork and egg stew), dưa giá (pickled bean sprout), and spring rolls. There are the savory kind with meat and mung bean paste, and the vegan kind for those who want to practice self-control on the first day of Tet. In Houston, my mom usually gets the savory kind from Giò Chả Đức Hương, where we also get our cha lua supply, and the vegan kind from Linh Son pagoda. I branched out this year and tried a meaty log from Huong Lan Sandwiches 4 in Milpitas.
Their banh tet measures about 7 inches long, making eight thick nice slices, each has a chunk of fatty pork in the middle, pink and spiced with pepper. The sticky rice coat here gave its leaf wrapping a bit insecure sliminess when we first unraveled, but all was well. The banh tet smelled great, the sticky rice has a tight but soft texture. The seasoned bean paste is just salty enough to intrigue. In some way, banh tet is better than banh chung because every bite guarantees a bit of everything. No piece will miss the meat completely and no bite will get all the meat, the stuffing is even throughout the whole banh. It was honestly good by itself without condiments. Huong Lan Sandwiches had not failed me.
And neither did Thao Tien. When we got there last week in our quail quest, Thao Tien’s employees were busy running a small table pyramidized with banh chung and banh tet. They locate nicely in front of the Grand Century mall, passed by hundreds of people Tet shopping that day. Seeing the sale went like hot cakes (the sticky rice cakes were actually still warm), we were too eager to snatch one home that we forgot to check the tiny white sticker on the side. Surprise, we had grabbed a bánh tét chuối (banana banh tet).
It’s solely vegan. The sticky rice coat is made interesting with dots of black beans on shiny green background. The core is sweet, mushy banana in a reddish purple hue. This is just the usual ivory banana that always ripe too soon, but somehow slow cooking in a compact block of sticky rice wrapped by banana leaves makes the fruit change color. Chemical reactions? It still tastes sweet, with a hint of bitter (for lack of a better word) like a guava skin. And it looks beautiful to me.
The banana banh tet also goes well with my rotisserie chicken from Safeway, minus the guilt of defeating the whole vegan purpose thing. Thao Tien’s logs are also shamelessly long, almost two times bigger than Huong Lan’s. I will be eating banh tet every day for the rest of the week. Happy Tết to bánh tét and me!
Address: Hương Lan Sandwiches 4
41 Serra Way, Ste. 108
Milpitas, CA 95035
1 bánh tét with meat: $6
Thảo Tiên restaurant
Grand Century Mall
1111 Story Road #1080
San Jose, CA 95122
1 vegan banana bánh tét: $10
quick 1 click sell
1sell nft tool works
2Hello! I just would like to give a huge thumbs up for the great info you have here on this post. I will be coming back to your blog for more soon.
3It’s really a great and useful piece of information. I am glad that you shared this useful information with us. Please keep us informed like this. Thanks for sharing.
4solid bridge dapp
5quick polygon bridge guide
6You are my aspiration, I possess few blogs and rarely run out from to post .
7This is the suitable blog for anybody who desires to find out about this topic. You understand a lot its virtually arduous to argue with you (not that I truly would need…HaHa). You definitely put a brand new spin on a topic thats been written about for years. Nice stuff, simply nice!
8Hi there very cool site!! Man .. Beautiful .. Superb .. I’ll bookmark your web site and take the feeds additionallyKI’m happy to seek out so many helpful information here within the submit, we’d like develop more strategies on this regard, thanks for sharing. . . . . .
9I truly enjoy looking at on this web site, it has fantastic articles. “Those who complain most are most to be complained of.” by Matthew Henry.
10fast swap USDT
11fast USDC to DAI
12Its superb as your other articles : D, appreciate it for posting. “The present is the necessary product of all the past, the necessary cause of all the future.” by Robert Green Ingersoll.
13Someone essentially help to make seriously posts I would state. This is the very first time I frequented your website page and thus far? I amazed with the research you made to create this particular publish incredible. Wonderful job!
14Hiya! I simply want to give an enormous thumbs up for the great info you will have here on this post. I will be coming again to your weblog for more soon.
15You are my intake, I own few blogs and infrequently run out from to brand.
16Great remarkable things here. I am very satisfied to peer your article. Thank you so much and i’m having a look forward to touch you. Will you kindly drop me a mail?
17It is appropriate time to make a few plans for the longer term and it’s time to be happy. I have learn this post and if I could I want to suggest you some fascinating things or advice. Maybe you can write next articles relating to this article. I want to learn even more issues about it!
18Great blog here! Also your site quite a bit up fast! What web host are you the use of? Can I get your associate link to your host? I want my website loaded up as quickly as yours lol
19I believe this web site contains some really excellent info for everyone. “The fewer the words, the better the prayer.” by Martin Luther.
20I’ve read some just right stuff here. Certainly price bookmarking for revisiting. I surprise how a lot effort you put to make this type of great informative site.
21Hiya, I am really glad I’ve found this info. Today bloggers publish just about gossips and internet and this is actually annoying. A good web site with exciting content, that is what I need. Thanks for keeping this website, I will be visiting it. Do you do newsletters? Can not find it.
22I really like your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you make this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you? Plz answer back as I’m looking to construct my own blog and would like to find out where u got this from. cheers
23What’s Going down i am new to this, I stumbled upon this I have discovered It positively helpful and it has helped me out loads. I am hoping to give a contribution & help other users like its aided me. Great job.
24Hello There. I found your blog using msn. This is an extremely well written article. I will make sure to bookmark it and come back to read more of your useful information. Thanks for the post. I will certainly comeback.
25