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
I think other site proprietors should take this website as an model, very clean and fantastic user friendly style and design, as well as the content. You’re an expert in this topic!
1Good, I should certainly pronounce, impressed with your site. I had no trouble navigating through all the tabs as well as related information ended up being truly simple to do to access. I recently found what I hoped for before you know it in the least. Reasonably unusual. Is likely to appreciate it for those who add forums or anything, web site theme . a tones way for your client to communicate. Nice task.
2Some really interesting details you have written.Assisted me a lot, just what I was searching for :D.
3Hey there just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The text in your article seem to be running off the screen in Internet explorer. I’m not sure if this is a formatting issue or something to do with web browser compatibility but I thought I’d post to let you know. The design and style look great though! Hope you get the problem solved soon. Cheers
4Hi there, I found your website by means of Google at the same time as looking for a similar subject, your site came up, it looks good. I’ve bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
5I think other web-site proprietors should take this web site as an model, very clean and wonderful user genial style and design, let alone the content. You’re an expert in this topic!
6Hey there just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The words in your content seem to be running off the screen in Opera. I’m not sure if this is a format issue or something to do with browser compatibility but I thought I’d post to let you know. The design look great though! Hope you get the problem fixed soon. Cheers
7obviously like your web site but you have to check the spelling on several of your posts. A number of them are rife with spelling problems and I in finding it very bothersome to inform the truth nevertheless I will certainly come again again.
8I really enjoy studying on this site, it has got great content. “A short saying oft contains much wisdom.” by Sophocles.
9Hello, i read your blog from time to time and i own a similar one and i was just wondering if you get a lot of spam responses? If so how do you stop it, any plugin or anything you can suggest? I get so much lately it’s driving me crazy so any help is very much appreciated.
10I’ll right away take hold of your rss feed as I can’t to find your e-mail subscription link or e-newsletter service. Do you have any? Kindly permit me know in order that I could subscribe. Thanks.
11Great wordpress blog here.. It’s hard to find quality writing like yours these days. I really appreciate people like you! take care
12It’s actually a nice and helpful piece of info. I am happy that you shared this helpful info with us. Please keep us informed like this. Thanks for sharing.
13very good submit, i definitely love this web site, keep on it
14I am impressed with this internet site, very I am a big fan .
15Hi there, You have performed an excellent job. I’ll certainly digg it and in my view recommend to my friends. I am confident they will be benefited from this site.
16Thanks for another excellent article. Where else could anybody get that type of info in such an ideal way of writing? I’ve a presentation next week, and I’m on the look for such information.
17Good day! This post couldn’t be written any better! Reading this post reminds me of my good old room mate! He always kept chatting about this. I will forward this article to him. Fairly certain he will have a good read. Thanks for sharing!
18But wanna input on few general things, The website design and style is perfect, the content is real fantastic. “Some for renown, on scraps of learning dote, And think they grow immortal as they quote.” by Edward Young.
19After all, what a great site and informative posts, I will upload inbound link – bookmark this web site? Regards, Reader.
20Great write-up, I’m normal visitor of one’s site, maintain up the nice operate, and It’s going to be a regular visitor for a long time.
21Hello there, just became aware of your blog through Google, and found that it is truly informative. I am gonna watch out for brussels. I will be grateful if you continue this in future. Numerous people will be benefited from your writing. Cheers!
22Very interesting subject , regards for posting.
23The very root of your writing while sounding reasonable originally, did not really settle well with me personally after some time. Someplace throughout the sentences you managed to make me a believer but only for a while. I however have a problem with your jumps in logic and you might do nicely to help fill in all those gaps. If you actually can accomplish that, I will definitely be amazed.
24Keep functioning ,remarkable job!
25Perfectly pent content material, Really enjoyed studying.
26As I web-site possessor I believe the content material here is rattling magnificent , appreciate it for your hard work. You should keep it up forever! Good Luck.
27I really wanted to send a simple message to express gratitude to you for the amazing tips and hints you are giving here. My long internet research has at the end been rewarded with extremely good knowledge to exchange with my family and friends. I ‘d tell you that we site visitors are truly blessed to live in a very good community with very many marvellous professionals with interesting points. I feel pretty privileged to have discovered your entire website and look forward to some more awesome minutes reading here. Thanks a lot again for a lot of things.
28Hey there, You’ve done an incredible job. I’ll definitely digg it and personally suggest to my friends. I’m sure they will be benefited from this site.
29Admiring the hard work you put into your website and in depth information you present. It’s good to come across a blog every once in a while that isn’t the same old rehashed material. Excellent read! I’ve saved your site and I’m including your RSS feeds to my Google account.
30You are a very capable individual!
31I’ve been surfing on-line greater than 3 hours these days, but I by no means discovered any interesting article like yours. It is pretty price enough for me. Personally, if all webmasters and bloggers made excellent content as you probably did, the internet will likely be a lot more useful than ever before.
32I visited a lot of website but I conceive this one contains something special in it in it
33Way cool, some valid points! I appreciate you making this article available, the rest of the site is also high quality. Have a fun.
34Hey very nice blog!! Man .. Excellent .. Amazing .. I’ll bookmark your website and take the feeds also…I’m happy to find numerous useful info here in the post, we need work out more strategies in this regard, thanks for sharing. . . . . .
35I don’t normally comment but I gotta tell thanks for the post on this one :D.
36Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wished to say that I have really enjoyed surfing around your blog posts. After all I will be subscribing to your rss feed and I hope you write again soon!
37Aw, this was a very nice post. In concept I want to put in writing like this moreover – taking time and actual effort to make a very good article… but what can I say… I procrastinate alot and on no account appear to get something done.
38I regard something genuinely interesting about your blog so I saved to bookmarks.
39Hello! I could have sworn I’ve been to this blog before but after browsing through some of the post I realized it’s new to me. Anyways, I’m definitely happy I found it and I’ll be book-marking and checking back frequently!
40You are my inhalation, I own few blogs and sometimes run out from post :). “Yet do I fear thy nature It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness.” by William Shakespeare.
41whoah this blog is wonderful i like reading your posts. Keep up the good paintings! You recognize, lots of persons are looking around for this info, you could aid them greatly.
42My wife and i have been absolutely cheerful that Michael managed to conclude his investigation while using the ideas he acquired while using the web pages. It is now and again perplexing to simply happen to be making a gift of things which usually people today have been trying to sell. And we all realize we have got the writer to thank because of that. The specific illustrations you have made, the straightforward site navigation, the relationships you can help to create – it’s many spectacular, and it is making our son in addition to us do think that situation is exciting, and that is truly serious. Thanks for everything!
43Thanks for the good writeup. It actually was once a entertainment account it. Look advanced to far added agreeable from you! However, how could we keep up a correspondence?
44You actually make it seem really easy with your presentation but I in finding this topic to be actually one thing which I believe I’d never understand. It sort of feels too complex and very extensive for me. I am taking a look forward on your next submit, I’ll try to get the dangle of it!
45I was just looking for this information for a while. After 6 hours of continuous Googleing, at last I got it in your site. I wonder what’s the lack of Google strategy that do not rank this type of informative sites in top of the list. Usually the top websites are full of garbage.
46I’d have to examine with you here. Which is not one thing I usually do! I take pleasure in reading a post that may make folks think. Additionally, thanks for permitting me to comment!
47I have read several good stuff here. Definitely worth bookmarking for revisiting. I surprise how much effort you put to make such a wonderful informative site.
48Spot on with this write-up, I really assume this web site wants much more consideration. I’ll probably be once more to learn way more, thanks for that info.
49Keep working ,great job!
50