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 love your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you make this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you? Plz reply as I’m looking to create my own blog and would like to find out where u got this from. many thanks
1Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wished to say that I’ve truly enjoyed browsing your blog posts. After all I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again very soon!
2Perfect piece of work you have done, this site is really cool with wonderful information.
3I believe this site holds some really wonderful info for everyone. “The individual will always be a minority. If a man is in a minority of one, we lock him up.” by Oliver Wendell Holmes.
4Wonderful site. Lots of useful info here. I’m sending it to a few friends ans also sharing in delicious. And obviously, thanks for your sweat!
5I have been browsing online greater than three hours these days, yet I by no means found any interesting article like yours. It is lovely price sufficient for me. In my opinion, if all website owners and bloggers made good content as you probably did, the internet can be a lot more useful than ever before.
6Almost all of whatever you state is supprisingly legitimate and it makes me wonder the reason why I had not looked at this in this light before. Your piece truly did turn the light on for me personally as far as this issue goes. Nonetheless there is actually one position I am not necessarily too cozy with and while I try to reconcile that with the main theme of the position, permit me see what all the rest of the readers have to point out.Nicely done.
7I don’t usually comment but I gotta admit regards for the post on this perfect one :D.
8Thank you for sharing excellent informations. Your web site is so cool. I’m impressed by the details that you’ve on this site. It reveals how nicely you understand this subject. Bookmarked this website page, will come back for more articles. You, my friend, ROCK! I found simply the information I already searched everywhere and just couldn’t come across. What a great web site.
9Would love to always get updated outstanding web blog! .
10Really nice pattern and superb content material, hardly anything else we require :D.
11It’s hard to find knowledgeable folks on this matter, but you sound like you recognize what you’re speaking about! Thanks
12You really make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this topic to be really something which I think I would never understand. It seems too complex and extremely broad for me. I’m looking forward for your next post, I’ll try to get the hang of it!
13Pretty! This was a really wonderful post. Thank you for your provided information.
14I like what you guys are up too. Such clever work and reporting! Carry on the superb works guys I have incorporated you guys to my blogroll. I think it will improve the value of my website :).
15Thank you for publishing this wonderful post. I love your site. Thanks again for letting me share my thoughts on your article. I hope additional interesting updates from you soon.
16I’ve been absent for some time, but now I remember why I used to love this web site. Thank you, I’ll try and check back more frequently. How frequently you update your website?
17Hi , I do believe this is an excellent blog. I stumbled upon it on Yahoo , i will come back once again. Money and freedom is the best way to change, may you be rich and help other people.
18I believe this site holds some rattling good information for everyone. “The fewer the words, the better the prayer.” by Martin Luther.
19This web site is really a walk-through for all of the info you wanted about this and didn’t know who to ask. Glimpse here, and you’ll definitely discover it.
20Does your site have a contact page? I’m having trouble locating it but, I’d like to send you an email. I’ve got some creative ideas for your blog you might be interested in hearing. Either way, great blog and I look forward to seeing it expand over time.
21I’m really enjoying the design and layout of your site. It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more enjoyable for me to come here and visit more often. Did you hire out a designer to create your theme? Superb work!
22When I initially commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get several e-mails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove people from that service? Thank you!
23Precisely what I was looking for, regards for posting.
24Hello! I’ve been reading your site for a long time now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out from Porter Tx! Just wanted to say keep up the good job!
25