Pre-cooked offerings to Tao Quan are popular

Many business owners prepare ingredients to serve customers who order offerings to the Kitchen God. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Working as an accountant at a confectionery company in Vinh Tan Ward (Vinh City), the end of the year is a busy time when she has to pay, settle and summarize orders, complete books and documents, so Ms. Luong Tuyet Nhi has almost no free time. Ms. Nhi said: "It is not until the 28th of Tet that I close the books and quit my job. Therefore, I only have time to go to the market to buy Tet offerings, and for the ceremony to worship Ong Cong and Ong Tao, I cannot cook myself, so I choose to order ready-made food from a restaurant and have it delivered. It saves time and has a beautiful tray of food."

Tet Ong Cong, Ong TaoThis year coincides with an administrative day, the end of the year, so everyone is busy, therefore, many people choose to make ready-made offerings to Ong Cong and Ong Tao.

Each savory offering tray costs from 700,000 VND - 1,200 VND/tray. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Ms. Nguyen Tra Giang, owner of a restaurant on Phan Dinh Phung Street (Vinh City) said: "The epidemic is complicated, customers coming to eat directly at the restaurant at this time have decreased sharply compared to previous years. Therefore, in addition to maintaining on-site sales, our restaurant has also implemented cleaning services.Tet Ong Tao offeringshome delivery for customers in need. Up to now, the restaurant has received 100 orders of chicken sticky rice; 30 orders of full savory trays. It is expected that by December 20, the orders will be closed because if we receive too many, we will be overloaded and the service will not be attentive. Accordingly, the price of each chicken sticky rice tray ranges from 350,000 VND - 500,000 VND; savory tray from 700,000 VND - 1.2 million VND".

Many vegetarian dishes are elaborately prepared and beautifully presented and are ordered by many people to display on the altar for the Kitchen Gods' Festival. Photo: Thanh Phuc

In addition to the savory tray, many families choose to order vegetarian trays to send Mr. Cong and Mr. Tao to heaven. Therefore, vegetarian restaurants have promptly created menus for customers to choose from. Vegetarian trays cost from 300,000 to 500,000 VND/tray with a variety of dishes. Vegetarian restaurants said that the number of customers ordering vegetarian trays for the Kitchen God Festival is not as high as on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month, and prices have not fluctuated much.

One of the dishes that many people choose to order to cook for offerings on the day.December 23is a floating cake dish. Specializing in selling “homemade” foods, Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Dung (Con Cuong Town) said: “Currently, there have been 1,000 orders from all districts and Vinh city for 1,000 sets of floating cakes including 18 colorful balls, pandan leaves and rock sugar. Therefore, since the 19th of the lunar calendar, we have had to prepare ingredients, knead dough, make cakes and vacuum pack and freeze them in time to send to customers.”

Ms. Kim Dung said that this year, for the Kitchen Gods Festival, she received 1,000 orders for ready-made floating rice balls. Photo: Thanh Phuc

For many years now, in addition to live carp, fruit jelly carp has been quite popular. Usually, each set of jelly fish includes 3 fish and costs from 150,000 - 200,000 VND. In addition, areca flower tea, longan lotus seed tea, carp-shaped sticky rice... are also on the menu for customers to choose from.

For busy women who do not have enough time to go to the market and prepare food but still want to prepare a meal that suits their family's taste, clean food stores provide pre-processed and pre-cut products for each dish. After purchasing, it only takes 30-40 minutes to cook and have a complete meal. According to the survey, the price of these meals will range from 400,000 - 600,000 VND/tray.

Along with that, offerings such as betel, incense, and votive paper to worship the Kitchen Gods are also prepared by fruit shops in combos with many different prices for customers to choose from./.