People who make Tet cakes
(Baonghean.vn) -When Tet comes, Vietnamese people prepare offerings on the altar to pay respect to their ancestors - Heaven and Earth. Delicious food, exotic foods, incense, fresh flowers... with a filial heart to thank the Supreme Beings for bestowing blessings on their descendants. There is an indispensable offering, which is banh chung.
As descendants of Lac Hong, we cannot forget the founding of the country by the Hung Kings. When talking about the filial piety of descendants to their parents, everyone knows the story of Prince Tiet Lieu (Lang Lieu) - the 18th son of King Hung, who offered his father the offering of Banh Chung and Banh Giay during Tet. Prince Tiet Lieu followed the God's instructions in a dream: "VIn Heaven and Earth, there is nothing more precious than rice, because rice is the food that nourishes people. You should use sticky rice to make round and square cakes, to represent Heaven and Earth. Wrap the outside with leaves, put the filling inside the cake, to represent the parents who gave birth to you." Square sticky rice cakes, put in a steamer to cook, Tiet Lieu called it Banh Chung; sticky rice cakes cooked into sticky rice, pounded in a mortar, made into a round shape, called Banh Giay. The green leaves wrapped on the outside and the filling inside the cake symbolize the loving parents who protect their children.
Banh chung is indispensable in Vietnamese Tet meals.
For thousands of years, until today, Banh Chung and Banh Giay have become sacred offerings in National, Holy and Family Ceremonies of the Vietnamese people. Not only used in ceremonies, Banh Chung and Banh Giay have been attached to daily life, to all living beings, in all regions of the country.
On the twenty-seventh of December, following a tip, I went to Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thanh’s house. Nestled between two “mansions” with high walls near Hai Thuong Lan Ong Street, a small garden was filled with laughter. The rusty iron gate was wide open, with people coming and going busily. Mrs. Thanh was bustling with customers, some coming to place orders, some receiving cooked cakes.
Pork must be lean, have skin but little fat, definitely
do not take pork
Without leaving the mat, without resting her hands, she wrapped the cakes and talked to me.
Her family is originally from Vinh City, in Le Mao Ward, now living here - No. 4, Block 13, Ha Huy Tap Ward. The elders before her made ham and sausage, and she has been making banh chung and banh tet for 32 years now. She usually makes small banh chung and banh tet to sell at Kenh Bac Market, and has a few large ones to sell. The whole market and the people around the area know the reputation of "Mrs. Thanh's cakes", so when the family has an event, or a happy event, they come to her to make cakes. Even the Huu Nghi Hotel often comes to order her cakes for big parties. Just the other day, someone from the hotel came to order all the banh chung to sell during the Nham Thin New Year, but she did not accept because she did not have enough strength.
I asked: Why don't you hire more people to do the work? She smiled gently: Even now, I don't hire anyone. The six or seven people helping me are all my family members. The one wrapping banh chung is my aunt Dung (my sister), and my sister-in-law Nguyet (my sister-in-law) is slicing meat, the girl squeezing beans is my daughter, the one cooking banh chung in the garden is my uncle and aunt, my niece who is studying at university helps me deliver the goods, collect money and keep the books... Normally, when there is little work, only my family does it, and everyone does their own work. When there is a lot of work, like ordering food for parties or holidays, we mobilize a large group like this.
-But why don't you hire seasonal workers? - I asked. She stopped and looked straight into my eyes: Wrapping cakes, especially cakes for festivals and New Year's Eve, requires a dedicated person. Making a hundred cakes like that requires a responsible person. Working all day and night to make sure guests come to worship at the same time as welcoming grandparents or on New Year's Eve (and the cakes must be new) requires someone with good health, enthusiasm, and willingness to do their best. So, you said, only family members can be trusted like that!
Wrapping cakes requires a conscientious, skillful, steady, careful, and clean person.
Tightly wrapped and well cooked cakes will last longer.
-I asked: In the stages, from buying raw materials to processing, wrapping and cooking, which stage is the most important? Mrs. Thanh said: Every stage is important. For example, sticky rice must be ordered from a stable, reputable place; dong leaves must also be ordered but must be selected directly because they are taken from the forest so not every year is the same; as for pork, you must go to the market to choose meat at each stall, because each pig can only get 3-4 kilos of the medium type, including lean meat and skin but little fat, definitely not pork from pigs that have given birth. The wrapper must be skillful, steady, careful, and clean. I never wrap the cake in a mold because the cake is not tight, the shape is even like a machine, so it looks dry and hard without feeling. The cake must be wrapped tightly and cooked thoroughly to keep longer. I cook the cake with firewood, each batch takes 8 hours, take it out, wash it to remove all the slime, then arrange it evenly on the table and use a board to press it.
Her niece helps Mrs. Thanh deliver goods, collect money and keep books.
I’m curious: how much profit do you make per cake? – Cakes ordered for Tet, each one has five taels of sticky rice, half a tael of meat, half a tael of beans, and the onions, pepper, salt, leaves, firewood… can’t be detailed, but if you estimate, you’ll make about seven or eight thousand. This Tet season, I wrapped more than a ton of rice, it was very hard work but it’s not much. I just love the job and enjoy doing it, man.
Suddenly the phone rang, she quickly wiped her hands and reached into her lapels: Mom is fine. Because of your mission, you can't come home for Tet, so just keep working. Oh, by the way, does your army unit make banh chung?...
No need to bother anymore, I said goodbye to Mrs. Thanh. Outside the gate people were still bustling in and out.
The story of Mrs. Thanh wrapping cakes and the saying: “wrapping cakes for festivals and worshiping needs a conscientious person…” made me realize that the job of wrapping cakes for Tet that she is pursuing is not just to make a living./.
Bai, photo: Minh Thong
