(TITC) - Typical cuisines from 3 regions of Vietnam, fantastic performance shows, several promotions, etc. will be offered at the Food Culture Festival from 25th - 28th August in Ho Chi Minh City.
The “Food Culture Festival, Delightful dish Saigontourist Group 2022” will officially kick off at 5.30pm on 25th August and open to serve visitors from 4pm to 10pm everyday, at Van Thanh Tourist Area, Ho Chi Minh City.
Visitors attending one of the cuisine event of Saigontourist Group in Ho Chi Minh City (Photo: Saigontourist Group)
Honour the cuisine of the three regions
About 30 member units representing 4-5 star hotels, resorts and restaurants belonging to Saigontourist Group in Ho Chi Minh City and in many localities will bring to the festival about 300 typical regional dishes and drinks. All dishes will be made by skillful chefs.
The background of the Festival is to recreate the culinary space, with booths designed into three clusters North - Central - South. The booths introduce and sell specialties and delicacies according to each region, displaying typical ingredients, traditional craft villages… The event also promotes the introduction of organic foods and drinks to meet the current green, clean and healthy demand.
Coming to the Northern food stalls, visitors will have an opportunity to taste a collection of typical delicacies such as Bun Cha (rice noodle with grilled pork), vermicelli with tofu and shrimp paste, Cha Com Ha Noi (green rice flakes mixed with ground pork), crab spring rolls, chicken noodle soup, grilled fish noodles (Phu Tho), Thanh Son sour meat (Phu Tho), fried chopped squid with white sticky rice (Ha Long), Ha Long Cu Ky noodle soup (Quang Ninh)... Equally attractive are the specialties of the Northwest highlands such as grilled chicken with Mac Khen pepper, grilled pork with magnolia leaves, bamboo-tube barbecue, kitchen buffalo meat, and bamboo-tube rice.
The Central food stalls will offer visitors special delicacies from Nghe An Province: Thanh Chuong Sour Jackfruits (as a side dish) stir fried with small shrimps, eel soup, eel sausage, fried Mat fish. From Quang Binh Province: porridge soup, Laotian sticky rice with bird meat, braised chicken, "king" oyster in egg, Con Co oyster. And Hue cuisine with representatives of traditional cakes, vermicelli and Vi Da mussel rice...
Summer rolls - a favourite dish of many visitors, will present at the Festival (Photo: Saigontourist Group)
When mentioning Quang Nam Cuisine, visitors should not miss Hoi An Cao Lau, Quang noodle bowl, Nam O herring salad, vermicelli with pork and fish sauce, spring rolls, stir-fried mussels with sesame rice paper, and pork summer rolls. Cuisine in Phu Yen will satisfy visitors with specialties from tuna, such as: stewed tuna eyes, shaky tuna, grilled tuna with salt and pepper, tuna cooked with basil leaves, sour bamboo shoots. Binh Thuan delicacies include fish vermicelli, fried squid egg rolls, herring spring rolls, squid teeth with rice paper, duck meat crispy pancakes. Central Highlands cuisine brings a great breath of the forest with charcoal grilled chicken, grilled ethnic pigs on skewers, sunny beef - salted weaver ants.
Going down to the South, the cuisine of the sunny and warm land will attract diners with rustic dishes with the taste of the Mekong Delta such as shrimp salad - rice paper, deep-fried fish and pumpkin salad - shrimp crackers, avocado spring rolls, fried snail with coconut, grilled snail with pepper. Southern cuisine is also attractive by countless snacks such as Bac Lieu tapioca cake, Can Tho pandan leaf cake, Ben Tre worm-shaped cake, crispy pancake, and Khot cake. Fresh seafood dishes from Con Dao, Phu Quoc islands will give the taste buds of diners a kick. The delicious street food of Saigon also brings its own mark, with pork rolls, sweet and salted summer rolls, butter-fried quail, Pha Lau (stewed beef intestine) and bread, chicken wings stuffed with chestnuts, sticky rice…
Additionally, a fishing village seafood market area and a sweet soup - sticky rice stall will be arranged nicely to serve visitors after their main course. The Festival will be full with bustling sounds from barbecue stoves, steamy pot and fry pan. The sweet soup - sticky rice stall is full of attractive snacks such as Ba ba sweet soup, purple potato sweet soup, corn sweet soup, taro sweet soup, nutties sweet soup, dumpling sweet soup, young apple sweet soup, five-colour sticky rice, pandan sticky rice with lotus seeds and Basil seeds, etc.
In some stalls, a collection of mooncakes will be displayed to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Day.
Many unique folklore activities
The festival will be filled with a festive atmosphere imbued with the folklore of the three regions, with the re-enactment of three clusters of craft village spaces - country markets, folk games and performances of traditional art forms.
At the welcome gate area, visitors will enjoy the fan dance, Khmer pentatonic music, and the paranung musical instrument of the Cham people. The parade programme takes place every day during the 4 days of the festival and will be bustling with folk tunes of Quan Ho, Hue Singing, Southern Don Ca Tai Tu, five-tone music, the sound of paranung drums or fan dances, performances of folk songs and folktales of the art of Boi singing.
Visitors will enjoy unique folklore performances while tasting cuisines (Photo: Saigontourist Group)
If the Northern region invites with Quan ho folk songs, the Central region with Hue singing, Bai Choi singing, the Southern region is inspired by many neo-classical songs, or attracts with the unique Khmer monkey dance.
The craft village area is a place for wine making, weaving sedge mats, brocade, making pottery, making tofu, soy milk, making cakes, making vermicelli… The rural market recreates the image of weaving baskets, mats, water stalls, bustling with the sound of street vendors. The folk games area recalls childhood memories with blindfolded pig beating, crab shaking, bingo, chess, dog chess, fish fighting, coconut leaf tie, ball drop, ball toss, darts, etc… Also, there are performance games such as cooking contests, running on stilts, and jumping rope.
At the Festival this year, famous chefs and culinary experts will interact with the audience; Evaluate and comment on dishes, organise cocktail nights, pool parties, demonstrate and instruct Pho cocktail making, introduce molecular cuisine in Vietnamese dishes. There are other exciting activities such as mooncakes making, bartending, showmanship, DJ, Acoustic, family, children interaction games with awards.
Tourism Information Technology Center
