Tet: Vietnamese New Year 2011, Fairfield Showground

This Tet festival is the largest in the state, around 60,000 people are expected to go through the gates over the three days.  As I've mentioned in a past noodlies Sydney food blog post, Chinese and Vietnamese share the Lunar calendar, so New Year's Day is on the same day, this year it's 3rd February.



But the animal for the year is different.  2011 is the year of the rabbit for Chinese but cat for Vietnamese.  But I don't go to Tet festival to argue over animals, I go because you get the greatest variety of delicious Vietnamese food.

Nem nuong: Vietnamese grilled pork is a party favourite because it's easy to cook and easy to eat.  But the version I had today (tipped off by another festival punter) was nem nuong from Nha Trang, from the south-central region of Vietnam.



What's different? As you can see by the video, it's the sauce.  No runny stuff here, the sauce contains ground sticky rice and pork meat!

Another favourite is goi: Vietnamese salad.  This version contains shredded green papaya, Vietnamese mint, prawns and a very, very special ingredient, shredded pigs ears.  Watch the video to see what it looks and tastes like!

Something which you won't get in too many Vietnamese restaurants is bo la lot, beef wrapped around betel leaf.  It has a distinctive strong, but not overpowering taste, similar to banana leaf which works very well with the sweetly marinated beef.

We even transform the humble corn.  You're starting to see these at mainstream festivals everywhere, it's grilled corn, protected by regular brushing of oil and shallots.  Yes, who knew shallots and corn would work... actually, who knew you could grill corn?!



And finally to quench that thirst from the hot Sydney summer's day or acquired from eating too much fish sauce, I'd recommend a glass of sugar cane juice.  It's a pure as you can get - the cane is squeezed and you get the juice, chilled with ice and cut with a little lemon juice.

Tet festival is a hidden gem and I'd encourage you to go one year.. even if it's to support the Buddhist Scouts by playing housie!



Vietnamese Tet New Year Festival
Fairfield Showground
4-6th February 2011
Entry $7 adults, $3 children

Win in the New Lunar Year

Start your year with good luck by winning a 5kg bag of Royal Umbrella Jasmine Rice, new crop 2011.  Email thang[at]noodlies[dot]com and tell me about a favourite family dish or meal.  Why is it special?

I also encourage you to also share those memories with us by putting it in the comments section of this post.

The three most creative entry wins.  Winning entries will be published on noodlies on 8 January 2011.

Prizes will be sent to addresses in Australia.

 A few rules:
- 50 words or less
- Entries close 11pm, 7th January 2011
- Residents of Australia only
- make sure it's full of love

Email thang[at]noodlies[dot]com 

and tell me about a favourite family dish or meal.  Why is it special?  

Share your experiences with us in the comments section... 
 

Prizes are from our friends at Royal Umbrella rice.

Family Dinner for Tet & Win Royal Umbrella Rice 5kg packs

I do get sentimental as the years go by, in the past, New Year had been a time I would look forward to the challenges ahead.  I still do because there's still so much to look forward to, but now I try to take more time to look back and reflect on how lucky I've been - to take a selfish moment and savour the wonderful people in my life.

This new year mark's so many milestones for my family, my father turns 90, and I celebrate my 21st anniversary. New Year is good like that, it makes you stop and look at your priorities and appreciate the ones you love... especially over a family dinner.

For me there are a few Vietnamese dishes that is a must for a New Year family dinner...

Canh chua, Vietnamese sour soup is so uniquely Vietnamese, both sweet and sour, that unique flavour was one of my first food memories.

And you can't have canh chua without goi, Vietnamese salad, that other quintessential homeland dish.  You can have so many types of goi, this one is prawns and bamboo shoots.  The sour and fish sauce mixed with the fresh greens, together with some white rice, send me off on a high.

The other childhood memory was my mother coming home late from work and having dinner on her own.  I would come and lay on her lap.  The aroma of the ca kho, fish slow cooked in fish sauce and pepper until it was brown and tender was so mesmerising to me as a child.  She would lean down, kiss me then feed me a mouthful of rice mixed with fish.

Just like the loved ones that I take for granted, I often forget the other essential ingredient of any meal, com - white rice.  My father, god bless him, still refuses to eat any meal that doesn't have rice.  In Vietnamese to eat dinner or lunch we say "an com", literally eat rice, that's how important rice is to Vietnamese families.  Back in 1976, my mother notoriously said she wouldn't come to Australia unless she could buy fish sauce and rice there.

These days, we don't compromise of what we eat because our family is worth it and more.  We buy the best ingredients, we don't skimp on family.  Year and years ago we switched from Sunlong rice (every Vietnamese family used to eat Sunlong) to Royal Umbrella Jasmine Rice.  It's a premium product that is loved worldwide and awarded world's best rice 2009.

My family is sooo worth it!

Win in the New Lunar Year

Start your year with good luck by winning a 5kg bag of Royal Umbrella Jasmine Rice, new crop 2011.  Email thang[at]noodlies[dot]com and tell me about a favourite family dish or meal.  Why is it special?

I also encourage you to also share those memories with us by putting it in the comments section of this post.

The three most creative entry wins.  Winning entries will be published on noodlies on 8 January 2011.

Prizes will be sent to addresses in Australia.

 A few rules:
- 50 words or less
- Entries close 11pm, 7th January 2011
- Residents of Australia only
- make sure it's full of love

Email thang[at]noodlies[dot]com 

and tell me about a favourite family dish or meal.  Why is it special?  

Share your experiences with us in the comments section...

This post was supported by our friends at Royal Umbrella rice.

Hai Au Vietnamese Restaurant, Canley Vale

Hai Au has been consistently on my Best Restaurants in Cabramatta list.  We came back tonight because they have this new roast chicken which is done at the entrance to the restaurant (see above).  The chicken is wrapped in banana leaves and cooked over an enormous flame (below).

 

Saigon Bay, Vietnamese, Darlinghurst

Last night I dined with two authors, well actually they were friends and family so nothing itimindating, Geesche Jacobsen, author of Abandoned: The Diane Brimble Story out this month and Walter Mason, my partner, author of Destination Saigon.

Villawood Anglican Church

Some of the best food you can eat are home cooking... well I think so anyway.  Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year, the year of the Tiger.

I went to celebrate the occassion with my parents at their church in Villawood.

Everyone brought a dish and it was a wonderful feast; bitter melon soup, prawn salad (goi), pickled pork (nem), cha, new year savoury and sweet rice cake (banh tet)... just to name a few.

The food just went on, and on and on...