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
Thank you a bunch for sharing this with all of us you actually recognise what you’re talking approximately! Bookmarked. Please also visit my web site =). We could have a link exchange arrangement among us!
1I like seeing the THORSwap destination before I approve an ETH swap.
2THORSwap kept the swap flow simple even though I still review every detail.
3Many thanks for sharing such great content. I absolutely love your web page. Thanks again for giving me the opportunity to comment on your article. I look forward to more informative publications from you soon.
4Thank you for posting such interesting post. I absolutely love your web page. Thank you for providing a space for me to comment on your blog post. I would love to see more engaging articles from you soon.
5I’m not that much of a internet reader to be honest but your blogs really nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your website to come back down the road. All the best
6Appreciate it for helping out, great information.
7Heya! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any trouble with hackers? My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up losing many months of hard work due to no data backup. Do you have any solutions to stop hackers?
8늑대닷컴을 검색하며 궁금했던 웹툰 정보와 작품 찾는 방법을 정리했습니다. 연재·완결 구분, 무료 회차와 미리보기 차이, 주소 정보 확인 기준, 모바일 이용 팁과 자주 묻는 질문을 확인하세요.
9늑대닷컴을 검색하며 궁금했던 웹툰 정보와 작품 찾는 방법을 정리했습니다. 연재·완결 구분, 무료 회차와 미리보기 차이, 주소 정보 확인 기준, 모바일 이용 팁과 자주 묻는 질문을 확인하세요.
10구미오피를 검색하며 구미 지역 일반 마사지·스파를 알아보는 분들을 위한 안내입니다. 프로그램 선택, 관리 시간과 비용, 시설·위생, 주차, 예약 전 확인사항과 자주 묻는 질문을 정리했습니다.
11구미오피를 검색하며 구미 지역 일반 마사지·스파를 알아보는 분들을 위한 안내입니다. 프로그램 선택, 관리 시간과 비용, 시설·위생, 주차, 예약 전 확인사항과 자주 묻는 질문을 정리했습니다.
12밤토끼가 어떤 사이트였는지, 과거 이력과 현재 검색 정보를 구분하는 방법을 정리했습니다. 예전에 보던 웹툰 찾기, 공식 연재처 확인, 무료 회차와 대여·소장 차이, 자주 묻는 질문까지 한 번에 확인하세요.
13밤토끼가 어떤 사이트였는지, 과거 이력과 현재 검색 정보를 구분하는 방법을 정리했습니다. 예전에 보던 웹툰 찾기, 공식 연재처 확인, 무료 회차와 대여·소장 차이, 자주 묻는 질문까지 한 번에 확인하세요.
14포항오피 검색어의 맥락과 온라인 정보 확인 기준을 정리했습니다. 광고성 표현과 후기의 출처, 게시물의 최신성, 개인정보 보호 방법, 포항 공공정보와 자주 묻는 질문을 확인하세요.
15포항오피 검색어의 맥락과 온라인 정보 확인 기준을 정리했습니다. 광고성 표현과 후기의 출처, 게시물의 최신성, 개인정보 보호 방법, 포항 공공정보와 자주 묻는 질문을 확인하세요.
16포항오피 검색어의 맥락과 온라인 정보 확인 기준을 정리했습니다. 광고성 표현과 후기의 출처, 게시물의 최신성, 개인정보 보호 방법, 포항 공공정보와 자주 묻는 질문을 확인하세요.
17Hello, Neat post. There’s a problem together with your website in internet explorer, could check thisK IE still is the market chief and a large portion of folks will pass over your wonderful writing because of this problem.
18Absolutely composed content, thankyou for entropy.
19I have been exploring for a little bit for any high-quality articles or weblog posts in this sort of space . Exploring in Yahoo I at last stumbled upon this web site. Studying this information So i am happy to convey that I have an incredibly good uncanny feeling I discovered just what I needed. I so much no doubt will make certain to don’t overlook this website and provides it a look regularly.
20It’s really a nice and useful piece of information. I am satisfied that you shared this helpful info with us. Please stay us informed like this. Thank you for sharing.
21I really appreciate you for sharing such great content. I really like your site. Thank you for providing a space for me to comment on your web page. I hope additional interesting updates from you in the coming days.
22I have not checked in here for a while since I thought it was getting boring, but the last several posts are good quality so I guess I will add you back to my daily bloglist. You deserve it my friend 🙂
23I like this weblog so much, saved to bookmarks. “American soldiers must be turned into lambs and eating them is tolerated.” by Muammar Qaddafi.
24Sweet website , super design and style, rattling clean and apply pleasant.
25Do you mind if I quote a few of your posts as long as I provide credit and sources back to your blog? My blog is in the exact same area of interest as yours and my users would genuinely benefit from a lot of the information you present here. Please let me know if this alright with you. Many thanks!
26I reckon something really special in this site.
27you’re really a good webmaster. The website loading speed is incredible. It seems that you’re doing any unique trick. In addition, The contents are masterwork. you have done a great job on this topic!
28I’ve recently started a blog, the info you provide on this site has helped me greatly. Thanks for all of your time & work.
29