Top 10 Best Tips to Enjoy Tet Without Feeling Overwhelmed

1. Eat Just Enough

What does it mean to eat just enough? Eating just enough means feeling satisfied rather than stuffed. You should stop eating when your stomach feels comfortably full, still slightly craving more. For a Tet meal, aim to eat about 1/6 of a banh chung or 1/6 of a plate of sticky rice. If you enjoy a bowl of rice, avoid having another bowl of noodles because you only need to consume half of each to get enough starch.

You should try each dish 1-2 times if there are about 4-5 dishes on the Tet table; if there are only 2-3 dishes, you can have each dish 2-3 times (equivalent to 2-3 spoons). However, remember to eat fruits and vegetables to make your meal less heavy and more refreshing.

2. Proper Food Pairing

During Tet, people often purchase a wide variety of foods. If combined improperly, it can result in incompatible dishes leading to stomach upset. You should pair foods according to formulas such as fatty foods with sour ones (eating banh chung with pickled onions, fatty meat with pickled vegetables); protein-rich foods with spicy ones (chicken with salt and pepper); cold foods with hot ones (meat soup with ginger), you will not feel nauseous.

Another note is that you should not eat cold and hot foods together as it increases intestinal motility and digestive fluid secretion, which can cause stomach pain and diarrhea.

Eating in the Right Order is also crucial. You should eat: Appetizers during Tet meals can be a bit of wine, some light dishes. If you prefer something hot, soup is a great suggestion, or if you prefer something cold, you can have salad or thinly sliced pork sausage.

Main dishes during Tet meals should be eaten hot and flavorful like rice, frozen meat, fried chicken, banh chung, stir-fried dishes. For desserts, you should avoid overly sour or spicy foods because the aftertaste will linger for a long time, making you uncomfortable. You should eat light, neutral or slightly sweet dishes.

In general meals and particularly during Tet meals, you should eat a balanced diet, not just meat and fish but also vegetables. You should also avoid stir-frying vegetables as it diminishes their freshness. You can prepare vegetables by boiling, salting, pickling, blanching, or eating them raw.

You can boil vegetables like chayote, cabbage, squash, or boil pickled mustard greens, pickled onions; make salads with cabbage, jicama, cucumber; blanch scallions, mustard greens, pea tendrils, or you can eat raw tomatoes, cucumbers, fresh herbs.