Top 12 Traditional Tet Dishes of Quang Ninh Residents

1. Red Chung Cake

Red Chung Cake is the oldest traditional cake in Vietnamese culinary culture, symbolizing Tet festivities. For Quang Ninh residents, it holds immense cultural significance, gracing ancestral altars in every household. Particularly in Hoanh Bo and Binh Lieu districts, a special variation known as Red Chung Cake is meticulously crafted, boasting a vibrant red hue.

This cake is made from high-quality glutinous rice, gac fruit, mung beans, and pork, wrapped neatly in dong leaves and boiled for 12 hours until it becomes soft and fragrant. Sitting beside a pot of Red Chung Cake on Tet, one can distinctly feel the transition to a new year, filled with freshness and warmth, a truly delightful sensation.

2. Xoi Gac

During Tet, one cannot miss the dish of red glutinous rice. In Vietnamese culture, the color red symbolizes luck and happiness. Therefore, eating this dish at the beginning of the year brings luck, happiness, success, and prosperity. Red glutinous rice is made from high-quality glutinous rice mixed with ripe gac fruit, giving it a beautiful red color and a sweet, fragrant taste from the gac oil.

Whether it's the New Year's Eve dinner or the ancestral altar on the first day of the new year, people in Quang Ninh often prepare a plate of red glutinous rice as a belief for more luck and fortune throughout the year. Because of the belief in luck for the new year, red glutinous rice is an indispensable dish in Tet for people in Quang Ninh.

3. Pickled Onions

Pickled Onions are an essential dish in the traditional Tet of Vietnam, particularly for Quang Ninh residents. Rich in probiotic bacteria, pickled onions can enhance the gut microbiota for your family meals. Additionally, onions, with their warm and spicy nature, can help warm the body during winter and aid digestion.

It's often said that pickled onions go hand in hand with Chung Cake. The slightly spicy and sour taste of pickled onions, when paired with meat and Chung Cake, reduces the feeling of heaviness, making it easier for the body to digest food. This is truly a well-balanced food combination. To make delicious pickled onions, choose mature, fresh onions, free from any damage. Cut and remove the easy parts, then soak them in a mixture of salt, vinegar, and sugar. After a few days, they are ready to eat, truly a delicious dish for Tet.

4. Gio Lua

Gio Lua is also an indispensable dish in the first meal of the year for Quang Ninh locals. These smooth, white sausage slices are easy to eat and convenient. Gio Lua is made from minced pork mixed with delicious fish sauce, then tightly wrapped in dong leaves into small pieces and boiled. When served, Gio Lua is sliced into round pieces. Besides pork, Gio Lua can also be made from beef, offering a fragrant and delicious taste.

Gio Lua is considered delicious if it meets the following criteria: the sausage slices are slightly pinkish-white, with a smooth surface, not dry, hard, or fibrous. Delicious Gio Lua has the distinctive aroma of boiled meat and fresh banana leaves, with a rich sweet taste.

5. Tien Yen Chicken

Chicken dishes are an essential part of Tet celebrations for Quang Ninh residents. While simple, people believe that eating chicken at the beginning of the year brings luck and a favorable start to the new year.

During Tet, chickens chosen are usually fresh, healthy roosters. They are boiled with ingredients like lime leaves, ginger, and pepper. Boiled chickens should have a bright yellow color and look visually appealing. Quang Ninh is famous for Tien Yen hill chickens, known for their firm, tender, and sweet meat, highly favored during Tet.

6. Banh Gio

Banh Gio, a renowned delicacy from the Ha Nam region (Quang Yen), is an indispensable dish on the Tet table. This dish represents the essence of glutinous rice offered by the locals to ancestors and deities as gratitude for abundant harvests and family happiness.

This cake is made from glutinous rice soaked in the gio water of the gia tree - a type of tree growing in the mangrove forest by the sea. The cake has a deep golden brown color, and when cut into small pieces, it is clear inside. It is best served with sugar. This is truly a delicious dish for Tet.

7. Ngan

For the people of Quang Ninh, seafood is the highlight that creates the essence of the Tet feast. With the abundance of blessings from nature, the people of Quang Ninh skillfully combine them to create a meaningful and unique feast, not only beautiful, delicious, and nutritious but also reflecting their identity.

Among the distinctive seafood dishes of Quang Ninh, one cannot overlook the ngan. Ngan can be prepared in various ways during Tet, from simple to elaborate. People in Quang Yen clean each clam meticulously, using ropes to tie the shells so that the ngan retains its juices when cooked and is served immediately when it's just cooked. This is truly a unique dish for Tet in Quang Ninh.

8. Banh Tai Long Ep

Banh tai long ep is a traditional food on the first day of the year for people in eastern Quang Ninh. This is one of the special cakes in Bach Dang, Ha Long.

Glutinous rice flour mixed with a little rice flour, brown sugar, a bit of ginger as a seasoning along with water then poured into the mold lined with banana leaves, sprinkled with a little sesame, finally steamed in a double boiler. The cake has the sweetness of molasses, the spicy taste of ginger, the fragrant taste of sesame, and peanuts. Banh tai long ep is left for ten days after Tet, when the cake hardens, it is cut small and fried in oil, the crust is crispy while the inside is still soft and elastic creating a different delicious taste.

Pork is an essential ingredient in Vietnamese cuisine, especially during the Tet holiday, where many dishes use this ingredient. Pork from Mong Cai is one of the specialties of Quang Ninh people.

Quang Ninh is famous for the Mong Cai pig breed, with firm, fragrant pork, perfect for cooking braised pork, an indispensable dish on the Tet holiday table, bringing the flavor of the homeland. The dish is prepared simply with fresh pork and chicken eggs, creating a delicious and enticing braised pork pot.

'Go to Quang Ninh - Remember Dong Trieu sandworms' is a saying that locals hold dear. Dong Trieu sandworms are among the delicious dishes served during the Tet holiday in Quang Ninh and are a must-try for visitors to the area. If you visit Quang Ninh without trying Dong Trieu sandworms, it could be considered a wasted opportunity.

Locals in Dong Trieu consider sandworms as gifts from heaven. Therefore, no Tet feast is complete without this delicacy. Dishes made from sandworms bring unique and delicious flavors that everyone eagerly anticipates, to experience the distinctive taste and texture of sandworms. These dishes include sandworm sausage, braised sandworms, sandworm pickle, and more.