At the 3rd Dong Thap Lotus Festival – 2026, taking place from June 18-21 in Cao Lanh ward, the lotus opens up a unique culinary experience space.
Cultural symbol
Mentioning Dong Thap, tourists from afar often immediately imagine the vast fields stretching across the Dong Thap Muoi wetlands.
Through hundreds of years of reclamation and establishment, lotus is not only present in production life but has deeply rooted in consciousness, becoming an inseparable part of the local cultural identity.
Few flowers are as closely associated with a land as lotus for Dong Thap. The noble and pure beauty of this flower has gone into poetry and music and become the pride of the people here.
The lotus has gone beyond the boundaries of a common plant to become an identification symbol of the land and people of Dong Thap.
Today, the image of lotus is present everywhere, from eco-tourism areas, architectural spaces to typical products bearing the "Red Lotus Land" brand.
However, what makes up the strong vitality of Dong Thap lotus is not only the beauty to admire, but hidden behind those fragile petals is a treasure trove of cuisine that has been created and preserved through many generations.
Culinary museum" flower
It can be said that few plants are fully and delicately utilized by humans like lotus plants.
From the part deeply submerged in thick black mud to the part rising high to call for sunlight, all can become ingredients for processing human beauty.
Clearly recognizing this unique strength, over the past time, the Provincial Party Committee and the People's Committee of Dong Thap province have implemented a series of constructive policies to promote trade development for lotus products. The province has allocated resources to invest and support research projects, creating a solid launching pad to turn the lotus industry into a culinary art that brings high economic value.
In Dong Thap, lotus is fully exploited – from tubers, shoots, leaves, stems, buds to seeds – to be processed into dishes that are both delicious, beautiful and have medicinal properties to nourish health.
Recorded at culinary spaces, tourists cannot help but exclaim at the rich menu: lotus root stewed with sweet pork legs, lotus root sliced fried crispy, lotus root salad with shrimp and meat or lotus root mixed with dried snakehead fish is rich.
The sweetness of shrimp, fish fibers blended with the crunchy texture of freshly picked lotus roots, combined with lotus leaf-wrapped rice imbued with the scent of the countryside, crispy fried lotus petals or a delicate lotus seed sweet soup... All combine to create an unforgettable taste experience.
That richness makes the Dong Thap lotus tree like a "living culinary museum", where each part is telling a separate story about the abundance of nature.
Bringing indigenous resources to the open sea
The most notable highlight at the 3rd Dong Thap Lotus Festival is the aspiration to connect trade, bringing lotus from a rustic material to become a global commodity chain.
The province has maximized the strength of science and technology, applying deep processing to diversify the specialty product chain. Now, lush green lotus leaves are not only used to wrap sticky rice but have been transformed into environmentally friendly art paintings, or tea bags that are good for health. Lotus seeds and lotus hearts are processed into dozens of delicacies such as: dried lotus seeds, lotus seed milk powder, lotus pink wine.
In particular, the intersection of ingredients has spawned breakthrough products: lotus seed blended coffee creates a fragrant and buttery "Lotus seed coffee"; cool "Lotus cheek" drink combined from pennywort and lotus seeds; or lotus leaf brown rice tea helps detoxify the body.
Dong Thap lotus is also researched and extracted into pure essential oil, lotus silk is exploited and woven into high-quality garment materials, and even lotus buds and waste lotus pedestals are regenerated into bio-incense sticks safe for health.
From the simple materials of the countryside, the people of Dong Thap have been and are weaving a giant economic and cultural ecosystem.
Lotus is not only a symbol of the Pink Lotus Land, not only an endless source of inspiration for poetry, but also a vivid proof of the sharp economic thinking of the people of the Mekong Delta.
