However, few people know that Tet in Con Son is also strangely peaceful, all wrapped up in the smell of kitchen smoke in the afternoon, of skillful hands wrapping each batch of banh tet and in the crisp explosion of the new batch of young rice flakes.
Fire Keepers
When the spring breeze begins to caress the Ban trees, the kitchens of families in Con Son become bustling again. That is when Ms. Bay Muon and Ms. Nam Phuoc start cooking, wrapping the Tet flavor into the familiar banh tet cakes.
On the porch, Ms. Bay Muon quickly wiped the leaves and slowly told about learning to wrap banh chung in the old days. "To make delicious banh chung, banana leaves must be carefully selected, they must be old, wide-sized banana leaves. Picked leaves should not be wrapped immediately but must be blanched in boiling water to have flexibility, then dried and cleaned thoroughly," Ms. Bay Muon shared.
Next to it, Ms. Nam Phuoc is busy with a basket of sticky rice - this is the "soul" of banh tet. Ms. Nam Phuoc emphasized that sticky rice must be delicious, carefully washed. When stirring sticky rice with coconut milk, you must stir it evenly so that the sticky rice grains absorb the fat, each grain is shiny like a pearl.
The filling is also prepared from the previous day. Green beans are peeled and cooked; pork fat is chosen from delicious fat, marinated with a little sugar and sun-dried for transparency. Thus, when cutting the cake, the ivory-white layer of sticky rice wraps the filling in yellow, in the middle is a piece of fat, just looking at it, you can see the entire spring sky present.
Looking at the girls wrapping the cakes, we can see all the meticulousness. From pouring sticky rice, ordering filling to "patting" the cakes to be round and even, everything is rhythmic like a dance. Ms. Nam Phuoc, while tying the bamboo strings, laughed: "Wrapping Tet cakes must be fun, with a pure heart, the cakes cooked will be delicious, not raw or watery.
Ms. Le Thi Be Bay, a devoted daughter of Con Son community tourism, shared that this beauty has been passed down through many generations. Banh tet is the connecting thread, making the Tet aftertaste imbued with feelings of reunion. "At night, beside the pot of banh tet steaming with a faint fragrance, the joys and sorrows of the old year are shared, and then let go of worries to welcome a new year full of faith and hope" - Ms. Be Bay said.
The "bang" sound of Tet
If the job of wrapping banh tet requires meticulousness and dexterity from women, then making explosive rice flakes is a bustling "playground" for men on the islet. Because, this is a simple rural gift, but without it, Tet in Con Son seems to lose a special sound.
The young rice flakes are mainly made from sticky rice, with tools such as a red-hot stove, an explosive tube and a bag containing young rice flakes. First, the maker puts the rice inside the tube, puts it on the stove and continuously rotates the explosive tube evenly. This step does not require too much strength but requires patience and quickness to prevent the rice from burning. After about 15 minutes, countless grains of rice are also cooked firmly to prepare for the young rice flakes to come out of the oven.
At this time, the worker (usually the strongest man) will take the tube out of the kitchen and place it towards the screen bag. Another person will hold a wooden stick or hammer and tap the pin on the tube. At that time, the tube lid will open and release all the pressure. After the "Dung!" explosion, the roasted rice also has a new shape - countless pure white cốm grains pour into the screen bag, creating the Mekong Delta cốm nổ dish.
Mr. Bui Cong Thuan, a tour guide here, shared: "Even myself, sometimes I hear it familiarly because there are 5-7 batches of cốm all day, but I still cannot help but be startled. And who knows, that startle is exactly how cốm explodes to win the hearts of Southern people.
The next step is also equally interesting: making young rice flakes. Sugar, usually palm sugar, is beaten until the strings are pulled, and a little crushed ginger is added to warm the stomach. The young rice flakes are mixed well with sugar water, then put in a wooden mold, used to press tightly and then cut into square pieces. The sweetness of the sugar, the spicy taste of the ginger blended with the crispness of the young rice flakes creates a delicate snack, true to the "local field flavor".
Doing this is tiring, dust and smoke are all over me, but it's fun. The brothers in the sandbar gathered together, both working and talking jokes, all the fatigue of the whole year seemed to disappear with the sound of the explosion" - Mr. Le Van Cang said.
When the banh tet cake is just cooked, it is also when the batches of sweet rice flakes are neatly arranged in boxes, and people eat them gradually throughout the Tet season or use them to invite visitors from all directions to visit. For that reason, Tet in Con Son has long been not ostentatious, using whatever is available, sweet and full of affection like the personality of people in the Mekong Delta.
