How Does Tet Jam Differ Across the Three Regions of Vietnam?

How does Tet jam differ across the three regions?

Tet jam in the three regions differs first in local ingredients, then in the rimming technique and in the role of the jam in the offering tray and the guest tray. The North leans towards dry jam, mild taste, small pieces; Hue is famous for pungent Kim Long ginger jam; the Quang region places bánh tổ on the ancestral altar; the South leans towards chewy jam, deeply sweet, colourful. This difference reflects the ingredient region and climate, not a ranking of high or low between places.

Why does Vietnamese Tet have the custom of eating jam?

The custom of eating jam is tied to the need to receive guests and to worship ancestors during Tet days, when cakes, sweets and sugary foods easily cause cloying. In the newspaper Pháp Luật Việt Nam, Ms Mai Vân Anh in Hà Nội said that during Tet, when cakes, sweets and sugary foods easily make everyone in the house feel cloying, ô mai is the best dish to change the taste^[1]. Jam is also a dish to display on a tray with a cup of tea, both to invite guests and to offer to ancestors.

No ancient text uniformly regulates the list of Tet jams for the whole country. The types of jam recorded in cultural and culinary articles are practices of each region, each family, so the list of dishes can differ between sources.

What types of Tet jam are there in the North?

The North is famous for lotus jam, kumquat jam, hồng bì jam, winter melon jam, ginger jam, tomato jam, chewy apple, star fruit stir-fried with ginger and ô mai. In the newspaper Văn hoá, the author recalls the grandmother making star fruit stir-fried with ginger: dried star fruit soaked overnight in lime water to soften, then stir-fried with pounded ginger, palm sugar and a little salt until firm^[2]. In the same article, the grandmother also made white canarium with licorice powder, salted canarium with chilli powder, star fruit shaken with chilli powder, kumquat jam, hồng bì jam, winter melon jam, ginger, tomato jam and chewy apple^[2].

The common feature of northern jam is a balanced taste, small pieces, not too sour, spicy, salty or sweet. The Văn hoá article comments: it seems balance is the culinary secret of Hà Nội people, not too much not too little, nothing is excessively sour, spicy, salty, sweet, fatty or fragrant^[2].

Is Hà Nội ô mai considered Tet jam?

Hà Nội ô mai is often grouped with Tet jam on the guest tray. Hàng Đường Street near Tet has about 60 to 70 different types of ô mai at some shops^[1]. Common types include young dracontomelon, soaked dracontomelon, ginger apricot, stir-fried apricot, star fruit, stir-fried plum, licorice orange, salty sweet orange^[1]. According to a representative of an ô mai processing company in Hà Nội, when eating plum ô mai there must be the fragrance of plum, apricot ô mai must have the fragrance of apricot, and that fragrance must be the fragrance of fruit while still fresh^[1].

What is special about Kim Long ginger jam in Hue?

Kim Long ginger jam is a typical dish of Hue, famous for hundreds of years and taken for consumption in many provinces and cities of the Central and Southern regions^[3]. The early year story of Hue people often begins with a plate of ginger jam and a cup of tea^[3]. The difference lies in the ingredient: the ginger must be Hue ginger, small and firm tubers, with a pungent and spicy fragrance^[3]. Mr Trần Đình Thử, owner of a traditional ginger jam facility in Kim Long, said that ginger that is not spicy and fragrant cannot make jam with the true Hue character; the type of Hue ginger he mentions is ginger grown in the Tuần area, the hilly area west of Hue city^[3].

The process of making Hue ginger jam includes the steps: choosing ginger, washing clean, scraping the skin, slicing thin, soaking in clean water diluted with lemon juice for about more than 30 minutes, blanching in boiling water, draining then rimming^[3]. The rimming stage must use a charcoal fire and stir evenly by hand so that the ginger slices do not stick together^[3]. When the jam is just dry, put it out on a tray, continue stirring until evenly dry and cool before packaging^[3]. According to the Văn hoá article, the price of ginger jam at facilities in Kim Long ranges from 80,000 đồng to 100,000 đồng per kilogram^[3].

Hue ginger jam is fragrant and pungent, in small slices^[3]. This is a description by the newspaper source, not a mandatory technical standard for all facilities.

Why is the Kim Long ginger jam trade mainly seasonal?

According to a representative of the leadership of Kim Long ward, the locality has created conditions for households to borrow capital for production, but along with market competition, many young people have changed occupations^[3]. Currently only older people maintain the traditional ginger jam trade, and they also only produce during Tet rather than year-round^[3]. This is a description of the situation of a specific ward at the time the article was published, not a common feature for the entire jam trade in Thừa Thiên Huế.

What role does bánh tổ of the Quang region play in the Tet offering tray?

Bánh tổ is a type of cake placed on the ancestral altar of Quang region people during Tet. The Văn hoá article about Tet cuisine of the Quang region lists the types of cakes used for Tet including bánh tét, bánh tổ, bánh nổ, bánh in, bánh khô, bánh rò, bánh tráng, bánh mè, bánh thuẩn, bánh ít đen, bánh gừng^[4]. Among them bánh tét, bánh tổ, bánh nổ, bánh in are traditional cakes that cannot be missing^[4]. In the same article, some other types of cakes that appeared later include watermelon seeds, boxed cakes of various kinds, ginger jam, coconut jam, winter melon jam^[4].

Bánh tổ is made from glutinous rice flour and palm sugar, with a little ginger, steamed in a mould made of banana leaves placed in a basket woven from thinly shaved bamboo^[5]. According to the article in Sài Gòn Giải Phóng newspaper, bánh tổ is a type of cake made from glutinous rice flour and palm sugar with a little ginger and steamed in a mould made of banana leaves placed in a basket woven from thinly shaved bamboo^[5].

How is the legend about bánh tổ told?

In the folklore of the Quang region, bánh tổ is associated with many legends about its origin. The most common is the story that bánh tổ appeared from the end of the 18th century, during the reign of King Quang Trung: it is said that when the Tây Sơn army marched north, the people of old Quảng Nam made a chewy cake that lasted long, wrapped in dried banana leaves and offered to the army as provisions for the long journey^[6]. This story is still much debated, but bánh tổ has existed for hundreds of years and has become part of the culinary culture and beliefs of Quang people^[6].

The legend of bánh tổ associated with the Tây Sơn army is a folk story, with insufficient historical documents to confirm the exact date and origin.

How is the bánh tổ trade in Đại Lộc commune now?

According to the article in Thanh Niên newspaper, in the first days of the twelfth lunar month, the bánh tổ craft villages in Đại Lộc commune (Đà Nẵng city) begin to enter the main season^[6]. Mr Hồ Liêu (63 years old, An Lợi Tây village, Đại Lộc commune) said the most difficult part of the bánh tổ trade is the stage of cooking sugar and mixing flour; the sugar must be palm sugar or rock sugar cooked from sugarcane, cooked to just the right consistency, neither burnt nor undercooked, the glutinous rice must be good, finely ground, mixed in the right ratio so that the cake after steaming is chewy but not mushy, and does not release water even after a long time^[6]. Each Tet season, Mr Liêu's family makes about 10,000 bánh tổ, mainly sold to traders and regular customers^[6].

The article also records that the number of households following the trade is increasingly small because young people are not enthusiastic about the heavy work and seasonal income^[6]. This is an observation at a specific locality, not representative of all bánh tổ villages in the Central region.

What is different about Tet jam in the South?

The South has many types of chewy jam such as coconut jam, ginger jam, banana jam, tamarind jam, pineapple jam, soursop jam, rose apple jam and lotus jam^[7]. According to the article on Znews, northern people favour dry jams while southern people also have chewy jams^[7]. This is a description of culinary trends by region, not a mandatory rule for each family.

Coconut jam is considered the most familiar type of jam in the South. The article says the best coconut jam must be made from coconut grown in the fertile islet area of Bến Tre^[7]. The process includes: hard coconut meat is sliced thin, washed clean, drained, marinated in sugar for about one to two hours then stirred continuously on the pan, when it looks dry it is taken down^[7]. Besides the basic coconut flavour, people also add durian so the jam has a more intense aroma^[7].

Tamarind jam is more elaborate than other types of jam. The article notes: usually, every 3 kg of fresh peeled tamarind must use 1.5 kg of granulated sugar^[7]. The time from starting to pick tamarind to having finished jam takes a whole long week^[7]. Tamarind jam retains the mild sour taste of the tamarind fruit and the sweet taste with a faint fragrance^[7].

Southern ginger jam is described as favouring the chewy type, not too spicy, not too sweet^[7]. The maker soaks ginger in alum water so the jam colour is clearer, then dries the ginger in the sun for about a day before rimming^[7]. To know the jam is just cooked, the stirrer uses a finger to touch the viscous substance in the pan, then uses two fingers to stretch it out, if it forms a thread then the jam is cooked^[7]. Roasted peanuts, shelled, roughly pounded then sprinkled on top to neutralise some of the sweetness and increase the fatty, nutty taste^[7].

Comparison table of Tet jam in the three regions

Do schools and sources agree on the origin of Tet jam?

Cultural and culinary newspaper sources do not give a unified date for the origin of Tet jam. For bánh tổ of the Quang region specifically, the article in Thanh Niên newspaper states clearly that the legend associated with the reign of King Quang Trung at the end of the 18th century is still much debated^[6]. For Kim Long ginger jam, the Văn hoá article records that Kim Long village ginger jam has been famous for hundreds of years^[3], but does not give a specific year. For Hà Nội ô mai, the article in Pháp Luật Việt Nam only records that this is a characteristic dish of the Hà Thành land^[1], without tracing the origin further.

Culturally, the articles all emphasise the role of jam in the offering tray and the guest tray during Tet. The article about the Quang region holds that cuisine is considered the soul of Tet, and the ancestral offering tray on Tet is also the reunion tray of the family on the first day of the year^[4].

Nhật Nguyệt's suggestions when learning about Tet jam in the three regions

Nhật Nguyệt's suggestion: you can read this article in three layers. The first layer is the ingredient and technique layer, that is, which dish is made from what, dry-rimmed or chewy-rimmed, soaked in lime water, alum water or lemon juice. The second layer is the cultural role layer, that is, which dish is for offering, which dish is for receiving guests, which dish is for giving as a gift. The third layer is the family memory layer, that is, each family may keep a different list of dishes, and that difference is not a deviation from any standard version.

When buying Tet jam, you should carefully check the information on the product and choose a branded, reputable facility. A representative of an ô mai processing company in Hà Nội advises consumers to be cautious and make smart choices with ô mai products, because the ô mai market during Tet is always the most ambiguous time, due to high consumer demand along with the appearance of some processing facilities that, for profit, release onto the market products of unknown origin and unsafe hygiene^[1].

These are Nhật Nguyệt's practical suggestions, not claims about health or fate. Tet jam is a cultural culinary practice, and each region, each family has the right to keep its own way of making it.