The Southern Cuisine Festival will kick off in Ho Chi Minh City from May 16-19 at Dam Sen Cultural Park, announced the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
With more than 100 booths, visitors will have a chance to enjoy hundreds of specialties and popular dishes like ‘Bun Bo Hue--a popular Vietnamese soup originally from the central province of Thua Thien-Hue; Banh Xeo--a savory fried pancake made of rice flour, water, turmeric powder, stuffed with slivers of fatty pork, shrimp, diced green onion, and bean sprouts; and Banh Tet--a savory but sometimes sweetened cake made from glutinous rice, rolled in banana leaf into a thick, log-like cylindrical shape.
A cooking contest between artisans and chefs from northern, central, highlands and southern provinces will be the highlight of the festival and is expected to attract a large number of spectators who can watch cake making, as well as milling of flour and grinding of rice.
In addition, the festival will have many interesting cultural activities like Southern amateur music and Bai Choi--a traditional music of people in Central Vietnam, and folk games such as walking on stilts, dancing with bamboos, cricket fights, cockfights, and footbridge.
