Traditional dishes 'overshadowed' in festival honoring Vietnamese cuisine

HCM City Ida Bengtsson, a Swedish tourist, bought only a tube of sticky rice and a skewer of grilled spring rolls at the Vietnamese food festival, after not being able to find some of the displayed dishes on the map.

On October 20-22, the festival "Promoting Vietnamese culinary culture" took place at the Independence Palace, with free admission. According to information from the organizers, the festival has about 100 stalls selling dishes, visitors can experience regional specialties prepared by professional chefs and culinary artists from many localities. However, many visitors commented that the festival has a large number of stalls, but the dishes on sale are "not very special".

Ida Bengtsson, a Swedish tourist, accidentally learned about the festival while visiting the Independence Palace on the morning of October 22. Bengtsson shared her impressions of Vietnamese cuisine and had read many articles praising delicious dishes from different regions. When she learned about the food festival, she was "eager" to enjoy the dishes. However, after half an hour of visiting the stalls in the hot weather, Bengtsson was only able to buy a tube of sticky rice and a skewer of grilled spring rolls, because "she could not find the dishes on the culinary map displayed at the festival".

Swedish tourists buy bamboo rice and grilled spring rolls at the festival. — Swedish tourist Ida Bengtsson buys bamboo rice and grilled spring rolls at a food festival in Ho Chi Minh City on October 22. Photo: *Bich Phuong*

"My first impression of the festival was that it was crowded. There were barbecue stalls in every corner," Bengtsson said. There were some stalls selling beef noodle soup, beef pho, and hu tieu, but Bengtsson had eaten these dishes before and was expecting something more exotic. The vendors introduced the Swedish tourists to bamboo-tube rice and grilled spring rolls as "familiar dishes to Vietnamese people."

According to VnExpress , during the three days of the festival on the weekend, the number of visitors filled the stalls in the Independence Palace grounds. After the heavy rain on the afternoon of October 22, from 6pm the festival was packed with visitors. The stalls were set up on the lawns, the walkways were covered with plastic sheets, but the heavy rain made the walkways wet, covered with mud, and slippery. Despite the large number of visitors, the stalls were not overloaded, because most visitors just walked around without stopping to buy food.

"Many dishes are more expensive than outside, the seats at the festival are dirty, the aisles are packed with people and the smell of grilled food. In such a space, even delicious food is hard to appreciate," said a tourist who came to the festival on the evening of October 22.

In addition, the festival space is quite messy. The dining tables encroach on the walkways. During the sunny days, many visitors move tables and chairs around, some people eat under umbrellas. Some visitors buy take-out or sit on the grass under the shade of trees in the Independence Palace grounds.

The festival featured over 100 stalls selling regional specialties, but the most popular dishes were grilled skewers, located in prominent locations, attracting a large number of customers. Meanwhile, regional specialties were overshadowed and received little attention.

Ms. Thanh Huong, a member of the Saigon Chefs Association, shared that her stall serves vegetarian banh uot for 35,000 VND per portion, but "did not close as many orders" as the stalls selling grilled skewers. She said that in the 3 days of the festival, she had not sold out 15 kg of banh uot, while on average she sells over 10 kg on a normal day. According to Ms. Huong, her stall is located at the end of the festival, hot during the day and few customers come.

"The number of visitors to the festival is large, but purchasing power is low. Most visitors to the stall just visit and try the food. This is the common situation at many stalls serving traditional dishes like mine," said Ms. Huong.

Ms. Huong is serving vegetarian rice cakes to customers.

The stalls serving regional specialties took up less than half of the festival. There was only one stall selling Western-style banh xeo, priced at 70,000 VND each. The stall selling Ca Mau crab was nestled among the grilled food stalls. The vendors tried to advertise "Ca Mau crab with various sauces for only 50,000 VND each", but few diners stopped to buy.

The stall selling insect dishes such as scorpions, water bugs, and coconut worms, specialties of the Southwest region, attracts more customers because it arouses "curiosity". Mr. Mai Trung, District 5, stopped at this stall but only bought a fried scorpion skewer, priced at 20,000 VND to "try it out". The male tourist said the dish "didn't suit his taste". "The skewer was deep-fried in oil, when eaten it felt dry and only tasted the seasoning. The price sounds cheap but each skewer only had one scorpion, the quality was not commensurate", Mr. Trung said.

Although the festival honors Vietnamese cuisine, some stalls sell Thai salads that are "out of place". In addition, some stalls sell agarwood and handicrafts that are not related to the culinary festival. Specialties that stand out on the culinary map such as Phu Quoc herring salad, vermicelli with shrimp paste, vermicelli with grilled pork, mussel rice, and Quang noodles are not available at stalls serving diners.

In addition to the food stalls, many visitors also commented that "the activities at the festival were dull and lacked appeal". The only highlight was the culinary map of 126 specialties of the three regions, displayed in the form of a model.

"It's a culinary map but there is no specific introduction to each dish associated with each region, not even a name. It's difficult for me to clearly observe each dish, whether it's known or not," said Ms. Hoang Ha, from Dong Nai . She thinks that more technology should be applied so that visitors can interact and learn about the culinary map, which would be more interesting than displaying "a giant but tasteless model".

Bich Phuong

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