Looking at the corner of Mom's kitchen with pickled onions and pork in fish sauce, I feel Tet is coming.

Early Monday morning, Ms. Nam took pictures of the jars of pickled shallots that Mom made in the corner of the kitchen and posted them on Facebook and Zalo to show off Mom's pickled shallots, making me wish Tet would come soon so I could go home.

Pickled onions made by mom - Photo: NGUYEN DUOC

On the last afternoon of the year, I stopped by the supermarket on To Hien Thanh Street, District 10, Ho Chi Minh City. Smelling the strong aroma of pickled onions, I remembered the Tet pickled onion seasons in my mother's hometown.

Early in the morning, Ms. Nam took pictures of the pickled shallots that Mom made in the corner of the kitchen and posted them on Facebook and Zalo to show off Mom's pickled shallots, making me wish Tet would come soon so I could go home, to Mom, to eat the pickled shallots that Mom made to satisfy my cravings.

December comes, my hometown in the Central region has drizzle, the weather becomes colder. This is also the time when every family starts making Tet cakes, pickled onions in fish sauce or pickled vegetables, pickled onions to "play" during the three days of Tet.

When I was a child living in my hometown, every December, walking around the village, I could smell the fragrant smoke of someone's Tet cakes, and the strong aroma of someone's pickled onions drying on the roof to prepare for pickled onions.

At this time, my mother also started to go into the kitchen to make some Tet cakes, pickled onions, and pork soaked in fish sauce that my sisters and I loved to eat during Tet.

At dawn, Mom would wake up and go to the market to choose the bunches of pickled onions she liked, and choose fresh carrots to bring home to make pickled onions in fish sauce. My sisters and I competed to sit next to Mom to help her, to see how she made pickled onions in fish sauce.

Pickled shallots in fish sauce in mom's kitchen corner - Photo: NGUYEN DUOC

Pickled shallots must be mixed with ash, dried in the dew, and then dried under the warm sunlight many times (because December in my hometown has a lot of rain) to make pickled shallots with pickled onions in fish sauce delicious, the shallots will be chewy, crispy, and the special thing is that the longer they are kept, the more delicious they will be. My mother often tells my sisters and me that. The same goes for pickled pork in fish sauce, my mother makes it very elaborately and has her own secret recipe, so my sisters and I are addicted to this homemade dish of hers every time Tet comes and spring comes.

Around the 20th of December, when the Kitchen Gods had returned to heaven, my mother made plans and went into the kitchen to continue making some Tet cakes such as "banh thuan", "banh no", "banh in", and "banh sesame" that my sisters and I also loved to enjoy during Tet.

On cold winter days at the end of the year, sitting together in the small kitchen with my mother, watching and helping her make some Tet cakes, to be let by her to enjoy, to eat the "ugly" Tet cakes, the broken cakes, the popped cakes, there is nothing more joyful.

Making banh in, banh thuan or banh no is also very elaborate and time-consuming. To make the cakes hard, crispy, delicious and last longer, after the cakes are finished, my sisters and I help my mother make another pot of glowing charcoal so she can continue to… dry the cakes.

The fragrant smell of the cake being dried under the charcoal stove wafted throughout the kitchen, making my sisters and I crave it.

Mom's pickled pork wrapped in raw vegetables and rice paper - Photo: NGUYEN DUOC

Pickled onions, pickled pork, and some Tet cakes that Mom finished making, she put them in plastic jars and placed them neatly in a corner of the kitchen. Looking at Mom's kitchen corner during the last days of December, I could already feel the "smell" of Tet, I could already feel Tet coming to the front door...

During Tet, my mother's pickled pickled onions eaten with banh tet and banh chung, especially fried banh tet, and my mother's pickled pork dipped in rice paper and raw vegetables were incomparable to any other delicious dish that my sisters and I ate.

Over the past decades, whether it was the poor Tet holidays during the subsidy period or the Tet holidays now that are somewhat decent and full, my mother still kept the habit of making pickled onions and pork soaked in fish sauce to wait for my sisters and I who worked far away from home to return home to celebrate Tet with our family, with my mother, to satisfy our longing for her Tet dishes.

Tet comes home to mom to eat fried banh tet, pickled onions, and pickled onions - Photo: NGUYEN DUOC

Mom is almost 80 years old this year, the age that people say is "close to the earth and far from the sky", the age that people say is "mother is as old as a ripe banana". I only dream and pray that Mom will be healthy, so that my sisters and I will still have Mom by our side as a spiritual support, so that my sisters and I will have more opportunities to return home, gather around the dinner table with Mom during Tet, to enjoy, to eat the Tet cakes Mom made, the pickled onions, and the pork soaked in fish sauce that Mom has made over the past decades that Mom has raised my sisters and me to be adults.

Tet memories in the land of nostalgia

What is Tet in your memory? Is it the days of childhood with grandparents and parents? Or the days before Tet when the whole family was busy shopping and preparing offerings to the ancestors? What dishes make you feel Tet just by hearing the name?...

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On January 10 and 11, Tuoi Tre Online received emails from readers writing about Tet Memories in the Land of Nostalgia: Truc Nguyen, Nguyen Thi Thuy Trang, Xu Nau Ma Tan, Le Tan Thoi, Lai Thi Ngoc Hanh, Phan Thanh Cam Giang, Tran Van Tam, Ducnguyen Nguyen.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nhin-goc-bep-cua-ma-co-cu-kieu-thit-heo-ngam-mam-da-thay-tet-ve-20250111174811936.htm