Year-end sausage

VHXQ - As the wind blows in the twelfth lunar month, the distinctive aroma of Mai Que Lo wine emanates from strings of bright red sausages hanging on bamboo poles. Tet (Vietnamese New Year) often begins earliest with that intoxicating scent.

Mai Que Lo sausage, with its delicious taste and distinctive aroma from herbal wine (archive photo).

According to Professor Nguyen Tai Can, "Chap" is a Vietnamese pronunciation derived from the word "lap" in "lap nguyet" - a term used by the Chinese to refer to the month of December (as in the book "Textbook on the History of Vietnamese Phonetics"). In December, the Chinese traditionally preserve meat by drying it to eat through the winter (lap means meat). Interestingly, sausage - a dried meat dish of the Chinese during this time - after being introduced to Vietnam, has become an indispensable dish during the Vietnamese Lunar New Year.

Lucky colors

These strings of bright red sausages, vibrant from the inside out—red from the meat and fat to the string—are a lucky food, representing abundance and prosperity. Sausage is not a purely Vietnamese dish. It's a Chinese food from Guangdong and Teochew, introduced to Vietnam earliest through the bustling trading ports of Saigon via migration and trade.

Gradually, strings of sausages became "localized" into an indispensable dish during the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, especially from the South to the Central region. Perhaps that's why, at the beginning of the twelfth lunar month, everywhere is bustling with the vibrant red of strings of sausages hanging in the crisp sunshine.

In spacious rural homes, sausages are dried on bamboo racks in the courtyard, air-dried by natural sun and wind. The reddish color of the fatty meat deepens with each strong burst of sun and wind. The sun and wind help to concentrate the sausage's flavor to its fullest. In city houses, people choose to dry sausages on balconies. At the beginning of the lunar year, sausage ovens burn continuously to meet the market demand for Tet (Lunar New Year). Sausages are dried using charcoal ovens or electric ovens, depending on the needs.

The auspicious red color of the sausage symbolizes a prosperous and abundant new year (archive photo).

On the Tet feast table, slices of sausage are arranged skillfully like a vibrant red flower, standing out alongside a plate of pristine white pickled onions, slices of banh tet (sticky rice cake), and a handful of pickled vegetables...

In Tet (Vietnamese New Year) culinary culture, the colors of dishes carry symbolic meanings and auspicious wishes. The red color of the sausage symbolizes good fortune, wealth, and prosperity. Placed alongside other Tet dishes, the sausage represents joy, reunion, and togetherness. The twelfth lunar month is when all children working far from home arrange to return to their parents' homes. This is also why mothers in the countryside rush to hang bunches of sausages to dry at the beginning of the twelfth lunar month, ready to offer delicious treats to their children and grandchildren.

Sausage is also a dish that symbolizes the cultural exchange and adaptation in Vietnamese cuisine. Originally a Chinese dish, sausage was gradually modified by the Vietnamese by adding rose liqueur, black pepper, and seasonings to suit the tastes of the majority, transforming it into a mainstream, purely Vietnamese dish.

December's sausage

Nowadays, sausages are mostly mass-produced year-round. But it's only when December arrives that the festive spirit of Tet (Vietnamese Lunar New Year) truly bursts forth from strings of handmade sausages, awakening all the senses.

The twelfth lunar month begins with the colors and aromas of strings of sausages (archive photo).

Wandering around the neighborhood, you'll come across clotheslines laden with strings of long, slender sausages, or thick, plump sausages glistening in the morning sun. At the beginning of the twelfth lunar month, meat stalls suddenly see a surge in demand for pork shoulder, rump, and neck fat. Women's shopping baskets are fuller, often containing a small bottle of rice wine and handfuls of fragrant herbs (cinnamon, fennel, star anise, black pepper...) from the general store. The fragrant Mai Que Lo rice wine originates from this, its aroma masking the stale smell of the fatty meat packed tightly in pig intestines.

The sun and wind will dry the rendered fat from the fresh sausage slices. Small pieces of diced pork fat, mixed with sugar, will become translucent like jade in the sunlight, peeking out from between the gradually ripening meat. Sausage absolutely must have pork fat to be truly flavorful: a touch of richness from the fat, a hint of sweetness from the meat, and a touch of spicy black pepper.

During the twelfth lunar month of my childhood, there were times when I felt incredibly restless because my mother made me sit on the porch guarding the sausage stalls, chasing away flies, dogs, and cats... until the sun set. But at the dinner on the 30th of Tet, when my mother gave me a few pieces of rich, fried sausage, garnished with a pinch of pickled shallots and some tender shrimp... it felt like a feast of delicacies had gathered in my bowl of rice. The richness of the sausage was balanced by the mild sourness of the fermented shallots. That simple deliciousness answers the question of why the twelfth lunar month's meal always features the color of sausage. Every year, when the twelfth lunar month arrived, my mother carefully strung together bunches of sausages, wrapped them up, and gave them to relatives as a token of goodwill.

The delicious taste of sausage, therefore, encompasses generosity and sharing.

Source: https://baodanang.vn/vi-lap-cuoi-nam-3322839.html