Banh chung (Chung cake) at Vietnamese Tet

Made from very basic ingredients including sticky rice, mung beans, pork, the cake is an inevitable part of Vietnamese Tet.

Banh chung is wrapped in dong leaves (Phrynium placentarium), a large Asian kind, into a thick square to represent the ground, according to the old time belief that the Earth was square and the sky is round.

Toan’s factory in Dong Nai Province, just outside Ho Chi Minh City, has been keeping the fire in the ovens day and night to meet the high demand for the festival, which is coming in less than two weeks.

He has more than 1,200 workers in uniforms, masks and gloves.

Toan said the cooking process has been industrialized, but he tries to keep the taste as traditional as possible.

His factory selects quality sticky rices and leaves.

Besides banh chung, the factory also makes banh tet, which is basically the same cake but in a cylinder shape. The latter is more popular in southern Vietnam.

Toan is providing the cakes to major supermarket chains in the country.

He sells nearly 100 metric tons a day during the Tet season and nearly 40 tons a month all year round.
Last year, he reached out to overseas Vietnamese customers and shipped 40 tons to those living in the United States and Europe.