Vietnamese Cuisine - Feast

Feast

Feast (Vietnamese: cỗ, tiệc) is a significant event for families or a villages, usually up to 12 people for each table. Feast is prepared for weddings, funerals and festivals, including the wish-for-longevity ceremony. In a feast, ordinary foods are not served but boiled rice is still used. The well-known feast is the feast of 49 quan họ villages with cỗ năm tầng.

Vietnamese feast has two courses: main course (món mặn. Literally: salty dish) and dessert (món ngọt. Literally: sweet dish). All dishes, except for individual bowls of rice, are enjoyed collectively. All main course dishes are served simultaneously rather than one after another. The major dish of the main course is placed in the centers of the tables, usually big pots of soup or hotpot.

Attendants are arranged into several groups according to their social status, genders, ages, their degree of acquantaince and their eating habits and preferences. It is a custom that female guests will bring some food and help the hosts to prepare the feast.

A basic feast (cỗ một tầng) consists of ten dishes: five dishes in bowls (năm bát): bóng, miến (cellophane noodles), măng (bamboo shoot), mọc (meatball), chim or gà tần (bird or chicken stew dishes) and five dishes in plates (năm đĩa): giò (Vietnamese sausage), chả, gà or vịt luộc (boiled chicken or duck), nộm (Vietnamese salad) and xào (stir-frying dishes). This kind of feast is original and is organized in the Northern Vietnam. Other variations are found in Central and Southern Vietnam.

Four dishes are indispensable in the feast of Tết are giò (Vietnamese sausage), nem (spring roll), ninh (stew dishes) and mọc (meat ball). At this time, the feast for offering ancestors includes sticky rice, boiled chicken, Vietnamese rice wine, and other preferred foods by ancestors in the past.

Gifts are given before guests leave the feast.