A traditional cake festival, titled “Flavors of the Three Regions,†will take place from October 15 to 20 at the vacant lot of the Saigon Tax Trade Center on Nguyen Hue Pedestrian Street, District 1, HCMC.
More than 100 units, culinary artisans, experts, and renowned chefs will gather at the festival to showcase over 500 types of traditional cakes, including sticky rice cakes, steamed rice cakes, tapioca dumplings, and more.
Additionally, the event will feature various art performances and live demonstrations of cake-making, offering attendees a deeper insight into the process of making traditional cakes, according to the Tien Phong news site.
The organizers hope the festival will provide an opportunity for attendees to connect with generations of female artisans from all three regions. The event aims to celebrate the essence of Vietnamese cuisine while promoting the cultural heritage and culinary traditions of the country’s regions to both local residents and international visitors.
Field soup kitchens in flood-affected localities
As of October 1, the field soup kitchens run by the Vietnam Volunteer Community (VNV) in five localities severely affected by flooding – Hanoi City, and Lao Cai, Bac Kan, Yen Bai and Ha Giang provinces – had served 56,000 free helpings to local residents and volunteers coming over to lend a helping hand in these localities.
Do Van De, chairman of VNV, told tuoitre.vn that more than 300 volunteers who are members of nine volunteer teams from HCMC, Quang Nam Province, Danang City, Ha Giang, Bac Kan, Bac Ninh and Nam Dinh provinces had taken part in these field soup kitchens to prepare gratis meals for people in flood-affected areas and volunteers over the past 16 days.
De, who is also the chief operator of the field soup kitchens, said they supplied up to 3,500 portions a day for flood victims and volunteers. He added that they had plans to maintain such field soup kitchens, not only during the recent storms and floods, but also for the upcoming natural disasters wreaking havoc on localities throughout the country.
A generous man in Phu Tho
After Phong Chau Bridge between Lam Thao and Tam Nong districts in Phu Tho Province collapsed on September 9 because of the impact of typhoon Yagi, local residents and students had to travel farther to another bridge crossing the Red River to reach the other bank of the river.
Also on that day, Bui Van Da, 34, who lives in Lam Thao District, announced on social media that he would help transport people and students from Lam Thao to Tam Nong and back every day free of charge. Using the two 45-seat coaches of his family, Da and another driver got up at 4:30 a.m. to drive the coaches to pick up students and those in need around Lam Thao to carry them to Tam Nong on the other bank of the river. Da waited until noontime to drive part of the students back home; meanwhile, the other coach waited to transport the remaining students and other people back home in the afternoon.
Da and his two coaches could transport some 100 students and those in need a day. After a week being transported gratis, many parents of the students offered to pay some money to ease the burden for the kind man, thanhnien.vn reported.
A café in the flooding season in Ninh Binh
A video in which some foreign guests were excited to sip their coffee at a table where their feet were submerged under floodwater while a raft of ducks was swimming around them has gone viral on social media these days.
Vu Ngoc Son, a tour guide, has made this interesting video at a café in the area near Trau Cave in Dam Khe Village (Ninh Hai Commune, Hoa Lu District, Ninh Binh Province), in Tam Coc-Bich Dong (a flooded cave karst system and a temple complex), which is part of the Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Son told tienphong.vn that he made this video in September this year, just after typhoon Yagi had wreaked havoc on 26 northern provinces, adding that the café was partly flooded from the water of a large pond nearby. This offered guests, especially foreign ones, a unique chance to experience sipping coffee in a flooded café surrounded by rural, peaceful scenery while watching ducks swimming around.
