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| A view of an old Hanoi market at Van Thanh Tourist Park in Ho Chi Minh City. |
You need not travel across the country to experience the old-time ambience of the capital.
The sights and flavors of old Hanoi will hit Ho Chi Minh City next week at Hanoi Market Days, a three-day festival of food and tradition celebrating the capital’s rich cultural history.
Opening December 11 in the lead up to Hanoi’s 1,000th anniversary celebration next year, Hanoi Market Days at Van Thanh Tourist Park in Binh Thanh District will offer southerners and foreigners a chance to learn about the cultural heritage and culinary features of the north.
Those who left Hanoi decades ago for new homes in the south will be brought back closer to a place they used to call home.
The festival’s thatched huts and small boats on Van Thanh Lake will take visitors to a quieter, more rural Hanoi.
Women in ao tu than (traditional four-panel dress) will wear their hair in pony-tails covered with scarves tied over their head in what was the height of fashion in the capital hundreds of years ago.
A traditional market, northern cuisine, folk games, folk music and a photo exhibition will all demonstrate various aspects of northern life.
Women will carry goods on their bamboo shoulder poles and criers will sell traditional dishes and snacks such as banh day (round sticky rice cake), green tea, bun cha (vermicelli and grilled chopped meat). Vendors on small mobile carts used to roam every street corner of Hanoi, but they are getting rarer and rarer these days.
Renowned chefs from Hanoi will not only let patrons try their creations, they’ll also teach cooking classes so visitors can bring the taste of Hanoi back home to their own dining tables.
Many of Vietnam’s richest food traditions began in Hanoi. The fair will showcase fresh pho (rice noodle soup), cha ca (fried fish paste), banh cuon (steamed rice roll) and com (green rice), all of which are native to the capital.
Perhaps most widely known is pho, a simple rice noodle soup often eaten as a breakfast dish at street side cafes, mostly as pho bo, containing beef, but sometimes as pho ga, containing chicken.
Wrestling, crossbow shooting and folk games will keep kids busy while they are not eating.
Performances of water puppetry, ca tru, an old chamber music featuring female vocalists, quan ho, a Vietnamese folk music style, will also help introduce northern culture at the fair.
Artisans, craftsmen and cooks from traditional trade villages will cook rice wine, make pottery, weave fabric and draw folk pictures.
A photo exhibition of Hanoi “then and now” will also showcase the history of Hanoi. The festival is open 16:00 p.m. to 21:00 p.m. December 11 to 13.
Tickets cost VND160,000 (US$8.75) per adult and VND100,000 per child.
