Local merchants trading coconuts wholesale by the Ham Luong River, Ben Tre Province. Known as "the coconut land," the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre will launch a week long festival featuring its characteristic fruit from April 4-10. One of the key activities at the 3rd Ben Tre Coconut Festival is a food and beverage festival that offers dishes made from coconuts such as coconut candies, coconut rice cakes and mứt dừa (slices of coconut meat coated with sugar). However, since locals use coconut not only to make desserts, more than 40 food stalls are to offer visitors a variety of coconut-based main dishes which include the fruit's water, buds and meat in their recipe. Tép rang nước cốt dừa (shrimps roasted with coconut water), tôm luộc nươc dừa (prawns boiled with coconut water), bánh xèo (rice pancakes with batter mixed with coconut water), and gỏi củ hũ dừa (pork and prawns mixed with coconut buds and vinegar) are among the specialties. HOW TO GET THERE … [Read more...] about Ben Tre to celebrate the coconut
Ben tre
Ben Tre hosts third coconut festival in April
The 2012 Coconut Festival themed “Ben Tre on the road to integration and development” will be held on April 5-10 in the Mekong Delta province. According to the organisers at a press conference on Feb. 22, this year’s festival will attract coconut growers from several other provinces, as well as 34 coconut businesses operating within the Asian Pacific Coconut Community. The festival revolves around 11 main events that include an exhibition of coconut products, a trade fair spotlighting top end Vietnamese goods, a street carnival celebrating the future of coconuts and a seminar on how to increase the value of coconut products by 2015 ongoing towards 2020. Coconut products account for 25 percent of total industrial production value in Ben Tre province, and 40 percent of its export turnover. Local coconut products have been exported to over 50 nations and territories worldwide.-VNA … [Read more...] about Ben Tre hosts third coconut festival in April
Ben Tre lowers bar in civil servant test
To cope with a severe shortage of state employees, southern Ben Tre Province’s Home Department has raised the scores of 43 examinees who failed in the civil servant exam to qualify them. Nguyen Van Hieu, Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, told Tuoi Tre that he had neither known about the issue nor directed the department’s Civil Servant Examination Council to do so. Although Ben Tre is short of civil servants, the council’s action was not acceptable, Hieu said. “The council must not raise the scores of any failed examinees and those who failed in this exam should try harder so that they can pass the next exam.” However, Hieu said he had ordered the council to re-grade the papers of those failed examinees to find out whether there was any mistake in the original grading. Le Vinh Binh, Director of Ben Tre’s Home Department and Deputy Chairman of the Civil Servant Examination Council, told Tuoi Tre that the council had raised the … [Read more...] about Ben Tre lowers bar in civil servant test
Ben Tre introduces face masks from coco juice
After 10 years of research, the Mekong Delta Home Craft Cooperative in Ben Tre Province introduced face masks produced from natural coconut juice and acetobacte earlier this week. The masks are 1mm thick, transparent and contain no chemical, according to Truong Thi Cam Hong, a representative from the cooperative. Their effects are to keep skin moisturized, clean and smooth. The product was licensed by the Ben Tre Department of Health and has been used by many local spas. It has also received positive feedbacks from customers. Some Japanese and Korean partners are negotiating with the cooperative to import the masks. Compared with the production of coconut jelly, coco masks will increase 3-4 times the value of each kg of coconut juice. With the largest coconut coverage of more than 40,000 hectares, Ben Tre is considered the land of coconut palms and coconut products such as coconut candies, caramel, jelly and oil. … [Read more...] about Ben Tre introduces face masks from coco juice
2-year-old Ben Tre girl shows signs of puberty
A two-year-old girl in the southern province of Ben Tre, who has developed breasts and menstruates, has been diagnosed as reaching puberty. D.K.H began to develop signs of puberty during the past year. Last May, H.N, the mother of the child, took her to the Children's Hospital 2 in Ho Chi Minh City. Doctors did a comprehensive check and said there was no problem with her brain -- precocious puberty is mostly caused by problems in the patient’s brain -- but she had an ovarian cyst and unusually large uterus. They diagnosed her as having peripheral precocious puberty and continue to monitor the development of her breasts and menstruation as well as weight and height. In August she had a check at HCMC’s Tu Du Hospital. But an MRI scan and hormone test failed to show conclusively if the condition was caused by the ovarian cyst or problems in her brain. Hoang Thi Diem Thuy, deputy head of the kidney - endocrine department at Children's Hospital 2, told Tuoi Tre that in many … [Read more...] about 2-year-old Ben Tre girl shows signs of puberty