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Nghe An Eel soup, one of Vietnam’s top 100 best dishes 2020-2021 according to a list announced by Vietkings and VietTop. Photo: Phuong Nam / Tuoi Tre

Complied by the Vietnam Records Organization (VietKings) and Vietnam Top Center (VietTop), the list includes dishes and food gifts from each of Vietnam’s 63 provinces and municipalities.

In order to qualify for the list, dishes must be a reflection Vietnamese culture, made from natural ingredients, healthy, and widely available.

Specialties selected must meet key criteria as reflecting Vietnamese characteristics, being

The project to compile the list began in 2012.  During the past decade, Vietkings evaluated over 500 dishes and specialties from across the nation before settling on a finalized ranking.

The noodles dishes which made the list include ‘bun nuoc leo’ from Soc Trang, ‘banh canh Ben Co’ from Tra Vinh, ‘pho kho Gia Lai’ from Gia Lai, ‘bun cha ca Quy Nhon’ from Binh Dinh, ‘bun bo Hue’ from Hue, and ‘banh da cua’ from Hai Phong.

In the ‘cakes’ category are ‘banh khot’ from Ba Ria – Vung Tau, ‘banh tam bi’ from Bac Lieu, and ‘banh gia Go Cong’ from Tien Giang.

Salads on the list include sau dau dried snakehead fish salad from An Giang and sardin salad from Kien Giang.

The list of gift specialties includes Thoai Son dried snakehead from An Giang, Ben Tre coconut candy, Lai Thieu mangosteen from Binh Duong, honey from U Minh forest in Ca Mau, shrimp salt from Tay Ninh, and Ly Son garlic from Quang Ngai.

All foods listed in the two categories will be issued certificates and medals from VietTop and a ceremony honoring the dishes will be held on April 26.

Tay Ninh rice noodles, Pho Kon Tum, and ‘Trang Bang Tay Ninh’ at a five-star hotel in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Phuong Nam / Tuoi Tre

My Tho noodle soup, a traditional dish from the southern province of Tien Giang. Photo: Phuong Nam / Tuoi Tre

Coconut served with fried shrimp, a specialty from Ben Tre Province. Photo: Phuong Nam / Tuoi Tre

The restaurant at Grand Hotel Saigon in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City boasts a menu featuring 27 specialties from across the country.

A British farmer came up with a jokey idea to rent out her goats to liven up video call meetings — and found an unexpected source of lockdown income.

The floppy-eared goats glance curiously as farmer Dot McCarthy holds up a mobile phone to film them eating hay and prancing around in a barn.

The video of the goats appears on a Zoom call as three other participants smile and McCarthy tells them the goats’ names.

Meanwhile, a farm employee is filming another goat in a simultaneous call.

Cronkshaw Fold Farm in Lancashire, northwestern England, offers a five-minute appearance by a goat on any video-calling platform for £5 (nearly $7.6 euros).

Farmer Dot McCarthy films one of her goats for a Zoom call at Crankshaw Fold Farm in England on Feb 9, 2021. Photo: AFP

Customers have their choice of seven different goats on the farm’s website, from “highest-ranking nanny” Margaret to cute brown-and-white kid Lulu.

“Say you’re doing a video call with work or whatever, or maybe a really long family call and it’s getting a bit boring,” McCarthy says.

“You can book a goat to join you in the meeting and just see if any of your colleagues notice.”

And business is thriving, the 32-year-old farmer says.

“This started as a joke — putting goats on video calls to prank people in their work routines — and it’s just gone a bit crackers, really.”

Since it started offering the service nearly a year ago, the farm has earned £50,000 pounds, “which is crazy”, she adds.

The small family farm also has sheep and chickens.

Before Covid hit, it had diversified with various side businesses such as conducting farm tours and sheepdog demonstrations, providing guest rooms and even goat yoga.

‘As long as people want goats, we will bring goats to the people,’ McCarthy says. Photo: AFP

But when the first lockdown hit, McCarthy faced letting go two part-time staff she had recently hired.

The popularity of the goats on Zoom has allowed them to keep their jobs and also provide additional work for the local community, important in a rural area, she says.

At the same time she is not giddy over the success of what she calls the “goat video call wave”.

“I’ve been saying this since the first lockdown, but I definitely think this is just a phase,” she says, laughing.

“But yeah, we’ll keep going — as long as people want goats, we will bring goats to the people.”

Each year, the Lunar New Year creeps up on us, slowly bubbling up to a dramatic apex, then, just like that, the new moon begins, signaling the start of a fresh chapter. Last year was definitely the Year of the Rat, sneaky, slimy, and carrier of scary diseases.

Phew! How glad we all are to see that water buffalo coming at us for this year.

And it’s a golden buffalo to boot!

Through some nuance between the zodiac signs and their complementing elements, this year represents metal, specifically gold, so, sit back and relax, we’ll all finally become wealthy this time around.

As Tet looms nearer, it’s a game akin to musical chairs, the music suddenly cut off when one business after another bangs down its shutters to begin preparation for the big event.

We sense it and feel it; as traffic picks up, the general level of intensity grows, the card games in cafés are more numerous and raucous, and people shop until they drop.

It makes perfect sense that it’s such an epic event – it’s Thanksgiving (celebrated in various forms in some countries), Christmas, and New Year (per the Gregorian calendar) all rolled together, and don’t forget to toss in Valentine’s Day this year since it’s right after Tet.

I usually duck out of the country as Tet looms, mainly because I don’t have family obligations, and, I confess, because by the time it rolls around I know I’ll scream if I see one more orchid or cherry tree. It’s also nice to get out of the way so Vietnamese people can enjoy the celebration to the max and take time off after a year of hard work.

It took me several years to get ahead of the game for my annual exodus abroad. I cut it close a few times, then allocated more time, arriving at the airport over three hours before take-off, yet barely making my flight. Lesson learned, since then I leave a full two weeks before and return at the earliest two weeks after, but this year, of course, there’s no such overseas trip.

One of the signs indicating it’s time for me to hit the road is when half of the motorbikes have some sort of foliage hanging off them – flowers, trees, shrubs, bushes, you name it. Toss on a sack of rice, some of the trendiest fruits, and you’re good to go.

Kumquat tree farm

Offerings include plants, fruit, flowers, and trees, and there are lots of them, all with particular nuances and purposes, most of which escape me.

Gift baskets – now that’s tricky business to say the least – akin to going on a package vacation where meals are included. You never really know what you get until it’s too late, but for sure the baskets look flash, and that’s half the battle right there.

Tet gift basket

Debts are cleared, bills are paid, families remember deceased relatives by cleaning up and decorating their resting places, and parts of the house you never visit are scrubbed spotless where they will sit idle collecting dust until the same time next year.

Cupboards are stocked up to the rafters. I’ve seen more boxes of Choco Pies and huge bags of rice over the last week than during the prior three months combined. Judging by the strained expressions on people’s faces as they haul those heavy sacks, the traditional acupuncture specialists must be making a killing.

Tenuous relationships are cobbled back together (or not, depending on the gravity of the tiff), ensuring a peaceful holiday season for all. Oh, how we all know the tension around the holiday table – so thick you could cut it with a knife – that’s a universal one. There’s  a dreaded family member in every clan  that drives the whole gang crazy, that’s just part of the deal.

The entire celebration is masterfully orchestrated with no loose ends left because there is no room for procrastination, the hourglass runs dry. All must be done, on time, and impeccably.

Seasonal tasks are carefully allocated one of two time slots for completion:  BT and AT (Before and After Tet), with tasks designated as BT mandatory for completion by the big day, or there’s hell to pay.

AT is another attribute altogether, a vague reference to a point in time after Tet at which time tasks may be due, but then again they may never be completed, or even started, perpetually retaining the status of ‘to do soon.’

Each day leading up to Tet some facet of our daily life – a shop, restaurant, or a service – disappears into thin air without warning. The other day I wandered off to coffee headquarters only to find it shuttered and abandoned, the staff having bolted for their hometowns for the holidays.

I recoiled in horror, then gingerly pulled myself together, and headed down the street to Backup HQ, which I had scouted out for just such a rainy day.

Everyone forges ahead, giving gifts to neighbors, preparing festive goodies, and generally being downright chummy all around. Most of the goodies are familiar, such as ‘banh tet,’ the savory sticky rice-based treat wrapped in banana leaves, but each year a new one pops up.

Check out this ‘chuoi chanh len men’ (fermented lemon and banana), not a Tet specialty as such, but such a concoction fits well with this season dedicated to preparing foods that fester, foam, and gurgle for weeks until they reach their peak.

Scary fermented lemon and banana

My friend prepared that concoction, waiting the mandatory 21 days before letting me near it, and when the lid was unscrewed a pungent aroma similar to rocket fuel blasted out of the jar and filled the room in no time, forcing me to flee the scene. I’m an adventurous eater, but sometimes there is a cost involved when it’s food, so I had to pass on that one.

When the big day finally rolls around, the family gathers, following many rituals, prayers, a visit or two to the temple, and eats enough food to sink a ship. The day features continuous eating, drinking, playing cards, peppered with the rekindling of an old family argument or two since the gang is finally under one roof.

There are some important rituals to be followed, such as avoiding being the first person to enter someone’s house on the first day of the new lunar year. Be careful, this one’s a bomb waiting to go off, because if you’re first to arrive and the house owner has a bad year, you’ll never hear the end of it.

It is a judgment call to some degree because should you bring the owner good luck, then you’ll get all the credit, at least in theory, plus, maybe a reward or gift, so size it up, roll the dice and hope for the best.

I’ll soon find out, because I received an invitation to visit friends during the ‘afternoon’ of New Year’s Day. You can imagine I’ll be showing up late just to be safe, maybe at 5:00 pm, to be completely certain I’m not the first guest.

Otherwise, this whole Tet celebration is clearly a ‘lead, follow, or get out of the way’ situation. That’s an easy choice as a foreign guest, so I bolt the door and relax, while bearing in mind to not take the garbage out or sweep the floor, at least on the first day of the New Year, according to tradition of course.

On the last day before Tet, many people in the central city of Da Nang closed their shops early to spend their time decorating the houses. While the usual milling crowds were missing, residents still flocked to places like the flower promenade by the Han River in the afternoon to soak in the Tet atmosphere.

In the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho, people queued up for accessible attractions like the flower road despite the cancellation of cultural performance and firework shows. At the Ninh Kieu area to visit the flower road, which would close at 10 p.m., five days earlier than schedule over Covid-19 fear, people patiently waited their turn for temperature checks, wearing masks and sanitizing their hands before gaining entry.

In Chi Linh Town of Hai Duong Province, where a lockdown is in force, a quarantine center with nine inmates created a festive mood with a beautifully decorated blackboard and a table laden with fruits and other goodies. Phan Kien of Hai Duong said this is not the first time that he has celebrated Tet far away from home, but it was definitely the most special one.

The usual crowd was missing in downtown Hanoi, but many intrepid residents gathered on the banks of the Hoan Kien Lake to walk around the decorated area and enjoy the Lunar New Year’s Eve.

A family buys balloons for their kids on Hanoi’s Trang Tien Street.

A Hanoi street vendor selling cotton candy, several snacks and small toys has not let pandemic blues dampen her hopes for good business on Lunar New Year’s Eve.

In Ho Chi Minh City, people gathered outside the Nguyen Hue walking street, enjoying the buffalo themed decorations. The street closes at 5 p.m., instead of late at night as in previous years, to limit crowd gathering.

People venturing out on Lunar New Year’s Eve had the opportunity to have photographs taken with the God of Wealth near the Nguyen Hue Street in HCMC.

The weather in Nha Trang is pretty nice during this time, but the city is not as crowded as last year.