The festival from April 12-16, which marked the first of an array of cuisine, cultural, tourism, and trade promotion activities, featured 220 booths introducing Vietnamese traditional cakes. Businesses and restaurants from Japan, the Republic of Korea, India, Italy, France, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand were also invited to the event.
The festival attracted more than 600,000 visitors who were impressed by the folk cuisine of the Mekong delta with some 400 variations of Vietnamese traditional cakes made by the Kinh, Hoa, Khmer, and Cham in the region.
The festival attracted more than 600,000 visitors who were impressed by the folk cuisine of the Mekong delta with some 400 variations of Vietnamese traditional cakes made by the Kinh, Hoa, Khmer, and Cham in the region.
 Art performance at the 8th southern traditional cake festival in Can Tho.  The festival features 220 booths introducing Vietnamese traditional cakes.  150 types of Vietnamese traditional cakes are displayed at the festival.  A cake-making competition is held at the festival .  The competition attracts 83 artisans who make 70 types of cakes.  Artisan Ly GuGi from Can Tho shows the way to make banh canh (thick rice noodle).  Artisan Ro Phi A from An Giang makes some traditional cakes of the Cham.  Artisan Le Van Ky from Tien Giang demonstrates the skill to make banh nghe Go Cong (rice cake from Go Cong), a traditional cake which has been made by five generations of his family.  Artisan Truong Thi Hoa Lai from Can Tho with the cakes she has just made.  The festival attracts 600,000 visitors.  Visitors are impressed by the folk cuisine of the Mekong delta with some 400 variations of Vietnamese traditional cakes.  Visitors can taste as many as 150 types of cakes. |
Visitors also had chances to learn the southern cuisine and the skills of artisans from 13 provinces and cities nationwide who made 70 types of southern traditional cakes in a competition.
The event included a seminar to seek markets for southern traditional cakes, an art performance and a fashion show of Ao ba ba (traditional shirt of southern women).
Vice Chairman of the Can Tho People’s Committee Truong Quang Hoai Nam said the festival not only promoted signature cakes of the southern region and sought ways to preserve them, but also aimed to gradually build national brand names for southern traditional cakes.
 Two-color crispy rice cake.  Banh nghe, a rice cake only found in Go Cong, Tien Giang province.  Coconut leaf cakes.  Violet glutinous rice cake, a traditional dish of the Khmer in the Mekong delta.  Green rice cakes.  Five-color sweetened porridge.  Banh tam bi (rice noodle with pork and pork rind), a traditional dish of Bac Lieu province.  Colorful pork dumplings.  The cakes are beautifully decorated.  Beautifully shaped cakes made by artisans at the cake-making competition. |
Bui That, a visitor from Long An province said his childhood memories came back vividly when seeing the cakes at the festival. “I have a chance to taste again many cakes I ate when being a little boy,” he said.
| The festival is an annual event of Can Tho to promote the land, people and culture of the southern region in general and Can Tho in particular. |
By Son Nghia
