It's at a time like Lunar New Year, or Tết, that you realize what a privilege it is to live in the San Francisco Bay Area, where a wide variety of cultural celebrations are available for all to partake in, no matter your level of familiarity or expertise.
Take San Jose, where the size of the Vietnamese-American community supports a host of restaurants, bakeries and grocery stores serving Vietnamese specialties that are both traditional and next-gen.
Love dumplings? Noodles? Rice cakes? This is your time.
This is how I found myself in San Jose's Little Saigon at Dzui’s Cakes and Desserts, which sells sweet and savory pastries to gobble up with tea on site.
"This is where you come to get all the goodies," said Trami Cron, executive artistic director of Chopsticks Alley, an organization supporting Southeast Asian artists with exhibits, classes and events in San Jose.
Cron agreed to meet me at the dessert shop to talk about Vietnamese goodies. She's proud to be a rat, this year's Chinese zodiac animal.
"It’s a good year for me," Cron said. "I’m just saying."
Cron is aware many Americans turn up their noses at the very thought of a rat. Except for those kept as pets, the rat has a bad rap.
"It’s dirty, a sewer animal," she said. "It eats yucky things."
But in Vietnamese culture, and really, most East Asian and Southeast Asian cultures, "as soon as you say you’re a rat, everyone’s like 'Oh! She’s intelligent, clever.' Also, 'better watch out for her,'" Cron said.
That's because rats are thought to be social, charming, and just a little bit devious in their pursuit of material success.
Cron recently held a workshop to help young Vietnamese-Americans learn how to cook one of the most traditional treats of the season, a sticky rice cake wrapped in banana leaves called bánh chưng. Inside the glutinous rice, you'll find mung bean and pork belly.
This goodie is eaten all year round. But it's right about now families gather to make it at home. It's a dish that usually involves a small army getting together in the kitchen to prepare and combine the ingredients, then hover over the pots in which piles of banh chưng are boiled. Small, hungry children typically watch with great interest, but the first banh chưng go to the family's altar honoring ancestors.
Cron recommends using a pressure cooker to speed up the process (and make it more appealing to younger generations who don't want to spend so much time in the kitchen).
"40 minutes, you're done," Cron said. "Cause it's very intimidating."
But at a bakery like Dzui's, you'll want to sample everything in the glass case. Take bánh pia. It’s about the size of a hockey puck, with a dense but flaky crust on the outside, finished with an egg wash glaze and a red stamp on top.
Given that it's the Year of the Rat, many bakers will opt for a playful stamp of the animal on top. Pick one made fresh and filled with taro, mung bean or pork and you’ll go in for seconds. I did, at least.
If the traditional mung bean filling is not your thing, Dzui's is where you can find other fillings to fit the bill, like durian and salted egg.
It also goes without saying that fresh is always tastier than pre-packaged.
"Next generation Vietnamese bakeries are combining a more modern look and feel — and the traditional homage to French sensibilities about sugar and flour," says my KQED colleague Luke Lam, who independently recommended this bakery.
So what are you waiting for? Bring your appetite and a sense of adventure to Little Saigon this weekend.
Chúc Mừng Năm Mới! (Happy Lunar New Year!)
