In every Vietnamese house, Tet (Lunar New Year) is a time for making an array of delicious cakes – like banh tet (cylindrical glutinous rice cake) and banh chung (square glutinous rice cake).

A seller ties la dong (dong leaves) into bunches.

Making them requires sticky rice, green bean, pork and some special ingredients like the la dong leaf. The leaf, though not eaten along with the cake, is wrapped around a layer each of the rice, green bean paste, and pork.

La dong is found aplenty in HCM City before the Lunar New Year – in an impromptu market along Cach Mang Thang Tam Street in Tan Binh District.

Locals call this section of street La Dong Ong Ta Market and it only opens 10 days before Tet.

No one knows for sure how long this market has been there.

Nguyen Thi Hoa, 71-year-old resident who lives in nearby Pham Van Hai Street, says it was there even before the South’s liberation [in 1975].

But one thing is for sure – it is a northern thing, since many southern Vietnamese do not make banh tet and banh chung at home, instead, preferring to buy it.

The customers at the market are mostly residents living in the vicinity, all people who migrated from the North in the 1950s.

The la dong sold here is mostly grown in Hoc Mon District’s Ba Diem Commune and Phuong Lam District in Dong Nai Province.

Tran Thi Ngoc Bich, who has sold the leaf for the last 10 years, said she usually buys them from these places.

Bich said people prefer la dong to banana leaf since it is soft and does not shred when wrapped around the cake.

It is sold in bundles of 50 leaves at VND15,000 to 200,000 depending on size.

Family time

La Dong Ong Ta Market contributes to maintaining the traditional custom of making banh tet and banh chung for Tet.

Making them at home draws families closer.

Nguyen Van Nam, who lives near the market, says he always buys la dong for making the New Year cakes.

His family’s practice of making banh tet and banh chung reminds his children of their responsibility towards their family during Tet and helps bring together the family that is dispersed around the city.

(Source: VNS)