Thursday, 5 September 2013 00:36
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By Sarah Hannan
Taj Samudra Colombo last Saturday launched a Vietnamese Food Festival at Latitude to coincide with the National Day of Vietnam, celebrated on Monday 2 September. The week-long food festival is a part of the many celebrations organised in Colombo to celebrate the Vietnamese culture and provide people with the opportunity to become familiar with the rich Vietnamese culture and its cuisine.
A grand opening ceremony hosted by Area Director and General Manager of Taj Samudra Colombo Rohit Khosla on Saturday 31 August saw the Vietnamese Ambassador Ton Sinh Thanh and Ministry of External Affairs Secretary Karunatilaka Amunugama in attendance.
As part of the ongoing promotion, which draws to an end on 8 September, Latitude’s atmosphere has been transformed into a Vietnamese restaurant, from the façade down to the minute details of decor. The staff at Latitude was attired in traditional Vietnamese costumes to add a more authentic touch to the occasion, which also featured traditional Vietnamese musical instruments and performers.
Vietnamese entertainment
T’rung is one of the popular musical instruments closely associated with the spiritual life of the Bahnar, TSedan, Giarai, Ede and other ethnic minority groups in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. This traditional folk-musical instrument is made of short bamboo tubes differing in size, with a notch at one end and a bevelled edge at the other. The long big tubes give off low-pitched tones while the short small ones produce high-pitched tones. The tubes are arranged lengthwise horizontally and attached together by two strings.
The Klong Put is played by ethnic groups in Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) such as the Xe Dang, Bahnar, Gia Rai, Hre. The instrument consists of many large empty hornless bamboo sections. Generally, each tube produces only one tone. However, the hand could be used to block one end of the tube to produce different pitches. With this technique, a two-tube Klong put can produce four or five pitches.
Lullabies are considered folk music in Vietnam, especially in the countryside. They are used not only to lull small children to go to sleep but also to express human feelings such as homesickness, wife missing her husband. Vietnamese lullabies often consist of two or four six-to-eight meter lines. The melody of lullabies varies by region. In North Vietnam, lullabies are sung in five notes, do-re-fa-so-la. This explains why the performer selected a Sri Lankan lullaby to entertain us.
Vietnamese cuisine
Specialty snacks such as the prawns fried in coconut infused batter and pho cuo – a food similar to fresh spring rolls made out of a slightly cooked rice paper shell the same thickness as a pho noodle were served.
The shrimp dumplings and greens soup was recommended by Master Chef Le Nguyen Thao of The Taj West End’s Blue Ginger Restaurant – Bangalore, India. Just as the chef explained, the soup was not spice at all and had the right amount of flavouring with lots of shrimp and greens.
Approaching the salads, it was enthralling to see the fresh vegetables, olives, shrimps, cheese, grapes and salad dressings and the instruction read ‘mix your own salad’ – what more can anyone ask for? The master chef however mentioned that his pick would be fried mussels topped with yellow bean sauce.
When it came to selecting the mains, the master chefs recommended trying out the broccoli and bean curd in spicy red cari, which is generally eaten with bread although I chose the traditional Vietnamese chicken steamed sticky rice (xoi ga).
Settling in for the desserts, the spread included a wide variety of Vietnamese desserts which also had a hint of influence from its Asian and European neighbours, from fired fruit pieces, cakes, puddings and tarts and tapioca seeds in fresh cream – all the desserts had a unique touch of Vietnamese ingredients of desiccated coconut and fresh fruit. Just as the main courses were not too spicy, the desserts were not too sweet.
The Vietnamese Food Festival will be on till 8 September from 7:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Reservations can be made via 0112446622.
Pix by Upul Abayasekara
