“Parents are always afraid that their children lack this and that. No matter how old I get, I feel like I’ll always be a little girl, needing to be taken care of in the eyes of my parents,” Thanh confided.
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| Phuong Thanh was prepared by her parents for a lot of food to bring back to Ho Chi Minh City. |
Because of renting a private car to move, Phuong Thanh’s family did not have many difficulties in transporting food from Binh Thuan to Ho Chi Minh City. The young mother also shared that even though they are all items that can be bought in Ho Chi Minh City, eating home-prepared food with the right taste of her homeland still makes her feel loved and delicious.
“Maybe it’s partly because they contain the love and care of the family,” she shared.
Reduce the burden of spending
“This tet cake arrives in the refrigerator immediately, peels off and fried to a certain extent, then wraps it up. Stewed meat can only be eaten for a week, remember to eat it all and not spoil it. I haven’t washed this vegetable yet, but it’s clean, put newspaper in the refrigerator and cook it gradually …”, her mother’s instructions made Hoang Quy (25 years old, hometown of Binh Dinh) afraid that she would not remember them all.
Since Quy went to university and then went to work, every occasion he left his hometown to go to Ho Chi Minh City following Tet, he was used to having his mother prepare a whole box of food.
Thanks to the amount of “supply” from her mother, two weeks following Tet is also the time when you eat at home the most. The rest of the time, he mainly eats at restaurants, sometimes cooking on weekends.
After spending a large amount of money during the holidays, and yet to receive a salary during Tet, Quy feels fortunate to have saved a decent amount of money for meals.
“In the last few days of Tet, everything is boring to look at. But as soon as I got to the city, I opened a few boxes of braised meat, and the banh tet tasted strangely delicious and didn’t cost money. That’s why I usually don’t turn down what my mother gives me.”
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| Ha Trang brought a whole box of food when she left her hometown for the city. |
On the last day before her daughter went to the city following Tet, Ha Trang’s mother (21 years old, a final year student) also packed a box of food for her child to bring. Inside the styrofoam box was filled with bags of banh chung, rice, vegetables, meat, fish, eggs, onions, ginger and even spices…
Trang’s suitcase also has sweets and soft drinks. “But this is not all, because my sister will come out following a while and bring more food,” Trang said.
For Trang’s mother, packing as much is “not much”, always worrying that her children in the city will not eat enough.
Because she is busy going to school and work, Trang mainly brings ready-made food, which is leftovers on Tet holiday, just needs to be reheated for meals. The fresh produce is also eggs and vegetables because of the quick processing.
Carrying a whole box of food is quite inconvenient, especially when moving from the bus station to the motel room, but she finds it worth the effort.
All of these items are probably enough for me to eat for a whole month, saving a lot of money. When it comes to cooking, even the stalks of onions and garlic have to go to buy to see the value of the things her mother gives her,” she shared.
