Leaders of An Giang Province visit the Southern Traditional Cake Festival, which runs until August 8 in Long Xuyên Ward. — VNA/VNS Photo by Thanh Sang

AN GIANG — Visitors can enjoy complimentary tastings of An Giang Province’s signature dishes at the Southern Traditional Cake Festival, which is opening at Golden City in Long Xuyên Ward.

The festival aims to honour cuisine and culture, and promote the traditional craft villages of An Giang, as well as the Cửu Long (Mekong) River Delta.

The event has 300 stalls featuring signature sweet and savoury cakes from southern provinces, such as bánh da lợn (steamed layer cake made from tapioca starch, rice flour, and mashed mung beans) and bánh bò thốt nốt (palm sugar honeycomb cake).

Cuisine artisans and chefs offer live demonstrations of various cakes and instruct visitors on how to make them.

Visitors can also feel free to taste bún kèn Hà Tiên (vermicelli with fish floss, fresh herbs and vegetables in thick broth), bánh rây (a Khmer sweet coconut stuffed crepe), bánh xèo (sizzling savoury crepe), and bún quậy Phú Quốc (vermicelli with fish cake, shrimp cake, squid and beef).

Different kinds of signature sweet and savoury cakes are featured at the festival. — VNA/VNS Photo by Thanh Sang

In addition, the festival has a space for OCOP (one commune one product) products, specialties, and typical industrial agricultural products from businesses and cooperatives from provinces and cities of Vĩnh Long, Đồng Tháp, Tây Ninh, Đắk Lắk, Nghệ An, Quảng Ngãi, Cần Thơ, Cà Mau, Thái Nguyên, Lâm Đồng, and HCM City.

The event also set up a tourism promotion space, attracting travel agencies from Gia Lai, Tây Ninh, HCM City, Đà Nẵng, Phú Thọ, Vĩnh Long and An Giang.

The festival features nightly performances of traditional art by the Kinh, Khmer, Chăm, and Hoa ethnic communities, as well as demonstrations of traditional crafts.

Nguyễn Việt Anh, deputy director of the province’s Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion Centre, said the festival is an opportunity for cooperatives, manufacturers, and travel agencies in An Giang and other provinces to enhance cooperation and expand markets, building sustainable linkages among the manufacturing, trade and tourism sectors.

Anh said the festival has become one of the province's significant cultural, trade and tourism events, attracting participants from several provinces nationwide.

He added that the event not only contributed to preserving and promoting traditional Southern cuisine but also to advertising a dynamic and friendly An Giang imbued with cultural identity. It also helped to foster regional integration, expand trade cooperation, enhance the value of OCOP products, and create momentum for local socio-economic growth.

The festival will open to the public until August 8. — VNS