Hundreds of kinds of southern traditional cakes will be introduced at the 8th Southern Traditional Cake Festival 2019 in Cần Thơ City from April 12-16. — Photo canthopromotion.vn

CẦN THƠ — The 8th Southern Traditional Cake Festival will open in Cần Thơ, the largest city in the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta, from April 12 to 16.

With the theme “Flavours of the Southern Region”, the annual festival will take place at the Cần Thơ Exhibition Fair and Trade - Investment Promotion Centre at 108A Lê Lợi Street in Ninh Kiều District (about 150km from HCM City).

The event aims to preserve and celebrate southern traditional cakes, and build trademarks for them.

More than 220 food stalls of cake artisans and businesses from Cần Thơ City and 18 provinces and cities in the region will take part in the festival.

As many as 100 stalls will present traditional cakes, and the remaining will introduce regional specialties and cake-making products from the support industry.

Other stalls will display dishes from Japan, South Korea, India, Italy, France, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

Highlights of the festival include a cake-offering ceremony at the Tân An communal house in Ninh Kiều District, cake-making demonstrations, stalls with chè (sweet soup) and traditional cakes from ethnic groups living in the delta, and a traditional cake-making contest.

During the festival, a conference on “Markets for Traditional Cakes” and a performance showing 100 áo bà ba (traditional shirts of southern women) will be held.

Visitors will have a chance to taste hundreds of kinds of traditional cakes, such as bánh tét (a cylindrical glutinous rice cake filled with green bean paste and pork), bánh bò dừa (coconut-flavoured sponge cake), bánh ú (small glutinous pyramid shape cake), and bánh đúc (rice cake cooked with lime juice).Last year, the seventh festival attracted about 500,000 domestic and foreign visitors, earning VNĐ250 billion ($10.8 million). — VNS