Victoria St Vietnamese Lunar New Year Festival
February 5th, 2007
What are festivals coming to in this city? The Swedish Fair at the Swedish Church is what you might call a good festival, and the festivals out in the sticks which are genuine community celebrations by Buddhists, Hindus, Tibetans and Whathaveyous are beaut. But so many festivals are just so crud: the Lygon St Fiesta, the Antipodes Festival, and to a lesser extent, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year Festival which was on yesterday. A festival is not a row of shops allowed to sell their things at outside tables, a stage with a band, and an Ikea van with some vaguely pan-Asian decorated kitchen. Am I being too harsh? Mine was a short visit. What do other people think?
I suppose cock fights just wouldn’t go down too well with the inner city white types sure to come, but something other than blaring loudspeakers is needed to pep up the Vietnamese festival. What does save the festival for this whitey is the food, real Vietnamese food like you get in Vietnam, rather than the Chinesey stuff which the Vietnamese restaurant industry has settled on for Melbourne. Thinking I was buying expensive fried potatoes, I ended up with some fried bits of cut-up rice cake with an egg fried into it, and then various sauces poured over it, some chilli paste in the corner. That was good, and had Miss K smacking her lips. I enjoyed the curiously pink bananas encased in a thick layer of sticky rice covered with damn thick coconut cream, and a pork satay with all the flavour of meat cooked on a barbecue of coals. We are yet to tackle the purple sticky rice and mungbean paste sandwich pressed into a mould so as to make a beautiful new year’s pattern. I didn’t go the ubiquitous minced beaf wrapped in la lot leaves, grilled — been there done that. These “pepper leaves” are a member of the wild betel family, according to Mai Pham, glossy dark green heart-shaped things, and this dish, bo nuong la lot is part of bo bay mon, beef seven ways. It has garlic, onions, lemongrass, roasted peanuts, turmeric, fish sauce, sugar, salt, and coarsely ground beef.
The Abbotsford blogger does not have a camera at the moment, a want which is starting to hurt, but he is also soon not to have an income for a while, so it might have to stay that way. But I discovered a fellow Flickrite in Abbotsford — Ciaostabella, but I dub her My Friend Flickr — who kindly agreed to take some photos for me, including the one in this post, and Donina was there capturing the action, unasked. If you have any photos, you would consider sharing, please send them to contactme@abbotsfordblog.com.
7 Responses to “Victoria St Vietnamese Lunar New Year Festival”
01
I would like to lease a store to sell “sealed” ice cream, please give me the contact details.
Thank you and regards
02
Hi, when the festival for 2008 will be held?
03
No idea sorry Phan me friend. Felisia, I’m afraid you missed it last weekend.
04
I am researching my mothers history. She was in the orphanage around 1928 – 1940 approx, can anyone point me in the right direction re history of the convent etc. I have contacted the ‘Sisters’ however would like to have more info from the ‘residents’ side such as ‘Memories of Abbotsford Convent on an Ebay discussion forum’. Can anyone assist please?
05
Hi
Suggest you contact Angela at mailto:angelad9492@hotmail.com
she may be able to steer you in the right direction.
Best of luck.
Luisa
06
Yay! There’s a fest today.. I can’t wait to go
07
You asked
“But so many festivals are just so crud: the Lygon St Fiesta, the Antipodes Festival, and to a lesser extent, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year Festival which was on yesterday. A festival is not a row of shops allowed to sell their things at outside tables, a stage with a band, and an Ikea van with some vaguely pan-Asian decorated kitchen. Am I being too harsh? Mine was a short visit. What do other people think?”
So here’s what one local thinks. Hope it may be of use>
As with most festivals, what you see on the street is just the surface. I am an Australian born Anglo local resident and look forward each year to this festival as do my friends. Learn a few Vietnamese phrases, make some friends, get invited into their homes, become involved with some community groups (not the short term socio-political ones or the feelgood ones or the ones created by government social workers but grassroots ones formed by the community) and you get a different view of your neighbours. Much of the Tet Festival in Richmond takes place above the awnings or in the back streets where you can experience the 3 dimensions of the festival. It only takes a small but genuine gesture to be invited into most communities and that gesture is usually quickly repaid many times over.
So yes, the surface view of the Victoria Street Festival as seen by a visitor walking down the main street may not stack up to some consumer expectations, but if you get involved with the community I think you’ll find that the 3 dimensional rather than the one dimensional experience is a very satisfying experience.
Helen
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