Banh Chung Gu and the Ancestral Table of Phu Tho

The food that gets made around Nghia Linh Mountain in Phu Tho province is not the kind you find on any restaurant menu. It is ritual food — shaped by geography, by the memory of kings, and by the particular pride of a province that considers itself the cradle of Vietnamese civilization.

What Makes Phu Tho's 'Banh Chung' Different

Most Vietnamese will know "banh chung" as the square glutinous rice cake eaten at Tet — filled with mung bean paste and fatty pork belly, wrapped in dong leaves, and boiled for hours. Phu Tho makes a variation called "banh chung gu" (sometimes written banh chung gai), and it diverges from the standard version in ways that matter.

The dong leaves used here come from the forests around Phu Tho's highland districts — specifically the areas near Thanh Son and Tan Son, where the humidity and elevation produce leaves with a deeper green pigment and stronger aroma than the flatland variety. When the cake is boiled, this leaf fragrance permeates the rice in a way that lowland versions simply don't replicate.

The shape is also distinct. Where the standard Tet banh chung (반쯩 / 粽子 / バインチュン) is flat and square, banh chung gu is rounder and more compact — closer in silhouette to a pillow than a brick. Local women who make them say this shape comes from the way their grandmothers tied the leaves, a technique passed between households rather than written down anywhere.

The filling leans less sweet than Saigon-style versions. The mung bean paste is coarser, the pork seasoned with more black pepper, and the fat ratio is higher — which sounds heavy but actually keeps the rice from becoming dense after cooling. Eat it sliced cold the next morning and you'll understand why.

Prices at village stalls around the Hung Kings Temple complex run about 25,000–40,000 VND per cake depending on size. During the Hung Kings Festival period in the third lunar month, vendors line the road up to Den Thuong (the Upper Temple) selling them alongside other offerings.

The Hung Kings Festival Table

The Hung Kings Festival — held on the 10th day of the third lunar month, drawing hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to Nghia Linh Mountain — is as much a food event as a religious one. Families climb the mountain carrying offerings assembled at home: banh chung gu, "banh day" (round white glutinous rice cakes, the pair to banh chung in legend), five-fruit trays, and roasted sticky rice.

"Xoi" — sticky rice — is central here in a way it isn't at most Vietnamese festivals. Phu Tho's xoi is cooked in bamboo tubes over wood fire for temple offerings, which gives it a faint smokiness and keeps it warm for the hours-long climb. Plain white xoi and xoi gac (sticky rice colored deep red with gac fruit) are both common, the red considered auspicious.

For those eating rather than offering, the food stalls at the base of the mountain and throughout Viet Tri city — Phu Tho's provincial capital, about 80 km northwest of Hanoi — do a roaring trade in local specialties that don't travel well and are therefore almost unknown outside the region.

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'Thit Chua' — The Sour Pork of Phu Tho

The dish most worth seeking out is "thit chua", Phu Tho's fermented pork — not to be confused with "nem chua", the southern-style cured pork rolls. Phu Tho's thit chua is made from pork skin and lean meat mixed with roasted rice powder and a local spice blend, then wrapped tightly in banana leaf and left to ferment for three to five days. The result is sour, funky, and firm — served at room temperature with fresh garlic, sliced chili, and sometimes a dipping side of shrimp paste thinned with lime.

It shows up on almost every table at festival time. Locals eat it as a snack with "bia hoi" poured from plastic jugs at roadside stalls in Viet Tri, or alongside xoi as part of a full meal. Finding it outside Phu Tho is genuinely difficult — the fermentation window is tight and it doesn't survive long transport.

Other Dishes Worth Knowing

Phu Tho also has a strong tradition of river fish dishes from the Lo River and the Da River, both of which run through the province. "Ca chep nuong" — grilled carp seasoned with lemongrass and turmeric — is common at riverside restaurants in Viet Tri and in the town of Phu Tho, about 12 km from the temple complex.

"Canh chua ca" here uses a souring agent made from coc fruit (a tart green fruit common in the north) rather than the tamarind typical of southern versions — the result is sharper and less sweet, closer to what you'd taste in Ha Giang (하장 / 河江 / ハーザン) or Tuyen Quang.

For breakfast, the local take on "banh cuon (반꾸온 / 蒸米卷 / バインクオン)" — steamed rice rolls — is thinner than the Hanoi version and served with a stronger fish sauce base, sometimes alongside a small bowl of broth that you pour over at the table.

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Getting There and When to Go

Viet Tri is roughly 80 km from Hanoi (하노이 / 河内 / ハノイ) via National Highway 2 — about 1.5 to 2 hours by car, or around 2.5 hours by bus from My Dinh station (fares around 80,000–100,000 VND). The Hung Kings Temple complex is a further 12 km from the city center.

The festival period — the 10th day of the third lunar month, typically falling in April — is when the food scene is fullest and most alive. But banh chung gu and thit chua are available year-round from producers in the villages around Thanh Son district, if you're willing to ask around.

Practical Notes

Most food stalls around the temple complex are cash only; bring smaller bills (10,000–50,000 VND denominations) as change is often short during busy festival days. If you're buying banh chung gu to bring home, look for cakes that still feel warm — ones that have been sitting since morning lose their leaf fragrance quickly.