Chúc Mừng Năm Mới

Some photos from the Vietnamese New Year's Festival that took place at the CNE. People really enjoy the mock-up of the country hut and the fake road-side food stall. The irony is that most there left Vietnam because they don't want to live in peasant homes and own food stalls. Sadly, the hột vịt lộn (fertilized duck eggs) was just for show.






Chef Don of Dessert Trends carve some fruit.









A girl wearing an áo dài (Vietnamese long dress) sells gambling chits for a poetry game. A few verses from poems are presented with a key word missing. Spectators bet on whether the word is 1 of 5 choices while the "barkers" attempt to sway opinions one way or another via appeal to metaphor, rhyme, similarity to other poems and so on.