As Lunar New Year approaches, food service businesses in Ha Tinh are busy preparing, processing food, arranging food trays, and delivering to customers.

During the busy days of the year-end, many women do not have time to go into the kitchen to prepare dishes or offerings. Therefore, during the holidays in recent years, the service of ordering dishes and ready-made dishes is chosen by "housewives" because of its convenience, speed and reduction of cooking pressure.

The menu of diverse Tet dishes is posted by establishments on social networking sites for customers to refer to and order.

Ms. Lan Phuong (Ha Huy Tap Ward, Ha Tinh City) shared: “At the end of the year, there is a lot of work, I only finish work at the office on the 28th to clean the house, so I don't have much time to prepare the tray of offerings or prepare elaborate dishes for Tet. Therefore, in recent years, I have chosen to order services. In addition to ordering banh chung, sticky rice with chicken, and fruit trays for the New Year's Eve offering tray, I also order additional Tet dishes such as pickled onions, spring rolls, and ham... Although the ordered trays are more expensive than making them myself, professional establishments ensure that in addition to ensuring quality, they are also highly aesthetic.”

Grasping customer needs, around the beginning of the 12th lunar month, businesses post on social networking sites menus of full-package meals, individual dishes with a rich and diverse menu for customers to refer to and order. In addition to traditional dishes such as chicken sticky rice, pork roll, banh chung, pickled onions, spring rolls..., many places also serve unique dishes such as salt-cured chicken, soy sauce-cured veal...

At this time, many establishments have received hundreds of orders for Tet dishes and are busy processing and delivering them to customers. Most establishments have had to mobilize additional seasonal workers and work at night to keep up with the schedule. To ensure product quality and customer orders, many establishments have now “closed the books” and stopped accepting orders.

This year, Hong Thanh kitchen received an order for 500 banh chung.

As a familiar place to order food for many customers, from December 24, Hong Thanh kitchen (Cao Thang street, Ha Tinh city) has started delivering to customers.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong Thanh - the kitchen owner shared: "This year's Tet, Hong Thanh kitchen received more than 200 chicken sticky rice trays, 500 banh chung, 600 salted chickens, 400 - 500 kg of nem chua... To reduce the order load on the day before Tet, dishes that can be kept outside or in the refrigerator for a long time, we deliver the goods to customers from the 24th to the 28th, and on the 29th and 30th, we mainly focus on chicken sticky rice trays, banh chung, and ham...".

Along with savory dishes, vegetarian dishes are also chosen by many families for offerings and menus during Tet. At Nhan Duyen vegetarian kitchen (Cao Thang street, Ha Tinh city), on the days before Tet, the chef and staff have to be busy counting orders, preparing ingredients, processing dishes and delivering to customers.

Ms. Le Thi Dao (Mai Phu commune, Loc Ha) chooses to buy vegetarian food for the Tet offering.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy - owner of Nhan Duyen vegetarian kitchen shared: "At this time, we have received nearly 100 vegetarian trays, mainly delivered from the 28th to the 30th of Tet. Depending on customer needs, vegetarian trays cost from 200,000 - 500,000 VND with 7 - 9 dishes. In addition, this year we also make individual dishes, pre-cooked or pre-processed and frozen, customers just need to heat and cook them before offering them on the altar or serving them to enjoy. This year's vegetarian dishes are mainly made from fresh vegetables such as lotus, mushrooms, jackfruit, and fake vegetarian dishes such as ham, shrimp... with prices from 30 - 50,000 VND/dish.

Ms. Le Thi Dao (Mai Phu commune, Loc Ha) - a vegetarian customer said: "In previous years, I often ordered by offering tray, this year the shop has individual dishes so I chose by dish. Because my house is far away and I also do business, to avoid the rush, I take it home and put it in the freezer, when I need to take it out to process it again, it will be on the tray."

Fruit trays that are ordered a lot by customers have prices ranging from 500,000 to 1 million VND.

Meanwhile, fruit businesses that accept orders for fruit offerings are also rushing to make trays to ensure orders for customers. Ms. Tran Thi Hue - owner of Green Garden fresh fruit shop (Xuan Dieu street) said: "On the 29th and 30th of Tet alone, the shop will have to pay for more than 160 orders of fruit offerings. The common price that customers order is 500,000 to 1 million VND/set. To ensure the supply of goods, every day we have to import double or triple the amount of fresh fruits and flowers compared to normal days, of which the most are chrysanthemums, dragon fruit, bananas, apples, grapes, pomegranates... Because this year customers mainly receive orders close to Tet, the shop is quite busy. To ensure orders are on time, we currently have to mobilize twice as many workers as usual to do it."

According to business owners, quality, price, and delivery time are important requirements for establishments when receiving Tet orders. In particular, the offering tray represents the sincerity of each family towards their ancestors, so establishments must focus on investing to ensure both quality and aesthetics.

Ngoc Loan