The Vietnam kitchen The fireplace was considered a sacred part of the home, as every Vietnamese family worshiped

the Kitchen God.

People living in Vietnams northern delta typically built their homes with the front door facing south, as advised by the old saying, " Marry a good-natured wife and build a house turned towards the south" the kitchen should ideally lie to the left, in the eastern quadrant, separate from the main building with its door facing west. This direction prevents southern and eastern sea winds from blowing into the kitchen and causing the cooking fire to flare up and burn down the house or make the family uneasy.

In what was once King Bac province (now Bac Ninh and Bac Giang provinces), Gia Lam, Dong Anh District, and some areas of Vinh Phuc, Thai Nguyen, Lang Son and Hung Yen provinces, the main house typically consisted of three compartments and one or two lean-tos. The kitchen had two sections. One part was used to store fish sauce, salt, pickles, looking pots, water containers, dishes, utensils, and perhaps a rice-hulling mill and mortar, The other side, used for cooking, contained some straw, firewood and the stove, Women were responsible for the cooking, as explained in old proverbs like, " Looking at a house's kitchen we can know about the woman in that family"; " Without a man, a house is lonely, while without a woman the kitchen is deserted" , or , " A man is always close to his house and a woman is always close to her kitchen".

In the old days, the cooking pot rested upon an earthen trivet comprised of three rounded clods of heavy soil or clay mixed with rice husks and arranged in a triangle. People in central Vietnam called the trivet ong nuc and northerners called it ong dau rau. Northerners also referred to the middle clod as dau rau cai (female trivet) and the other two as dau rau duc (male trivets). To heat many pots at one time the cook arranged two or three sets of trivets in a line.

The fireplace was considered an essential, and indeed sacred, part of the home, as every Vietnamese family worshiped the Kitchen God along with the familys ancestors. The ancestral altar stood in the main section of the house and the Kitchen God's altar in a side section. If an

auxiliary branch of the family did not have an ancestral altar in their home they placed the Kitchen God's altar in the central section. Simpler than an ancestral altar, the Kitchen God's altar consisted of an incense-table set against the back wall. Three gods were worshiped: Tho Cong, Tho Dia and Tho Ky. Their votive tablet bore the message, "The palace of the Kitchen God is located in the east and takes care of the host's life and destiny", or tour Chinese characters (Dinh Phuc Tao quan) that declare, "The Kitchen God bring luck to the family".

It is said that each year on the 23rd day of 12th lunar month the Kitchen God reports his host's good and bad deeds to the King of Heaven. If the host has been good-hearted the King of Heaven will reward him with good health and luck. If he has behaved badly his days may be numbered. On this day, after honoring Ong Cong (also called Ong Tao), householders burn votive paper money for the dead and replace their old ong dau rau with a new one, throwing the old one into a pond. This done, they release a live carp into a stream or a pond so that it may be turned into a dragon and carry Ong Cong to meet the King of Heaven. (According to an old Chinese belief, Ong Cong could be bribed with candy to present a positive report).

The Kitchen God's relationship to the ong dau rau is explained in a Vietnamese folk tale about a couple named Trong Cao and Thi Nhi. Though married for many years, the pair remained childless. One day they got into an argument and Trong Cao beat his wife, who moved away. She later remarried a man named Pham Lang. Saddened by Thi Nhi's departure, Trong Cao set out to find her. He grew so poor that he was forced to beg to survive. By chance Trong Cao came to Pham Lang's home, where his former wife recognized him. As her new husband wasn't home, she took pity on Trong Cao and served him a feast, then hit him in a sack of straw behind the house. Unfortunately, Pham Lang and a servant unwittingly burned this sack of straw to make ash to fertilize the rice fields. Seeing her ex-husband engulfed in flames Thi Nhi threw herself into the fire and died. Pham Lang and the servant were so distraught that they followed suit. Witnessing this sorry scene the God of Heaven decided to transform them into Kitchen Gods.

Pham Lang earned the title Tho Cong, responsible for the kitchen. Trong Cao became Tho Dia, who cares for the home. And Thi Nhi became Tho Ky, in charge of shopping. Collectively they became the three ong dau rau. The servant, meanwhile, was turned into nui rom, or the handful

of straw kindling used to re-ignite the flames. Even at night, people tried not to let their cooking fires go out. Each evening, householders would place a cloud of earth over a pile of lit rice husks that would smolder until morning.

Up until the 1960s and 1970s, peasants in northern Vietnam often use straw for fuel. Ong dau rau were commonly used. In some houses iron trivets named kieng replaced the earthen ones. More convenient than dau rau, the kieng has a similar, sturdy structure. The poet To Huu wrote the line: "No matter what people say, my mind is as unshakable as a cooking trivet ".

The traditional kitchen was not just the place where meals were prepared and cooked, but also the place where the whole family gathered after a hard days work. In cold weather the kitchen was cozy. Even if the food was meager, the atmosphere could be pleasant, as described in a folk song that states: "A soup of shrimp feelers and gourd guts (a dish that is far from tasty) can be delicious when the husband and wife enjoy tasting it together".

Everyone who grew up in the countryside has special childhood memories: swimming in ponds, fishing, baking sweet potatoes and cassava in the fire... Over time, new stoves were invented. Nowadays some poor families have no choice but to use peat stoves, although they are dirty and polluting. In the city, many people cook with gas. They now spend large sums on redecorating their kitchens, Rice cookers and microwave ovens make it easy to prepare meals while listening to music or watching TV. But many families no longer gather regularly, despite - or maybe because of - these modern conveniences.

Nowadays peasants don't feed their stoves with straw. They use peat or marsh-gas, or electricity or gas. But to this day people still recall the legend of ong dau rau and still worship the Kitchen God, who inspires all of us to be kinder and more charitable.

This article written by Lanh Nguyen from Vietnam Heritage Travel For original article, please visit: http://travelagencyinvietnam.com/travel-news/the-vietnam-kitchen.html Vacation to Vietnam

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