VietNamNet Bridge – To many families in southern Vietnam, enjoying pia during the mid-autumn holidays has been a tradition since the early 19th century.

Pia is a rich cake eaten with tea that is a specialty of the Kinh, Khmer and Chinese ethnic people living in the Mekong Delta region.

The Chinese Ming Xiang people migrated to live by the Mekong Delta in the 14th century, bringing with them a flat round pudding filled with green pia powder.

The name pia comes from Chinese.

After hundreds of years, the original pia underwent adaptations to suit the tastes of the local people.

Since the early 19th century, it has been a specialty of the Mekong Delta Province of Soc Trang thanks to resident Dang Thuan who pioneered cooking and selling the puddings.

Initially, the Chinese-made pia had a surface layer made of wheat powder and was filled with a mixture of green pea powder and pork fat.

As a local variation, the Southerners incorporated one of their favorite fruits, durian, to make a new filling when combined with dried egg yolk.

A third popular variation for the pia is to fill them with Indian taro.

Pia cake is also a very colorful delicacy, with an orange pink exterior, a yellow interior from the green pea powder and a red center from the color of the egg yolk.

It is not only Vietnam’s southern residents who speak highly of this treat.

Hanoi Times