Tet's red envelopes and a little surprise

Things rarely go as planned, and though I had braced myself for it — in Vietnam you often find yourself going, "Wait, it's today? Right now? Are you serious…" Soon it will be Tet, the Lunar New Year holiday. Squeezing it in amid all this, one of our annual traditions that we carry out with everyone gathered together is handing out Tet gifts and pochi-bukuro — the little red money envelopes! They're for the Vietnamese staff and associates who take such good care of us. Vietnamese money envelopes usually have a red design, and the amounts are roughly 50,000 VND or 200,000 VND. Lucky red bills, you know. As Tet approaches, you need a huge amount of these red bills. I'd asked a staff member to go to the bank and exchange the money early, once January came around. …But when it came down to it, we didn't have nearly enough red bills. Just as I was thinking, "I really need to get this sorted out soon~," out of nowhere my husband messaged me: "I'm handing them out today~" Huh?! Today?! The envelopes had been ready for quite a while, so that was fine — the problem was the bills, the red ones. This time it was cutting it close.

Honestly, I wanted to write a personal message for each of you and tuck it inside before handing it over, but I couldn't manage that much preparation this year. Ah~, what a fail, what a fail. That said, today I've prepared one more little surprise. In France, there's a pastry called a galette des rois that's part of the New Year celebrations. Inside it is a small ceramic figurine (a fève), and whoever gets the piece with it when it's cut and shared receives a "good-luck charm for the year." I thought I'd quietly borrow that idea and put my own twist on it. What I'm baking this time is a cake salé.

⚫️ Baby Cake Salé It's a savory, not-sweet meal cake made by baking a batter of cheese and flour mixed with vegetables and wiener sausages. It goes really well with wine, too. We decided to try baking one with a fève tucked into the bottom of the paper cup. (Though we don't know if it'll turn out well, lol) To begin with, there are still a lot of people who don't even know what a fève is, so we'll have the staff explain it properly. We'll make sure the staff thoroughly warns everyone not to suddenly chomp down and chip a tooth, and not to accidentally swallow it — really making the point clear! That said, we suddenly ended up having to bake them, and even though I wanted to test it first, in the end it's a total shot in the dark. It's my first time baking at this size, but the taste is reliable every time, so… Whether it'll be a hit with the Vietnamese folks is a bit of an unknown. And what I agonized over was choosing the fève… you never know who's going to get it! So in the end I went with the safe(?) choice — since it's the Year of the Horse, I picked a horse. As a backup, I also tried tossing in a little soldier figure just to see.

Packed into a cup so small you could finish it in three bites: spinach, carrots, onions, sausage, corn, and cheese, all stuffed in tightly.

Place a little bit on top as well — the sausage, that is. Yep, the fève is hidden away. It's fine... probably.

In the oven at 180°C for 35 min (check partway through) And once it's baked…

Not bad, I guess. Which one has the fève in it?!

Checked the prototype, and it popped out~ Cracked open the dough, and there it was!

If you tell them to "be careful~," then instead of just chomping right in, maybe they'll find it if you have them first go, "Hmm… is it in there~?" and carefully check inside the cup.

Yes, when it comes out looking like this, it makes me kind of happy. Now then, I wonder who will get the little ceramic horse. We'll wrap them up fresh out of the oven and deliver them to the staff~!

Well then, I'm off~ Migration Life Ranking