Monday

Yet another holiday: Happy Birthday to my mother! What we really need at a time like this is celebratory cake. Since I'm so far away, I'll have to tell you a story about that cake instead of actually baking it myself. Or, in this case, two cakes. Recently, for the Hùng Kings' Holiday beginning April fourteenth, the Vietnamese cultural apparatus Saigontourist commissioned two enormous cakes for its festival at Đầm Sen Park.¹ This was a great idea, except for the fact that, immediately prior to erecting the display, park officials noticed the two-ton square (chưng) and the single-ton round (dầy) yummy glutinous rice cakes (bánh) were horribly moldy. Usually these are created as an edible display. Fearing the worst, the mold was then tested and discovered to be too dangerous for human consumption. Rather than waste three tons of quivering, petroleum-quality, Vaseline-like confection, also moldy, the officials decided scrape them off, presenting the catering as a sculpture rather than a buffet. They finally threw the massive cakes away only after the festival ended on the eighteenth of the month. Until then rumors abounded: why were these desserts for display purposes only? Many festival attendees became convinced the big things were made from the same inedible construction foam as the support structure inside the cakes. Hey wait. Never mind that I think these things are nearly inedible on the best of days, and never mind that Đầm Sen Park obviously seriously considered serving them at the festival if only the mold had been determined benign, but these cakes are, as a matter of process, erected over DIY building supplies? Sheesh. The resulting inquest has passed the buck along to the park's parent company, who, while whistling, would like to point out how very hot the weather has been lately.² [Cavin]