Buu Long tourist area offers free admission on August 20 for Dong Nai Culinary Festival 2025

On August 13, Nguyen Danh Thinh, Acting Director of Buu Long Investment and Development One-Member Limited Liability Company (which manages and operates Buu Long Tourist Area in Tran Bien Ward), announced that, in compliance with the direction of the Dong Nai Provincial People's Committee on coordinating with the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Dong Nai Provincial Tourism Association to organize the Dong Nai Culinary Festival 2025, Buu Long Tourist Area will waive entrance fees on August 20, 2025, for visitors and residents to tour and experience the event.

Dong Nai traditional pastry chef at the Dong Nai Culinary Festival 2024. Photo: Ngoc Lien

The Dong Nai Culinary Festival 2025 will be held on August 20, 2025, at Buu Long Tourist Area. This meaningful event celebrates the 80th anniversary of the August Revolution (August 19, 1945 – August 19, 2025) and Vietnam's National Day (September 2, 1945 – September 2, 2025). It will serve as an occasion to promote and showcase the richness and uniqueness of Dong Nai cuisine to visitors from within and beyond the province while fostering culinary tourism and contributing to stimulating the local tourism market.

Professional chefs from Dong Nai will perform and set the record for Vietnam’s largest fried puffed sticky rice cake with cashew nuts on August 20. Photo: Ngoc Lien

Organized by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism in coordination with relevant departments and units, the festival will feature activities such as setting the record for the largest "fried puffed sticky rice cake with cashew nuts" in Viet Nam, cooking competitions, fruit and vegetable carving contests, a demo of the Dong Nai Culinary digital map, interacting with Master Chefs, influencers (KOLs), and celebrating the founding day of Dong Nai Province Chefs Association (August 20).

Chefs participated in the fruit and vegetable carving competition at the 2024 Dong Nai Culinary Festival. Photo: Ngoc Lien

A highlight of this year's festival is the attempt to set the record for the largest fried puffed sticky rice cake with cashew nuts in Vietnam, prepared by professional chefs from the Dong Nai Chefs Association.

Buu Long Tourist Area offers free admission on August 20. Photo: Ngoc Lien

As of now, the record for the "largest fried puffed sticky rice cake in Vietnam" was recognized by the Vietnam Records Book Centre (now the Vietnam Records Organization) for Binh Quoi Tourism in Ho Chi Minh City in 2009, with a circumference of 187 cm, a diameter of 59.5 cm, and a height of 41.5 cm.

In 2023, Dong Nai's fried puffed sticky rice cake was recognized by the Asian Records Organization as an Asian culinary specialty record. The fried puffed sticky rice cake is made from glutinous rice, sugar, and cooking oil by a chef from Dong Nai. Over time, its unique taste has been widely recognized, becoming a famous specialty and delicacy of Dong Nai for decades.

By: Ngoc Lien
Translated by: Huyen Trang - Minho