A Hanoi food business has given a twist to the traditional banh chung (square sticky rice cake) made for Tet by adding salmon and matcha. 

Trinh Xuan Giap, owner of the business, said he started to search for a way to create a "culinary fusion" using the square sticky rice cake three years ago. He finally succeeded by replacing the pork filling with salmon.

"It retains familiar ingredients like sticky rice, mung beans and black pepper, and is wrapped with dong leaves, which guarantees the traditional look and taste. The only difference is that the pork fillings are replaced with salmon."

Grains of sticky rice are soaked in water overnight, while mung beans are soaked in warm water.

Matcha powder is added to the sticky rice to counteract the metallic taste of the fish and create new flavors.

Salmon weighing 10 kg or more is used to make the cake since their meat fits the mold.

The salmon are cut into hand-sized pieces and sprinkled with spices and pepper. The cakes, each weighing 800 grams, are made by boiling for 12 hours.

The cakes are then pressed and left to cool before being vacuum packaged in boxes. Giap hopes to sell around 1,000 salmon-filled cakes this Lunar New Year, which peaks on January 25.

The cake has a shelf life of 15 days. Each costs VND290,000 ($12.50).