Where to spend Tết in Houston

01Start on Bellaire, not downtown

Houston has no single Tết festival. It has a corridor. Bellaire Boulevard from Beltway 8 west is where the community actually spends the holiday, and the density of it is the point: you can eat, buy flowers, get a haircut and watch a lion dance without moving your car more than twice.

The malls open early and fill by nine. If you arrive after ten on the first weekend you will spend forty minutes finding a space, which is the single most reliable prediction anyone can make about Tết in Houston.

• Hong Kong City Mall

  The biggest crowd and the best lion dance. Come before nine or accept your fate.

• Viet Hoa Center

  Quieter, better for an actual grocery run, still fully decorated.

• Saigon Houston Temple

  Midnight on New Year, then again through the first three days.

02Order the bánh chưng early

Bakeries and home kitchens along Bellaire take orders from about three weeks out and stop when they stop. Walking in on the day is possible but you will get what is left. If your family is southern you are probably after bánh tét anyway, which is the same conversation with a different shape.

03What to bring

Crisp notes for lì xì, because nobody wants a folded twenty. A bag you can carry flowers in. And more patience with the parking than you think you need.