Bacci Kid × Vietnam’s Central · Lantern Road

Bacci Kid Vietnam’s Central
Bacci Kid × Vietnam’s Central

Bacci’sLantern Road

Six golden doors. Real dishes from the Vietnam’s Central menu, stories from Bà Sen, a few Vietnamese words and a lantern to breathe with. Scan, tap, play, together.

IIIIIIIVVVISix doors · six stamps
Bacci
Bà Sen: Xin chào, welcome! I am the water buffalo of the lantern road and I know every story on this river. Tap a golden door.
I · The Lantern Gate

Welcome, like family.

In Vietnam a meal begins with one small word: mời. It means “please, I invite you,” and the youngest at the table says it to everyone before the first bite. It is why the family at Vietnam’s Central greets every table like cousins coming home.

Bacci: We made it! First, tell Bà Sen how your table is feeling. Then take your Vietnam passport: six doors, six stamps, a surprise on the last one.
How is your table feeling? Check-in
Tap the one that fits. Every feeling is welcome here.
0Lanterns
0Best
GuestTable
Today’s family quest
HỘ CHIẾU · MY VIETNAM PASSPORT
🏮🍜🪷🌙Đ🎉
Visit every door to fill your passport.
Table talkHow can we make someone feel welcome, like family, today?
Three tapsScan. Play. Talk.
Your paceTừ từ, slowly. Start with one door, or stay for dessert.
Grown-upsThe stories belong to everyone. The ordering belongs to you.
Taking Vietnam’s Central home tonight?Grown-ups: call (914) 723-7222 for pickup at 694 Central Park Avenue, Scarsdale.
Call to order
Vietnam’s CentralBacci Kid
Bacci Kid games are for fun and family connection, not medical, psychological or emergency advice. Under 13 plays with a grown-up. In a crisis call 911, or call or text 988.
II · Phở Table

Build your plate of feelings.

Every dish on the Vietnam’s Central menu carries a feeling. Tap the ones that match your day. Every feeling is welcome at this table.

Hoa the Lotus: Pick your plate! Start with the D.I.Y. summer rolls: rice paper, herbs, pork and shrimp, and everyone rolls their own. A rolled roll is a shared roll. Then start the table-talk timer and pass the phone around.
🍚
Your plate is waiting for its first feeling.
Table talk 60 seconds each
60
Table talkSummer rolls are rolled one at a time, then shared. What would you rather do together than alone?

Kids’ first Vietnamese bites

Grown-ups: easy wins from the Vietnam’s Central menu for little hands.

  • Van’s Summer Rollschicken, shrimp or tofu; crunchy inside
  • Fried Pot Stickerspork or vegetable, little dumplings to share
  • Lemon Fried Shrimpcrispy, with a lemon kiss
  • Jasmine Fried Ricemild, with egg and veggies
  • Phởslurp-friendly; grown-ups add herbs and chili
  • Caramel Flan or Ice Creamto finish with a smile
Order these from Vietnam’s CentralPickup from Scarsdale, grown-ups only on the phone.
Call to order
Bacci Kid games are for fun and family connection, not medical, psychological or emergency advice. Under 13 plays with a grown-up. In a crisis call 911, or call or text 988.
III · River Stories

Bà Sen’s stories.

Bà Sen: Sit with me on the riverbank, con, my child. Tap a story and I will tell it. Each one ends with a question for your table. Then pledge a kind act and help me gather lotus flowers.

1. Bacci at the Lantern Gate

Bacci was nervous. A new country, new words, new faces. His sampan slid into Hội An just as the sky turned the color of tea, and hundreds of silk lanterns blinked on above the river, red and gold and pink. A girl on the quay held one out to him. “Xin chào!” she said. “Mời, come eat with us.”

The lantern was warm in his paws, and the worry in his tummy floated off down the river. In Vietnam, he learned, a stranger is only a friend who has not been invited to dinner yet.

Who said hello to you and made you feel better?

2. Hoa, the Lotus in the Mud

Hoa the Lotus began as a bud under the brown river water. “It is dark down here, and muddy,” she said. “Nothing beautiful starts in mud.” Bà Sen, cooling her big grey shoulders in the shallows, laughed softly. “Every lotus starts in the mud, little one. The mud is not the end of the story. It is the beginning.”

Hoa waited. The river did not hurry, and neither did she. One morning she opened, clean and pink, without one speck of mud. In Vietnam they say the lotus lives near the mud and never smells of it. Hard beginnings can still bloom.

What is something hard that turned into something good for you?

3. The Whole Leaf and the Torn Leaf

A storm came up the river one night and tore the roof off old Ông Ba’s house. In the morning his rice was wet and his lantern was gone. Bacci saw it first and did not know what to do. Bà Sen pointed at the banana tree, where a wide green leaf had wrapped itself around a torn one in the wind.

“Lá lành đùm lá rách,” she said. “The whole leaf wraps the torn leaf. When someone is torn, the rest of us wrap around them.” So the whole street came with rice, tea and a new red lantern, and Ông Ba’s house glowed again before dark. Being the whole leaf is the kindest thing a person can be.

Who could use a little wrapping-up this week, and what could you bring them?

4. The Smallest Voice at the Table

At the big family dinner nobody picked up their chopsticks. The phở was steaming, the summer rolls were rolled, and everyone was just… waiting. Then the smallest cousin, Linh, sat up straight and said, “Con mời ông bà, ba mẹ ăn cơm.” I invite grandma and grandpa, mom and dad, to eat. Everyone smiled, said “Mời!” back, and Grandma took the first bite.

“In Vietnam the youngest invites everyone,” Bà Sen whispered. “It is called hiếu: remembering who cooked, who carried you, who waited up. The best piece goes to the oldest, the first word to the youngest.” Bacci practiced all evening. By dessert he had it perfect.

Who in your family would you thank first tonight, and for what?

5. The Broth That Cooled

Minh lost the lantern race by one little splash, and his face went hot and red. “I am angry at the whole river!” he shouted, and kicked the quay. Bà Sen set a bowl of phở in front of him, so hot the steam curled up like a dragon. “Do you drink it now?” she asked. Minh shook his head. “It would burn.”

“So we wait,” said Bà Sen. “Hands around the bowl. Breathe in the steam. Breathe out, slow, and watch it rise.” Minh breathed. The steam thinned, the broth settled, and his shoulders came down from his ears. “Giận dữ, anger, is a hot broth,” Bà Sen said. “It is allowed. It is simply better after it cools a little.” Then Minh walked back and said “good race” to his cousin.

What helps your broth cool down when it gets too hot?

Whole-leaf challenge Pledge a kind act
Lotus Harvest 30 second game
🪷 0⏱ 30
Tap Start, then tap every lotus you see. Golden lanterns are worth three.
Best: 0
Bacci Kid games are for fun and family connection, not medical, psychological or emergency advice. Under 13 plays with a grown-up. In a crisis call 911, or call or text 988.
IV · Lantern Dusk

Breathe with Đèn.

Đèn the Lantern: Watch me glow. Breathe in as my light grows big. Breathe out as I float down the river. Four slow rounds and the whole table is softer.
Table talkName one thing that felt peaceful today.
River body scan Grown-up reads it
Meditation ConsoleMore breathing and quiet games.Feelings ConsoleEvery feelings wheel and check-in.
Bacci Kid games are for fun and family connection, not medical, psychological or emergency advice. Under 13 plays with a grown-up. In a crisis call 911, or call or text 988.
V · Word Garden

Tiếng Việt.

Bà Sen: Tap a word to hear it. Then say it to your server and watch their face light up. Every region of Vietnam sings these a little differently, so say them gently. Below, my feelings dictionary: eight feelings, each with something to try.
Vietnamese feelings dictionary Tap to open
Niềm vuinyem voo-ee · Joy

Try this: Tell the table one thing that made you smile today.

Nỗi buồnnoy boo-uhn · Sadness

Try this: Sadness is allowed at the table. Say “I feel nỗi buồn” and let someone sit close.

Sợ hãisuh hai · Fear

Try this: Name the fear out loud. It shrinks when it is shared. Then breathe with Đèn.

Giận dữyuhn yuh · Anger

Try this: Hands around a warm bowl like Minh, three slow breaths, then say what you need.

Bình yênbing yen · Peace

Try this: Picture a lantern on a quiet river. Where in your body feels quiet right now?

Yêu thươngyew tuhng · Love

Try this: Tell someone at the table why you are glad they are here.

Tự hàotuh how · Pride

Try this: Share one thing you worked hard on this week. Giỏi quá, well done!

Biết ơnbyet uhn · Gratitude

Try this: Thank the person who cooked, and the person who brought you here.

Table talkSay “Mời cả nhà ăn cơm” together: everyone, please eat!
Bacci Kid games are for fun and family connection, not medical, psychological or emergency advice. Under 13 plays with a grown-up. In a crisis call 911, or call or text 988.
VI · Lantern Festival

Dzô!

On full-moon nights Hội An switches off its electric lights and thousands of silk lanterns glow instead. Families float paper lanterns on the river and make a wish. And when the glasses lift at the table, everyone says it together: Dzô!

Bà Sen: Float a lantern wish! Tap to set your lantern and mine on the river. The one that reaches the moon carries the wish tonight.
🏮🏮
Bà Sen’s lantern on the left, yours on the right. Ready?
Bà Sen’s spin: a tiny dare for the whole table.
Lion danceMúa lân! Clap a drum beat on the table, tùng tùng cắc, and shake your shoulders like the lion.
Dzô! toastLift your water. Một, hai, ba… Dzô! Cheers to someone who did well today.
Chopstick practiceLift a summer roll with chopsticks. Drop it? Laugh and try again, từ từ.
Table talkWhat makes you feel vui, full of joy?
More Bacci table games Free
Kids Feelings GameLittle hands, big smiles.Teen HubBrave talk for big kids.Museum PortalsWonder rooms to explore.Printables StudioFree pages to color and keep.Feelings ConsoleWheels and check-ins.Meditation ConsoleQuiet games to breathe.
Bacci Kid games are for fun and family connection, not medical, psychological or emergency advice. Under 13 plays with a grown-up. In a crisis call 911, or call or text 988.
Bacci Kid · Vietnam Collection

Take Vietnam home.

Bacci: Loved our trip? Keep the lantern magic going at home and master the chopsticks too. Grown-ups make the purchases.
🥢
Chopstick Challenge Table KitPrintable chopstick games for the table
$3.33Get it
🎓
Chopstick Academy Practice PackPractice pages, from first pinch to pro
$5.55Get it
🏮
Vietnam Digital VacationThe full trip, passport and printables
$5.55Get it
🌯
Summer Roll Manners & Culture SetVietnamese words, table manners, recipes to color
$33.33Get it
🎁
Trip + Chopsticks BundleVacation plus both chopstick packs. Best value
$55.55Get it
👑
Lantern Road All-AccessEverything, plus bonus stories and feelings dictionary cards
$99.99Get it
Grown-ups make the purchases. Every door on this page stays free: Bacci Kid’s mission is free, kind, positive things for kids everywhere.
Created by Dr. Jamie J. Karia, DSW, LCSW
Dr. J signature
Bacci Kid games are for fun and family connection, not medical, psychological or emergency advice. Under 13 plays with a grown-up. In a crisis call 911, or call or text 988.