Laser-carved melons: Lunar New Year gimmick feeding Vietnam’s fancy fruit fetish

After learning to use a laser engraving machine in a Vietnamese engineering school, Nguyen Van Minh is now putting the technology to an unexpected use: decorating fruit.

It is a modern twist on the traditional custom of hand-carving designs into watermelons on the occasion of the lunar new year, a holiday known as Tet in Vietnam that kicks off on January 28.

“Laser carving is more accurate and better for small patterns. Plus, the designs are more diverse,” the 27-year-old entrepreneur said as a laser beam rapidly etched an elaborate rooster design into the green rind of a bowling ball-sized melon.