Come to Ly Son for a try of special Garlic Salad

If you have a chance to travel to Quang Ngai Province’s Ly Son Island, you will find an exotic plant for sure dubbed “male garlic”.

Ly Son’s garlic salad.

The reason locals call it “male garlic” is that it looks extremely tiny without clove like any other garlic plant. Its trunk and leaves are big and strong because nutrients are not concentrated in the garlic. Locals do not harvest all the garlic. When it comes to preparing a salad, people will think of fish, shrimp, or meat as main ingredients.

But garlic salad is easy to create. The roots and pointed leaves of garlic are first disposed of. Use a knife to cut it into several segments and then divide it into two or three smaller parts. Immerse garlic slices in cold water for 10 minutes and then boil them until they are done. Take them off the pot to get rid of the strong odor. If they are over-boiled, the garlic slices will be too floppy. Peanuts are roasted and ground. Mix the processed garlic with ground peanuts and washed raw basil leaves. Add some MSG and sugar to enhance flavor. Then present the mixture onto a plate. The dish looks delicious with green and white colors.

The salad is served with roasted thick girdle-cakes. Put some garlic salad on it and dip the mixture into a hot and spiced sauce. The richness of the cake in combination with the fragrantly-scented garlic creates a taste like no other. Fishermen on Ly Son Island, which is also well-known for its special garlic, often eat the dish as garlic has medicinal properties. The salad is simple but truly an exotic and tasty delicacy of the island.

Come to Ly Son for a try of special Garlic Salad

Saigon people queues in the heat of sun for Mixed Rice Paper

It’s 5 p.m. and vehicles have started to throw themselves into the streets after office hours, just when this rice paper snack shop on Nguyen Thuong Hien Street runs into its full business every day. The short and narrow street in Ho Chi Minh City’s downtown, which has always been known as a snail shop street, has recently caught up with the new snack fad of rice paper stripes plus almost everything from dry beef and squid to boiled quail eggs, mango stripes, aromatic leaves, fried peanuts, lime juice, and some special sauces, all wrapped up in a plastic bag. Despite the supply, most customers are pulled into one shop run by Uncle Vien (Chu Vien), his wife and his daughter.

 

Khanh jostles through circles of other customers, sweating all over his face, to go back to his motorbike for a sit after waiting by the cart for a while to no avail. He picked number 45, and it’s only 36 after he waited for more than 15 minutes. He drove from a different district to buy his girlfriend her favorite snack.

“So hot! I’m out of breath. I agreed to go as she said I’d only have to wait ten minutes, I didn’t know it’d take so long, as some customers before me bought as many as ten bags.”

Dozens of motorbikes pulled up on the roadway around his cart in an evening in early April, waiting for their takeaways, not to mention curious passers-by who would slow down to have a look and jam the traffic further.

Police officials or local security forces often have to intervene in the crowds and even have to threaten to seize customers’ motorbikes parked on the roadway.

There were so many customers they have to take a number and wait, like when one goes to a crowded hospital for a check-up.

Vien issues 50 numbers a day, and he doesn’t limit the number of bags each can buy. Some people couldn’t bear the wait and would give up their number to others who come later.

He, his wife and daughter cannot cease their hands from picking, spraying, squeezing, although they have readied bags of rice paper, dry beef and mango and only have to add other ingredients when there’re orders.

The shop uses hand mixers but each can only mix one bag at a time so they don’t help much to speed up the work.

Each bag costs VND15,000 or VND20,000, less than one US dollar.

Standing next to Khanh was Vi from Tan Binh District, who said she’s impatient with the wait.

Vi went with her sister who plunged into the customer crowd more than 30 minutes earlier. She said she would give her sister a bow for the patience, that she could never do that no matter how much she loves the snack.

But many customers said they prefer Vien’s service as it’s not only tasty but clean, which is quite good for such low prices.

Vien said his family has to wske up at 5 a.m. to prepare the ingredients. They open from 3 in the afternoon and until around 10 or 11 at night. They close on Sunday.

He said dry squid is bought from the coastal resort town Nha Trang, salt and shrimp powder mix from famous producers in Tay Ninh, a province neighboring the city, while other ingredients including the sauce are made or prepared at home, “to guarantee quality.”

 

 

 

Saigon people queues in the heat of sun for Mixed Rice Paper

Hanoi people celebrated Cold Food Festival with Troi and Chay Cakes

It is a tradition among many Vietnamese families to make trôi and chay cakes to celebrate Tet Han Thuc (or Cold Food Festival), which falls today on the lunar calendar. Apart from Tet, or Lunar New Year festival, Vietnam celebrates several other Tets. And there are special dishes specific to each one of them.

Trôi and chay cakes, two special snacks made for the Tet Han Thuc, or the Cold Food Festival, have transcended the festival and become popular everyday food in Hanoi

There is the bánh chưng (square-shaped sticky rice cake) and onion pickles for the Lunar New Year Tet, the bánh trung thu (moon cake) for the Tet Trung Thu (Mid-autumn), and cơm rượu (fermented glutinous rice) for Tet Doan Ngo. Then there is the Tet Han Thuc (or Cold Food Festival) that falls on the third day of the third lunar month (April 12 this year). For this festival, many Vietnamese families, especially in the north, made the delicious trôi and chay cakes. Not surprisingly, these “cool” dishes are just right for the weather that prevails at festival time. The Cold Food Festival originated in China. Legend has it that in 654 BC, Chong’er, King of the Jin Dynasty, endured many hardships while he was fleeing warring states with his courtiers. Once, in order to help the king who was tormented by hunger, one of his courtiers, whose name was Jie Zhitui, cut off the flesh from his thigh and offered it to the king for sustenance.

Nineteen years later, Chong’er regained the throne and rewarded the courtiers generously but forgot about Jie Zhitui. Jie Zhitui, however, did not care much about this and took his mother to a remote mountain and lived in peace. The king later remembered Jie Zhitui’s service and invited him to the royal palace but he refused. Chong’er ordered the mountain to be burned down in order to force Zhitui out of hiding. Unfortunately Zhitui did not give in and the fire killed him and his mother. Filled with remorse, Chong’er ordered that no fire will be lit for three days every year and people must eat cold food.

In Vietnam, the Cold Food Festival is mostly celebrated in spirit. People light the kitchen stoves, and instead of eating cold food, they cook trôi and chay cakes to offer their ancestors, friends and relatives. Trôi and chay cakes are both made of glutinous rice flour. The ingredients and the recipe are quite simple. To make the trôi cake, flour is kneaded into balls and stuffed with small pieces of dried treacle, and for the chay cake, flour is kneaded into flat rounds and stuffed with steamed, crushed green beans mixed with sugar and grated coconut.

Both cakes are then boiled in water until they float to the surface. The floating trôi cakes are taken out and immediately dipped in cold water so that they do not stick together. Trôi cakes are arranged in small round plates and sprinkled with fried sesame. Meanwhile, the chay cakes are placed in small bowls and sprinkled with fried sesame or green beans and served with an amber mixture of boiled kudzu flour, pomelo flower-scented water, and sugar. Both dishes are soft, sticky, sweet-smelling and most importantly, cool. Whether they are eaten on their own or as dessert after hot or spicy food, they live up to their traditional name, and soothe the palate and the stomach with their cooling effect.

In fact, in Hanoi, trôi and chay cakes nowadays are not only cooked for the Cold Food Festival, but have also become popular breakfast snacks that can be found everyday at many food stalls. Some of the best places to get trôi and chay cakes in Hanoi are: Pham Bang at 30 Hang Giay Street; Diep Beo at 52 Hang Dieu Street; a stall at 4 Hang Can Street; and another at 250 Bach Mai Street.

Some photos of people in Hanoi celebrating the festival:

A woman in Dich Vong Market selling glutinous rice flour

People can also enjoy the cakes at street stalls

Hanoi people celebrated Cold Food Festival with Troi and Chay Cakes

Cong Cake - a must-try rice specialty of Mekong Delta

Coming to the Mekong Delta, after cruising along canals, shopping on the floating market and cycling around orchards, tourists should enjoy many rustic specialties, of which cong cake is suggested as a must-try dish.

Cong is made of rice planted in the delta. The rice flour after being stirred with warm water for around 20 minutes will be added to green beans, potatoes and pork together with spices and fried onion. Then you put shrimp in the mix with flour soaked in oil and fried until it turns golden brown.

The cake is especially tasty when fragrant and crispy. Diners will have a mouthwatering dish when the cake is served with brassica juncea together with many kinds of aromatic vegetables. Fish sauce mixed with sugar, chili, garlic and lemon will complete the delectability of the dish. Crisp of flour, fragrance of rice and vegetables, light bitter of brassica juncea, sweetness of shrimp, fat of bean and morish sauce will bring revelers a gastronomic experience and a half.

In Can Tho, tourists can find the dish along De Tham, Nguyen Trai or Ly Tu Trong streets.

Cong Cake - a must-try rice specialty of Mekong Delta

Fresh seafood served in Vung Tau

Away from Vung Tau’s bustling front beach, one can round a bend on the Tran Phu coastal road and get clear of the city proper. On this stretch of shoreline looking out onto the open sea one can find some of Vietnam’s tastiest seafood, particularly at local favorite eatery Ganh Hao. Minimal signage directs you to this waterside hideaway, but a steady stream of patrons confirms you’re in the right place.

Grilled stuffed squid

A thick menu awaits you, with an extensive selection including clams, oysters, prawns and other favorites. The “slimed fish” we decided to steer clear of; I expect something was lost in translation on that one. My wife and I settle on three dishes: cha gio hai san (seafood spring rolls); squid with chilis, pepper and lime; and the seafood steamboat (hot pot). With waves gently lapping against the rocks, the spring rolls arrived with shrimp and squid filling. Vung Tau is definitely a central spot for squid, as every dish we ordered contained it in some capacity. This being a Sunday, the place filled up quickly.

The grilled squid was tender and chewy, a nice departure from some more rubbery variations I’ve had during my time in Vietnam. The seafood hotpot was an interesting variation on a Vietnamese favorite; the broth was seasoned with passion fruit, lending a bitter sweet aftertaste. That said, I prefer the traditional broth, but kudos for the effort. The clams, fish, shrimp and squid all tasted fresh from the ocean, washed down with a Saigon red. Only a minor hiccup with the service, being a bit slow to bring extra limes and hand towels, but otherwise the wait staff was attentive.

Most appetizers start at VND95,000, and the entree list tends to start from that figure too, although a lot of dishes were listed as “market price” which we didn’t try. Still, all told our meal came to just under VND450,000 for two people; at roughly US$23 for the both of us, Ganh Hao provides tasty seafood in a picturesque setting. Try it next time you’re hitting the coast.

Ganh Hao is open daily at 3 Tran Phu, Vung Tau.

Fresh seafood served in Vung Tau

Come to An Giang to taste Beef Tripe Porridge

Vinh Trung Commune, Tinh Bien District in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang is a place where farmers breed a lot of cows to serve agriculture and to provide meat for consumption. Therefore, this location is known for beef dishes that win tourists’ hearts, most famously tripe. This particular dish has two equally-popular specialties: tripe porridge and steamed tripe dipped in sauce.

Around the Cam Mountain area, there are many porridge shops near Vinh Trung market. However, the most popular is Ms. Nam Doi’s shop because she is the oldest porridge maker in the area. Moreover, her gruel is cooked from soc mien rice which is malleable and sweet-smelling. In addition, tripe must also be boiled with palm or coconut juice. Hence her tripe is very soft, aromatic and has a buttery taste. Ms. Nam’s tripe contains lean beef. Before enjoying the porridge, diners should add some finely-chopped chili and ginger. In addition, basil and other herbs are also used. These herbs give the porridge a very tempting smell.

A special fruit from the Cam Mountain area is chut. Its flavor will give the porridge a special smell and sour taste. The mouthwatering Vinh Trung stripe porridge has attracted many diners from around An Giang Province to come and enjoy it at the weekends. Gradually, though, many tourists visiting Nui Cam learned about this kind of porridge. Diners were amazed by the really good dish served inside a small countryside market and it has been popular ever since with tourists and locals alike.

At Ms. Nam Doi’s shop, beside stripe porridge there is also steamed stripe. If she serves porridge all day, the steamed stripe is served only from 3pm. It is presented in a flat winnowing basket with pineapples, carambola, acrid green bananas and accompanying herbs. According to Mrs. Nam, the area breeds many cows so the beef is very fresh and to keep the stripe warm, she dips the meat into the boiling palm soup once every 20 minutes.

This dish is suitable for both men and women, and male diners come there mostly to drink some beer while enjoying the soup, apparently they say this gives the steamed stripe a better taste. Although delicious, every bowl of porridge costs only VND20,000 and a dish of steamed stripe also costs from VND20,000 depending on the quantity ordered.

Come to An Giang to taste Beef Tripe Porridge

Special flavour of Bun Ken - Phu Quoc

Not only reknown for its fresh seafood, sim fruit wine and pepper,  Phu Quoc Island offshore Kien Giang Province is also famous for local dishes such as Bun Ken – a delicous noodle soup.

Bun Ken

  The delicacy can be found near Dinh Cau night market’s roundabout thanks to a street vendor named Ut Luom. The noodle dish has a similar taste to dishes made in Chau Doc or Can Tho with the ingredients of coconut juice, curry spices and lemongrass for a tasty soup. The seller uses thin and small noodles accompanied with bean sprouts, sliced cucumber and vegetables. Vendors in Phu Quoc use nhau or ngan fish (yellowtail scad) instead of loc fish like other regions and then cut the meat into slices and add spices before cooking. After that they grind the meat to guarantee the savory taste of the fish.

Gourmets to the streetside shop of Ms. Ut Luom will be served a bowl of bun ken covered with a layer of fermented papaya salad with fish and soup and vegetables underneath. It is recommended that diners enjoy the noodles in early morning to take away the cool of the sea and warm up their bodies.

Bun ken is priced at VND20,000 and is only available in the morning at Ut Luom’s foodshop at 87 April 30 Street, Duong Dong Town, Phu Quoc Island.

Special flavour of Bun Ken - Phu Quoc