Ly Son Island is now well known for its juicy, nutritious Ca nuc (round scads) which are now available and brought in by boats in abundance to the mainland.

Steamed round scads (Photo: Thanh Nien)

Ever since the Sa Ky Port-Ly Son high-speed waterway route opened for travel, the 18 mile distance has been cut short from three hours to only fifty minutes. Ly Son round scads are therefore available fresh as soon as they arrive on the mainland.

However, enjoying the round scads at the island soon after they are caught from the sea is even more enjoyable.

People of Ly Son usually process the round scads in two ways. One is by steaming them and serving with girdle cake. The other is by slowly simmering the fish on fire and eating it with hot rice.

After procuring the fresh fish straight from the boat, the round scads are washed thoroughly in a pan filled with fresh water, a scare commodity on the island during summer months, even when there is an abundance of round scads.

The fish gills and guts are removed to keep the silvery color of the fish scales to make it attractive in appearance when served.

Round scads are placed on a grill which is rubbed with a little oil to prevent the fish from sticking. The fish is then covered with a layer of spring onions before putting in a pot to steam.

About 20 minutes later, when a delicious aroma pervades the kitchen, the fish is taken out of the pot.

Each round scad is then rolled in a girdle cake with some slices of star fruit and served with fish sauce which is mixed with fragrant Ly Son garlic. The girdle cakes must be soft and pliable so as not to break while rolling with the fish.

The simmered dish is made by carefully marinating the fish before cooking it on a low fire until it dries out completely.

(Source: SGGP)

Boiled clams with salt and pepper is a delightful dish - Photo: Kim Loan

Simply cooked as they are, clam dishes require a skillful combination of hot spices like lemongrass, peppers, ginger or lemon leaves in order to be free from their fish smell, yet preserve their sweet taste.

After being caught, clams need to be soaked in rice water for two hours, cleanly washed and then cooked. If soaked too long, they will die.

Quang Nam has a coastline of 125 km with plenty of nice beaches such as Ha My (Dien Ban district), Cua Dai (Hoi An town), Binh Minh (Thang Binh district), Tam Thanh (Tam Ky town) and Bai Rang (Nui Thanh district).

The most popular and simple clam dish at these beaches is clams steamed with coconut milk. Visitors favor this dish for its delicious smell as well as its sweet taste.

Eating boiled clams with salt and pepper also brings the same charming flavor. The clam-boiled water can then be used for cooking a sapid pot of clam gruel, which combines the fat and sweet taste of clams with hot spices.

Nowadays, more sophisticated clam dishes can be found in luxurious restaurants. However, only when relaxing at the beach, breathing in the cool sea air can diners fully enjoy the wonderful taste of small clams.

(Source: SGTO)

Reported by Mai Linh – Thanhnien News

Collected by Vietnam hotel

With its rich culinary heritage and an exciting street food scene, Hanoi is a wonderful city for many delicious dishes.

They say that the way to man’s heart is through his stomach; cook him a good meal and he’s putty in your hands. I’d argue that somewhat similarly, residents of Hanoi are happiest at mealtimes, and many visitors fall in love with the city because of its incredible food. It’s a place that gets to you through the stomach!

For foreign guests and residents, if you want to understand Hanoi and its people, I’d argue that you have to understand the cuisine and enjoy discovering new foods. If you love food, you will love Hanoi; understand how people eat, and you’ll understand their nature.

Vietnamese people love to share a meal. Solitude is equated to loneliness. Anyone dining alone will be told “an mot minh dau tuc”, literally, you’ll hurt yourself by eating alone. But for the solo diners amongst you, fear not, you can always slip into the busiest restaurant and enjoy the buzz of jostling with your fellow diners over a bowl of pho or a plate of sticky rice. You’re alone, yes, but alone in a crowd.

The first rule for discovering Vietnamese food in Hanoi, is make sure you follow the crowds; the busier the restaurant, the better it probably is. Certain family run establishments are considered the place to eat certain foods. At peak hours, it should be hard to find a space at Hanoi’s best restaurants.

The second rule is that the best restaurants serve one basic staple – it’s often a one-dish-joint serving a ‘gia truyen’-specialty, a recipe passed on from one generation to the next.

Many of these dishes were originally created elsewhere. As a thousand-year old capital, people from the provinces have always been drawn to Hanoi, so the city has absorbed recipes and cooking techniques from all over the country.

One can loosely define Hanoian cuisine – generally the capital’s residents don’t care for sweet or spicy savoury food; there is a preference for fresh ingredients and subtle, pure flavours, and the fish sauce is served less diluted.

Certain dishes are year-round staples, such as pho (the nation’s signature noodle dish served with chicken or beef), bun cha (noodles served with slivers and patties of charcoal-grilled pork) or banh cuon (rice crepes filled with pork and woodear mushrooms). Other dishes are seasonal, perhaps, tied in with a festival, for example, banh chung (glutinous rice cakes stuffed with mung bean paste and pork and wrapped in a green banana leaf) is mostly served at Lunar New Year. During Mid-Autumn Festival (Tet Trung Thu), you will see mooncakes, sweet and savoury cakes filled with various things, including bean paste, salted egg, or preserved fruits and meats.

Other foods are associated with the lunar calendar. Eating dog meat – served in seven different ways at dog restaurants – at the end of the lunar month is considered a good way to wash away any lingering bad luck that might have been affecting you. The dog restaurants on Au Co road are often heaving with customers, mostly men, as this protein-rich meat is also considered to be “good for a man”.

On the full moon of the first and the seventh lunar months, Hanoians often cook xoi vo (steamed sticky rice with split peas) and che duong (green bean and sugar compote). When worshipping ancestors, boiled chicken with lemon leaves is a must. For a wedding, you cannot be without banh com (Sticky rice cakes with green bean paste) or xu xe/ phu the (Husband and wife sticky rice cakes).

Hanoi people love seafood, too. The city’s favourite fish dish is probably cha ca, which is famously served by a gruff family at Cha ca La Vong restaurant on Cha ca street in the Old Quarter. It is featured in every guidebook ever written about Hanoi. However, cha ca is now available in other restaurants and locals in the know complain that the quality of food at Cha ca La Vong has waned.

Bun oc (noodles and snails), banh tom (prawn fritters), ca kho to (caramelised fish cooked and served in a claypot), and mien luon or mien cua (glass noodles served with eel or crab meat) are also much loved in Hanoi. You can find seafood restaurants serving all kinds of shellfish – crabs, lobsters, oysters, clams and scallops, which are often simply steamed or grilled and served with a mixture of lime, pepper, salt and an optional diced chili for dipping.

New dishes are constantly surfacing, too. In recent years pho cuon, sheets of banh pho, wrapped around either beef or shrimp, has suddenly emerged as one of the city’s most popular meals. However, the ultimate communal dish is perhaps lau (hotpot), always popular in wintertime. Friends and families gather around a steaming pot filled with a vegetable or meaty broth and toss in fish, meat, eggs, vegetables, squid, or prawns – just about anything at all!

It’s hard to write about food in Hanoi without feeling like you’re only scratching the surface. As the city celebrates 1,000 years since its birth, you could probably name a 1,000 dishes to honour the capital’s millennium.

The city’s culinary heritage has been noticeably influenced by a few old foes over the years. Some people argue that pho is the product of both French and Chinese influences. From the former came the notion of using beef stock and beef in the style of pot-au-feu; from the latter perhaps the noodles and the use of star anise and ginger. Using beef would have been quite extravagant 100 years ago, so one theory is that the Vietnamese only started putting beef in their noodle soup to please the French colonists.

The French certainly left their fingerprints in the Vietnamese pantry and beverage department – you can find banh my (crusty baguette) served with pâté. The words for butter (bo, pronounced ‘buh’), coffee (ca phe), beer (bia) and cheese (pho mat) are clearly derived from the French language.

Today, many French chefs are inspired by Vietnam’s indigenous ingredients and recipes. Restaurants such as La Badiane, Green Tangerine and La Verticale are creating a vibrant amalgam of French haute cuisine infused with local flavours and ingredients. These restaurants are something of a sub-genre but they are also encouraging some high-end travelers to venture further and discover more about Vietnam’s culinary arts.

As Vietnam’s reputation grows, more and more people are discovering the country’s incredible cuisine, much of which is exceedingly healthy. Visitors to Hanoi are enthusiastically signing up for cookery classes, in the hope of learning how to create a local dish or two. Rather than buying a conical hat or a silk ao dai as a souvenir that will be stashed away and never worn back home, tourists can now pick up some noodles and fish sauce in the local Asian market and whip up a delicious bowl of bun cha, they learned to make on their holiday.

That way they’ll remember Hanoi as they first experienced it – right in the stomach.

Timeout/VOVNews

White Rose dumplings

Second is Cao Lau, a noodle and beef soup with bean sprouts and fresh herbs mixed in when it arrives at the table. The noodles are only available in Hoi An because they are made from a particular water source that gives them their unique texture. The noodles are a bit doughy but the dish is truly delectable because the meat is marinated and tastes a bit of cinnamon. And the fresh herbs are amazing…mint and basil, I believe.

Cao Lau served with rice crackers.

Finally, crispy rice pancakes, known as “Banh Xeo”, which consist of a fried pancake, kind of like a rice crepe, with bean sprouts and shrimp inside. The dish is served with all sorts of fresh herbs which you put inside the pancake and then wrap in a thin piece of rice paper. It’s topped off by dipping in an amazing spicy peanut sauce. To die for.

Crispy rice pancake with fresh herbs, ready to be rolled

A rolled pancake, ready for dipping!

Hoi An also makes a delightful fried won ton, showing the Chinese influence on this old port town. I for one am glad, because they are darn good.

Okay, they look a bit funky, but are basically fried yumminess wrapped around a meat center with veggies and sauce on top

During this trip I’ve also grown a slight obsession for squid, which I eat nearly every day. I’ve tried just about every type of squid you could imagine and my favorite thus far came from a food stand in Hoi An called “Mr. Hung.” I ordered squid grilled in a banana leaf with onions, garlic and lemongrass. It was so tender and delicious that I ate the entire thing. The ladies cooking the food made fun of me and said, mostly through sign language, that if I ate squid like that everyday I’d get fat!!

My squid is somewhere in that banana leaf, which is in a wire basket being grilled on an open flame….heaven.

The final dish…

Both Betsy and I agreed that Morning Glory was the best restaurant we visited in Hoi An. The food was simple, fresh and absolutely amazing. The proprietress of the restaurant cooks family food the way her mother taught her. I want to live at her house! She said that fresh herbs are such a strong cultural influence that many Vietnamese will start to feel homesick if they cannot have fresh herbs everyday. It’s true that most food comes with a plate of herbs which makes a huge difference in the quality of the dish.

Betsy ordered this interesting dish at Morning Glory…a shrimp coconut curry actually cooked in a young coconut. The sauce was slightly sweet and unbelievably flavorable.

The Vietnamese do not eat sweet breakfasts like we do in the states. One staple of their diet is “congee” which is a rice porridge with either fish, chicken or pork. It’s savory and quite good! The coffee here is also fantastic, albeit a little strong. It will seriously put hair on your chest so they dilute it with sweetened condensed milk! And it comes with a little coffee filter perched on the cup. Seriously delicious.

Congee for breakfast with a cup of coffee in the background. I love the little coffee filter so it can brew right at the table!

Another item that is everywhere in Vietnam is “pho,” pronounced “fer.” This is a simple noodle soup, traditionally with beef but you can get it with chicken or veggies, that is once again served with a pile of bean sprouts and fresh herbs you mix in at the table. Fantastic.

“Pho”, aka noodle soup, with a plate of fresh herbs and some fresh coconut water. You can’t get much healthier than that!

Finally, I tried a traditional Vietnamese dessert called “Che” which is basically a sweet green bean soup. It’s actually made with mung beans and is only slightly sweet but quite good! No wonder the Vietnamese are so slender! They even eat veggies for dessert!!

Eating my sweet green bean soup, served cold in a glass

I reluctantly leave the food of Vietnam behind…and will seek out Vietnamese restaurants in the states as soon as I return!

Nestled in the Gulf of Thailand, just off the southern coast of Cambodia, Phu Quoc in Kien Giang Province is often described as Vietnam’s “pearl island.”

Indeed, Phu Quoc is prized for its unspoiled beaches and stunning natural vistas. Every year, hordes of international tourists flock to explore its red clay back roads and pristine beaches.

Few of them know, however, that one of Vietnam’s most tranquil spots is also home to some of its most pungent flavors.

Phu Quoc is a major producer of nuoc mam (fish sauce), but it also turns out some deliciously fishy dishes.

Herring salad

It would be a pity to visit the island without tasting goi ca trich (herring salad).

The residents of Phu Quoc fish all year long. So it’s no surprise that a kind of Vietnamese ceviche serves as the island staple.

Many families toss fresh-caught herring with lemon juice, chopped chilies and thinly sliced onions for lunch or dinner.

Herring is notorious for its fishiness. But the freshness of Phu Quoc’s terrestrial ingredients balances the pungent fish flavors wonderfully.

Locals wrap the “salad” in the island’s thick and pliant rice paper. Fresh forest vegetables and shredded coconut are also rolled into the mix.

Once rolled, these delicious items are typically dipped into the local fish sauce – which is made entirely from anchovies. Nuoc mam Phu Quoc is prized for its “cockroach wing color,” mild flavor and year-long fermentation process, which begins on the boat, the moment the fish are caught.

Goi ca trich is typically served with a dipping bowl of finely-ground chili, garlic and roasted peanuts floating in a splash of the island’s fish sauce.

While the prospect of eating semi-raw herring may daunt some diners, the combination of flavors here should put you at ease. When properly rolled up with all the fixings, the herring tastes crisp and sweet and the vegetables add a pleasant crunch. The fresh coconut meat is usually the greasiest part of the roll!

Goi ca trich can be found on the menu of every seaside shack and luxury restaurant in Phu Quoc.

Thanks to a boom in tourism, the dish has made its way to Ho Chi Minh City.

Herring junkies in the southern hub should consider paying a visit to Tieu Ngu Restaurant, which features 30 herring dishes on its menu.

How do you wash down fish salad?

Sim (rose myrtle fruit) may offer the best compliment to the salty spice of goi ca trich.

The wine is derived from ripe myrtle fruits, which grow wild in Phu Quoc’s primitive forests. The fruits have a guava-like flavor, and are chock full of sugar and seeds.

Sim wine is typically made by grinding the fruits with sugar, and letting them ferment until the liquid turns a lush pink.

Because of its sweetness and low alcohol content, sim wine is typically a ladies’ drink. But when eating fermented fishy things, it is suitable for everyone.

Customers can enjoy authentic herring salad at the following restaurants:

• In Phu Quoc (Kien Giang Province)

VUON TAO

Cua Lap Hamlet, Duong To Commune

SANG TUOI

Number 3, 30 Thang 4 Street, Duong Dong Town

TRUNG DUONG

Quarter 1, 30 Thang 4 Street, Duong Dong Town

• In Ho Chi Minh City:

TIEU NGU

780 Su Van Hanh Street, Ward 12, District 10

Source: Thanh Nien

Roasted Highland carp

Carp abounds in the rivers and lakes of the northwestern highlands.

In the mountains, humongous bighead carp are often roasted in the traditional style. The fish is cleaned and rubbed with salt. The body is then stuffed with chopped garlic, onion, coriander and mac khen – the region’s trademark condiment.

Mac khen, also known as ‘jungle pepper,’ is a seed known for its naturally salty, piquant flavor. The seed has been used for centuries, particularly by Thai tribesmen as a natural alternative to salt.

Traditionally, the fish is speared with a skewer and roasted over hot coals to release its strong flavors combined with the herbs.

Com lam Tay Bac

Com lam Tay Bac is sticky rice cooked in a bamboo tube.

The dish originated in the forests, when tribesmen had to make long journeys through the woods.

Even today, locals soak rice with a little glutinous rice, and stuff the mix into a cloth bag to take with them on long walks through the forest.

In the woods, they fill a small segment of bamboo with the soaked rice mix and cap the ends tightly with leaves. The tube is placed above fire to steam and imbue the glutinous rice with the gentle flavors and fragrance of bamboo.

Ga den H’mong

Ga den H’mong or “black H’mong chicken” is derived from a special sort of bird. The chicken, known as a “silkie” in the West thanks to its wispy white tufts of feathers, has been celebrated as a remarkable dining experience in kitchens across the world.

According to a 2007 New York Times article, it has even become something of a delicacy in the Big Apple.

The small, lean bird is traditionally stewed whole in medicinal leaves and comes out entirely black, from claws to beak. The bird’s tender meat is known for its rich, gamy flavor.

Its traditional preparation is known to imbue the bird with invigorating health properties.

An urban take on northwest flavors

With the rustic cuisine of the highlands coming to restaurants in HCMC and Hanoi, urban diners can enjoy the heartiest flavors of the mountains, and be transported to a different place altogether. The following restaurants feature authentic decorations and staff costumes, which give diners the feeling of being in an exotic locale.

For a genuine highlands experience, have your meals with ruou can (traditional mountain wine). The beverage is prepared by fermenting sticky rice or corn and a combination of medicinal herbs and roots in earthen jars. Ruou can is sipped through long slender straws of bamboo tubes.

** Discover the new mountainous flavors and  culture at the following restaurants:

Hoa Ban
101/45 Nguyen Huu Tho Street, Nha Be District, HCMC
Tel: (08) 6 299 1068

Khen La
17B Mai Thi Luu Street, District 1, HCMC
Tel: (08) 3 824 2432

Bac Ha
104/74 Nguyen Chi Thanh Street, Hanoi
Tel: (04) 2 240 9839 ]]> http://vietnamtravelblog.com/2010/12/07/eating-like-a-mountain-man/feed/ 0 http://vietnamtravelblog.com/2010/10/30/the-intoxicating-world-of-vietnam%e2%80%99s-rice-wine-culture/ http://vietnamtravelblog.com/2010/10/30/the-intoxicating-world-of-vietnam%e2%80%99s-rice-wine-culture/#comments Sat, 30 Oct 2010 07:38:19 +0000 admin http://vietnamtravelblog.com/?p=1161