Mekong Delta Cuisines

Come to Mekong delta to enjoy special dishes and fruits which manifest the culture of people in river areas, you will surely have a passion and never forget those charming flavours though you just enjoyed once.

 

Bun Nuoc Leo Soc Trang

 

Soc Trang is one of the prosperous provinces in the southwest of Vietnam where three communities of the Viet, Hoa (Ethnic Chinese) and Khmer have lived together friendly for years. The people of Soc Trang are also typically diligent and hard working; in fact, both Vuong Hong Sen, a renowned scholar, and Dr. Luong Dinh Cua, an agronomist, were born in Soc Trang.

 

In general, Soc Trang is well known throughout Vietnam because of the traditional Khmer music. Moreover, the distinctive Occ Om Bok Festival, which is listed as one of the national festivals, is annually celebrated in Soc Trang. Also, the people of Soc Trang have recently contributed to Vietnam’s winning of gold, silver, and bronze medals during the Dragon Boat Championships in China and Singapore. Besides the culture and society, Soctrang is also distinguished by its special dishes, and snacks such as “Banh Cong” (deep-fried) of Dai Tam, Vung Thom Bean Cake, Nhu Gia Prawn Crackers, Bun Nuoc Leo of Soc Trang, and Phu Tam Chinese Sausage. 

 

Ideally, the following part of this article embraces a brief introduction of the so-called Bun Nuoc Leo. Bun Nuoc Leo, which is also known as “Bun Mam” is the most popular dish of Soc Trang. The main ingredient of Bun Nuoc Leo is primarily based on fermented fish. The blend of rich and savoury flavours of fermented fish entirely stimulates the beautiful taste of “Bun Nuoc Leo”. Originally, Bun Nuoc Leo is one of the favourite dishes of the Indigenous Khmer. It is widely imparted throughout Soc Trang using Mam Pra-Hooc (one kind of fermented fish) as the main ingredient to produce a heady and rich broth. Likewise, the Hoa and Viet prefer Mam Sac, a slightly heady fermented fish, as the alternative ingredient in order to preserve the original taste of Bun Nuoc Leo.

 

The procedure of making Bun Nuoc Leo is quite important. Firstly, fermented fish is boiled in filtered water in a pot until its flesh is totally crumbled, then carefully filtered it through a fine sieve to produce savoury and rich liquor. This liquor is an essential component of Bun Nuoc Leo. Next, the mixture of chicken broth and coconut juice is vital to produce a soupy concoction using chicken bones (pork bones as the substitution). During this process, we add several lightly-crushed lemongrasses and ngai bun (known as Krachai or Chinese Keys) which are the adherent ingredients to produce exactly the taste of Nuoc Leo. Besides, eliminating the air bubbles is a crucial step to produce a clear broth. As a result, the enriched mixture of the savoury liquor of fermented fish, sweetness of chicken broth, pungent flavour of lemongrasses, and tasty essence of krachai characterise the compelling broth, called “Nuoc Leo”. 

 

Tasting is another important stage, depending on taste: add a bit more salt or sugar to meet the preferred flavor, however, adding fish sauce is not necessary. Next, turn off the heat and leave the broth cooling down until it leaves a deposit of sediment underneath. Afterwards, pour the broth into another pot without sediment and reheat it.

 

An Giang Specialities

 

Phu My Phong Cake (Glutinous Rice Chupatty)

The Phu My trade village of Phong cake has formed, existed and developed for nearly 70 years. Phu My Phong cake is as small as a dish but becomes bigger than a bamboo tape fan after being baked. The cake is spongy and soft. It sounds good to bite the cake because of the greasy taste of glutinous rice, the sweet taste of sugar, the scent of milk, sesame, soy-been, peanut etc. which makes a specific taste and it is integral in the meals on Tet (lunar new year) holidays or in a dinner, wedding. If one has an occasion to visit An Giang, Phu My Phong cake is an significant gift for tourists to bring back and give to relatives.

 

Tri Ton Rice Gruel with Beef in An Giang

Bay Nui beef is delicious because of careful rearing. Therefore, tourists who come to this area always enjoy incomparable palatable dishes processed from beef. The famous and delicious food is beef stir-fried with Vang leaves. By visiting Nha Ban, tourists can enjoy a dish of beef stir-fried with Vang leaves and full “tu hu” in a satiable way. Coming to Tri Ton town, tourists will enjoy a both familiar and strange light meal of rice gruel with beef. Besides leisurely chewing rare reddened thin slices of beef which are put on the top bow of rice gruel, they also enjoy the taste of tripes.

 

Pickled Young Mango in An Giang

Cat Chu young mango is steeped in salty water and later in alum water for being crispy. Mix the mango with refined sugar and expose it to the sun for one day and put it and capsicum into a vase for steeping. This pickled mango is crispy with both bitter and sweet tastes of sugar and salt. The pickled young mango is a popular specialty appearing recently in Cho Moi district of An Giang province. Biting a piece of pickled young mango tastes both crispy and bitter without any more sour taste from the young mango. Besides it also has sweet taste and salty taste, which surely makes tourists a wonderful feeling when enjoying it.

 

Chau Doc Mam (Salted Fish)

Mam is one of the most popular dishes in the Mekong delta. But it is in Chau Doc where mam is shown its plenty as an original kind of food. Chau Doc mam becomes a special product of An Giang province. By visiting Chau Doc market, a tourist can easily see more than 30 kinds of mam. Some kinds can be instant after adding some raw materials such as shrimp paste, Thai mam, ba khia (small sea crab) mam, mam tom (another kind of shrimp paste), mam tep (tiny shrimp paste), mam cong (fresh water small crab). Some must be processed through many stages such as mam sat, catfish mam, mam loc (blackfish sauce), anabas mam, mam tren, mam ca linh, mam ca chot, mam chuot, mam ca com (anchovy), mam ca thieu, mam ca long tong (rasbora), mam ca me vinh, mam ca tren la, mam ca tren mo, mam ca tren bau. Arriving in Chau Doc, tourists often buy mam ruot which was made initially from gut and spawn of ophiocephalus maculates and thus became rare.

 

Porpoise of Lower Mekong Delta

The porpoise is processed into 4 dishes. The first and simple one is grilled porpoise meat. To make it a little bit more sophisticatedly is to cook propoise meat with brine in a container. The pungent spice of ground pepper, the sweet of porpoise meat, the fatty taste of propoise fat, the salty of salt and fish sauce and the sweet of sugar all are mixed to become a wonderful taste in our mouths. It is unknown when we feel full to have this dish with rice. A hot pot of porpoise meat and nematode rice is a dish both to have in a meal and to have a drink when friends gather. How wonderful it is to eat this dish with clean vegetable of sesbania sesban flowers. The sweet of the fish and the crispy taste of sesbania sesban flowers which are mixed with the sour taste of nematode rice all make the meal interesting. Sesbania sesban flowers which are tossed slightly in vinegar are suitable to have with porpoise meat cooked unsalted with young early tamarind. This is also a dish both to have in a meal and to have in a drink and amazes tourists from afar!

 

Dried inflating Pangasius hypophthalmus meat

Unlike other dried foods, dried inflating pangasius hypophthalmus meat is only for frying not for grilling. In order to have a piece of dried pangasius hypophthalmus meat fried inflatedly with crispy scented and fatty tastes, frying it with cool water is the most original. Pour water into a pan and then boil and put the dried pangasius hypophthalmus meat into it. Before the water becomes dry, turn the dried pangasius hypophthalmus meat back and forth for several times, which makes the meat inflate and look golden, scented and fatty.

 

Delicious Food in Bay Nui (Seven Mounts) Area

Visiting Bay Nui area in An Giang, there is also a delicious dish called Soc-rice spaghetti (cooked with shrimp, crab or meat) in Vinh Trung commune besides some famous dishes such as rice gruel with beef in Tri Ton district and mam of many kinds in Chau Doc. The Soc qualitative rice of Bay Nui is tilled by Bay Nui Khmer community in the field surrounding mountains feet. The rice flour which makes the rice spaghetti curve is also supple, scented and tasty.

 

Palm Milk

Cold palm includes palm milk and palm pulp. The palm milk is taken from its flowers. This is a tree growing up a lot in the area. The fresh pure palm milk tastes sweet. Palms which are plucked in a bunch are then splitted for pulp to be frozen. Palm pulp tastes fatty, tasty and has good smell.

 

Antelaea Azadirachta Salad

It is a pity for someone not to have antelaea azadirachta salad when coming to Long Xuyen of An Giang. This is only a unique dish in Long Xuyen. The softly bitter taste of antelaea azadirachta leaves with the pig’s ear boiled and sliced, dried trichgaster pectorakilis meat torn to pieces, some shrimps scalded in boiled water, green mango sliced into small pieces, liquid mixture of salty sweet sour pungent tastes. South Vietnam has many salads that all have sufficient tastes: salty, sweet, sour, pungent, which are forgotten easily. But the pungent bitter sweet buttery tastes of antelaea azadirachta salad will not be forgettable.

 

Ca Mau Specialities

 

Rach Goc Special Crab

Rach Goc crab has had a brand name from the ancient time because the crabs in this locality are actually more delicious than those of other places. The seventh and eighth months of every lunar celendar are the crab season. This crab eats the fallen fruits of avicennia germinans, so it has ochre crab-roe and its meat tastes scented and is firmer than other places. The crabs after being caught are washed and salted on the spot. After salt penetrates the crabs for 5 to 7 days, they can be edible.

 

Besides, the crabs are processed by boiling with citronella and are eaten with a sauce. The sauce which is processed simply but very special includes chopped citronella mixed with nematode rice, a little capsicum for pungent flavour and a little spice. With this eating way, the crabs taste sweet and scented since the mixture of tear gas from the capsicums, citronella and sour taste and strong gas from nematode rice. Boiled crabs which are eaten with sauce are integral dish for tourists.

 

Grilled Clam dipped in Mixture of Salt and Pepper

This dish brings both special flavour and endless happiness for tourists from everywhere. Clam in Ca Mau is rare now because it become an valuable and rare dish. Selecting clams and wash them, leave them to dry off, arrange them in a plate. The spice includes salt, pepper, sodium glutamate and vegetables. When the brazier is on fire, put it on the table and place a grilling frame on it. After that it is possible to put many clams on the frame at the same time. This dish can be served for many people wonderfully in amenity of a feast. When the clams open its mouths, this means they are just done and very sweet to eat at the time. If the clams are grilled overdone, they become dried and their meat is tough and taste vapid.

 

U Minh Salted Fish Hotpot

The main materials of U Minh salted fish hot pot is salted trichogaster pectoralis (good one). The salted trichogaster pectoralis is cooked until its meat and bone are separated. Take all bones out, putting enough sodium glutamate and sugar into the hot pot. In order to rise it smell, people add some chopped citronella and its beaten root to the hot pot. The secret to make the hot-pot sauce fatty, scented and viscid is that people add a little milk instead of sugar. It depends on our liking that the hot pot is added pork or fish. But U Minh hot pot must include fresh fish meat. The most delicious and right ones are eal, anabas meat, ophiocephalus maculates or white catfish.

 

Besides fish meat, the hot pot can be added fresh water crab meat, snails, half fat and half lean meat. The most interesting thing in eating the hot pot is to enjoy many vegetables. The hot pot is a dish that collects the wildest vegetables. It may be right to say that there is not any dish which is eaten with as many vegetables as the hot pot in the world.

 

Ca Mau Shrimp

Shrimp is the special gift of the sea for those from inland to visit island. Shrimp meat tastes both delicious and sweet, brings sea scent and is different to the tastes of sugpo prawn and lobster etc. The way of processing the shrimp is simple. Steaming, boiling or grilling shrimps and dip them in the mixture of salt, pepper and lemon or fish sauce with tamarind and sugar can attract tourists from everywhere. Skillful people with high spirit in enjoying food will find a way of pressing the shrimp and dry it under the sun and consider it a an extremely good dish for serving guests or friends.

 

Fried chopped Cuttle Spawn in Ending Land

Cuttle spawn is fried to make cha with yellow color as roasted cinnamon pork. It looks nice and smells specific scent. Cha is cut into slices of finger shape and set on the table with dill and girdle cake. Roll one by one and dip in fish sauce or mixture of salt, pepper and lemon. This specialty which brings eaters the softness of vegetables, toughness of girdle cake, viscidity, spong and fat of cuttle spawn cannot be mistaken for any other dishes.

 

U Minh Crabs in Tamarind Sauce

In order to have this delicious crabs in tamarind sauce, caught crabs can lively crawl and be washed. Separate their plastrons and cut their legs and put them into a hot oil frying pan and then add garlic to create scent. The dark color of crabs turns gradually red and then scarlet and looks very nice. Make tamarind sauce thick with not too much water and then add sugar, salt, sodium glutamate etc. for delicious taste. After that, pour it into the pan of crabs on the slight fire for the spice to penetrate crabs. Well-done crabs have good smell. Place them in a plate and sprinkle the plate with roasted peanuts and persicaria. Enjoying crabs in tamarind sauce with crispy taste, sweet and firm meat and sour pungent fatty tastes will have a strange feeling. One who eats the dish too much still desires its special scent and tastes.

 

Vinh Long Specialities

 

Vinh Long is the province that plants most rambutant trees. So the province has different varieties of rambutans: “troc” rambutans have round and long shape and have dark red color when they turn ripe, soft thorns, white inside, sweet taste; Java rambutans have round shape and short thorns, scented sweet white crispy pulp; longan rambutant is smaller than the 2 above and has yellow chrome mixed with a little green when turning ripe. Its pulp is white and tastes sweet, and smells ripe-longan scent which is admired by many people. Binh Hoa Phuoc rambutan tastes sweet with little seed and sometimes smells longan scent which Southerners have a passion for let alone Northeners.

 

Long An Specialities

 

Duc Hoa Peanut

If you visit Duc Hoa during upcoming days of Lunar New year, you will have a chance to see a beautiful scene of groundnut fields. The immense fields look like to be coated with a very green dress. Many clusters of light yellow flower flourish under verdant foliages. You would find out something very interesting about groundnut plant if you have keen eyes. Let’s have a close view you will see peanut fruits are formed terrestrially after their flowers are pollinated. After that these fruits will go down underground and grow up.

Nowadays, peanut plant is the primary plant of Duc Hoa and Duc Hue during dry season.

 

Lap Xuong Can Giuoc (Chinese Sausage)

Lap xuong Can Giuoc is good popular because of the way it is made. Hot, fresh lean pork was mixed with spices right after it is taken from the slaughterhouse. If you are astronomer, you can possess the best kind, which is made from intestines of over 80kg pigs and being scraped as thin as nylon for the cover layer. The special thing is that this kind of sausage is dried by heat not by air. It should be put over the smolder fire from 10 to 12 hours for it becomes shrunk and totally dry, also because of that method, Lap Xuong Can Giuoc is delicious and can be kept for a long time but not intense oil.

 

Go Den Wine

Go Den wine is a kind of white wine, which is made of rice with traditional processing method, alcohol concentration is quite high, sometimes it reach to 50o , this famous national wine of Viet Nam is made in Go Den, Ben Luc, Long An Province. This is a specialty of Long An and even Cuu Long Delta River provinces and it could be made of many kind of sticky rice like Nep Mo, Nep Than or Nep gao.

 

Dragon Fruit

Dragon fruit is one of special fruit in this locality, which has high value of nutrition and economy. Visitors will be interested by scene of Dragon fruit plants climbing on coral trees like green dragons hold red ripe fruits in their mouths, they can also enjoy the beauty of the garden or the fresh and sweet of the fruit itself.

 

Hau Giang Specialities

 

Cau Duc Pineapple

For over one hundred years, Cau Duc pineapple has been farmer’s main crop plant of Hoa Tien commune, Vi Thanh town, Hau Giang province, now becomes a speciality and a nationwide oncoming product. 

 

Cau Duc pineapple is Qeen pineapple. When the first cement concrete bridge was built up, the inhabitants were very excited to call this place Cau Duc village. And the pineapple is soon called Cau Duc pineapple. 

 

Cai Tac Pig’s Tripes Soup

Cai Tac is a town of Tan Phu Thanh commune, Chau Thanh A district, Hau Giang province. Besides the scenery of busy water traffic whenever market is open up, full seasonal fruits, there are delicious foods at popular price, especially pig’s tripes soup. It can be said that Cai Tac pig’s tripes soup is not only famous in the home province but also throughout the Mekong Delta. Anyone who tastes this soup once says the most delicious! And whenever passing here, they must have come over for a bowl of pig’s tripes soup. The inhabitants have their breakfast with a bowl of pig’s tripes soup before starting for work.

 

Sweety Nam Roi Grapefruit (Sweety 5-lash Grapefruit)

From a common fruit tree, which was planted by curious people more than half century ago, Nam Roi Grapefruit in Phu Huu commune, Chau Thanh district, Hau Giang province has been famous and prestigious to consumers thanks to its quality, nice look and high supply capacity.

 

Choai Sprout

Coming to Vi Thanh – Hau Giang, tourists shall be served the dishes made from Choai sprout at certain restaurants: Choai sprout served with hot pots of Ngat fish, salmon…The most simple dish of Choai sprout is served as salad, mixed with fish sauce, salad dressing, and red pepper, or boiled and served with soya sauce, braised fish sauce, braised meat sauce or mam nem (a type of fish sauce made from small fish or small shrimps) deliciously. Don’t forget to leave the water of boiled Choai sprout, this water, which is added a little salt, monosodium glutamate, shall be a delicious hot soup after the interesting meal. However, the most delicious Choai sprout is served as salad or boiled and served with That Lat Cuom (bead red pargo), a speciality of Hau Giang, fried anabas, baked Loc fish. “a little bit better” Choai sprout is stir fried with small shrimps. Choosing some river small shrimps, then purifying, shelling and stir frying with choai sprout, trying if its tasty, you have a fast, delicious, healthy, cheap and safe dish, because Choai sprout is a “fresh vegetable” 

 

That Lat Cuom Fish (Beady Red Pargo)

It is said that “missing to taste That Lat Cuom fish when traveling in Hau Giang is a great regret”. Dishes of That Lat fish are available in the most restaurants in Hau Giang. Hau Giang people consider That Lat fish as a proud speciality of the province.

 

Long Tri Sweety Tangerine

Long Tri, a region along the banks of a beautiful small river is in Long My. There are consecutive orchards forming a special region of fruits. In the tangerine crop, you not only taste sweety tangerines but also Dong Tien sweety oranges. There are 50 year tangerines producing fruits enduringly here. Long Tri sweety tangerines are famous for the big size, thin cover, sweety juice and can be kept for days.

 

Soc Trang Specialities

 

Pia Cake

The most special dish in Soc Trang is pia cake with sweet taste and pure scent of durian. It is one speciality of the rivery South. Pia cake has a round and flat shape with many thin covers surrounding the inside of green peas (or taro, jams), pork fat, the yolk of salted duck egg etc. Soc Trang pia cake is not as dry and rigid as other pia cake in other places.

 

My Xuyen Bun Nuoc Leo (Rice Vermicelli with Sauce)

A bowl of bun nuoc leo has its own special taste because the way the sauce is processed. The sauce is made of coconut milk and salted trichogaster pectoralis flavour. The sauce pot must be transparent though it has salted trichogaster pectoralis flavour. The salty flavour and smell of salted trichogaster pectoralis adhered to the sweet flavour of coconut milk not sugar as some eateries often do now. This is also the secret of sauce pot for sousing on rice vermicelli. On the top surface of a bun nuoc leo bowl is spawn of ophiocephalus maculates which should not be integral in creating a fatty special taste and a nice yellow. Therefore, in dry season when ophiocephalus maculates have no spawn, bun nuoc leo bowl reduce its half delicious taste.

 

Grilled Flattened Rice

Grilled rice, a common dish, is also a dish associated with culture and beliefs of Khmer community in the South.

 

In order to have this dish, Khmer peasants have to go to rice field to select rice which just turns to enter ripe stage (common people call it “dot dot”) on the tenth month of lunar calendar. The rice then is good because it still keeps its smell and is soft. This rice is brought home and put into a pan for roasting and then put it into a mortar for pounding until its husk is peeled. Because the rice is not ripe yet, it becomes flat. That’s why it is called grilled flattened rice.

 

Tra Vinh Specialities

 

Sap Coconut

Sap coconut is also called coconut with thick pulp. Sap coconut is similar to ordinary coconut in form, but its pulp is very thick and sometimes fills most of the inside. The remaining coconut milk is as thick as glue.

 

Sap coconut pulp is as soft and viscid as condensed flour. In order to tell sap coconut and ordinary coconut apart, we use the back of a knife blade to knock on coconut shell. If it is a clear sound, it is ordinary coconut. But if it is an unclear sound or a heavy sound, it is sap coconut.

 

A bunch of coconuts from sap coconut tree usually contains 4 to 5 sap coconuts and even no sap coconuts. Sap coconut is used to make vitamin or we scrape the coconut pulp out to mix with milk and ice. One who ate sap coconut once would never forget its scent and fatty taste.

 

Tra Vinh Grilled Meat Roll

When pork is just splitted warmly, the maker has to clean the pork with a clean cloth. After that, the pork is sliced and put into a stone mortar for pulverizing (by hand) not putting into a grinder like other places. The pork is pulverized until it wants to move out of the mortar. The fat is also cleaned by clean cloth and sliced slimly. Mix the spice with pork and fat (the spice is her secret which cannot present here) and then leave it at a breezy place for the pork to be clear and have nice color. When grilling, he crumples the pork into balls and threads the balls with sticks. Each stick has 5 balls. In eating grilled meat roll, besides its toughness and deliciousness, everything around the dish is important. There must be sour carambola, sliced acrid panama, turnip, carrot, and sliced young ginger preserved in vinegar mixed with sugar (remember that young ginger is integral); salad, dill, sliced cucumber, pickled splitted garlic. To eat this dish we need good soya sauce in which the process must includes sugar and overdone green peas for increasing the fatty taste.

 

Loi Choi with Citronella and Pimento

Loi choi has a cylinder body like a chopstick. People often embalm it with salt and dry in under the sun and then fry it with citronella and pimento. Fresh alive loi choi or dried one which is grilled on coal fire is the most delicious dish. The fat from its body spurt out with good smell. Keep the curved choi loi with its hot fat and raise it to our mouths and bite it. The fatty taste of loi choi fat, smell of citronella and pimento etc. and chewing tough loi choi meat and having a little strong alcohol is interested.

 

Quach Fruit

Quach fruit is as round as a plastic ball that children play. It has grey color with many spots on it. When Quach fruit just turns ripe, it smells a lot. Though its smell is not same as that of decandrous persimmon, it arouses the smell of many people. Leaving it for a few days or a week, it will be soiled soft. Its skin has grey color and is soft. Holding a knife and plit slightly, we can see many tiny spots in violet color. Using a spoon to ladle out into a glass and add sugar, milk and planed ice, we will have a strange-taste drink. A spoon of Quach fruit is put into the mouth, it smell wafts our noses. Its sour taste makes our tongues rapture. The sweet of sugar and the fatty of milk spread our jaws comfortably.

 

Vinh Kim dried Shimp

Vinh Kim dried shrimp is made of the shrimp caught in cells in Vinh Kim field. The process must have many stages like selecting shrimps, boiling with proper fire, drying under sun in a right way. In order to dry shrimps as required, the drying yard must be concreted. Place shrimps on the yard to preserve its red color without any break and shabbiness. The secret of processing Vinh Kim dried shrimp is to create specific charming delicious flavor.

 

Dong Thap Specialities

 

Rats stir-fried with citronella and Pimento

After hunting rats, people boil water in a pan and dip them in hot water. After that shed their skins to display white rat meat and hang them for drying off. Eliminating their heads, tails and legs etc., Then chop the rats into proper parts for eating and mix them with garlic, sodium glutamate, sugar, salt, five-taste flavour, soya sauce etc. for 5 minutes for penetration. While mixing, someone else sets a pan on fire for becoming hot. Then put cooking oil and garlic into the pan. Turn the garlic to become yellow and smell. After that, add ground citronella and pimento to the pan and stir-fry continuously until they become dry. At this time put the chopped rat into the pan for stir-frying. When it is well-done, spread pepper and peanuts on the top. It is more delicious to have the dish while it is still hot.

 

Gecko Stir-fried with little or no Water

After catching geckoes, people cut their heads and dip them in boiled water and then scale them. Chop the geckoes into small parts and mix the chopped parts with dai hoi and tieu hoi. Set a pan on fire and put oil and garlic into it for a moment. After that put the gecko meat into the pan and stir-fry them; then pour the coconut juice into the pan and set slight fire to adhere the meat to the spices and coconut juices. But don’t set hot fire for its deliciousness. When the coconut juice moves down, carry the pan to other place and spread ground roasted peanuts over the top.

 

Green peas gruel cooked with Snake

Dong Thap Muoi is famous for many tortoises and snakes. When catching a snake, strike its head until it is dead and use boiling water to scale the snake. Then disembowel it and pull out its liver. And chop the snake into smaller 10-centimetre parts and stew them until they become overdone and take them out. After that, pour rice and green peas into the snake stewing pot. Flavour the gruel when it is well-done and then split snake meat into as little parts as we do to chicken and mix them with lemon and persicaria. Ladle gruel into each bowl and add a little snake meat into each bowl. Spread ground pepper and onion and mix them up. Every time we eat the gruel, we feel healthy after having it because this dish is to make our livers healthy, our bodies antipyretic and also is rich in nutrition and tastes good.

 

Rice Pancake folded in half (and filled with a Shrimp, Meat án Soya Bean Sprouts) with Sesbania Sesban Flowers

Rice pancake folded in half with sesbania sesban flowers is easy to make. First, mix rice flour with water until we use a chopstick to dip in the mixture and lift it up to see if the wet flour drop one by one, the mixture then is ok. The best is to mix the flour with coconut juice to be tastier. After finish mixing, people often squeeze chopped saffron or carry powder “Indian cook” to create nice yellow color. Then stir-fry sesbania sesban flowers with sliced pork and proper spices such as salt, sodium glutamate, pepper and sugar. After the first preparation stage, you will start making pancake. The most important thing to have a scented crispy pancake with yellow color is to set a fire and to be skillful. Another step that is also important is preparation of green vegetables and mixture of fish sauce, garlic and pimento. In the country side, it is easy to find vegetables in eating the pancake by going to the garden and pick up some green mango leaves, la cach, dot dieu etc. and prepare a bowl of fish sauce, garlic and pimento mixture. Then we will have a good dish of rice pancake folded in half.

 

Eal Sausage simmered in Coconut Juice

Chop eal meat finely and mix it with minced pork, peziza, Chinese vermicelli and spices such as sugar, fish sauce, and ungrounded pepper. Use a small spoon to toss them and then ladle the mixture of chopped meat into eal skin which is shed before as we do to pork sausage or dog sausage. After stuffing the mixture, circle it and put it into a pot. Chinese Onion is peeled and cut into 4 pieces (if the onion is small) or 8 pieces (if the onion is big). Then put them on the mixture.

 

Pour the coconut juice into the pot until it floods the mixture and then set the pot on slight fire. When the coconut juice is boiled, we add sugar and fish sauce properly into the pot. After that lift the pot to another place and ladle it into a plate and ground spread roasted peanuts over the top.

 

Lai Vung fermented Pork Roll (Sour fermented Pork with sweet taste, scent and drunkenness)

Lai Vung fermented pork roll speciality has been famous for a long time with special delicious taste. Leisurely open each layer of banana leaves, you cannot hold back your feeling to the fresh red fermented pork roll with black peppers and some slices of white garlic. The sour fermented pork roll has sweet taste from pork, and sour taste from fermented stuffs. But, grilled meat roll is also a kind of fermented pork. And people often have it before the stuffs are fermented and grill it on frame set on coal fire. It is eaten with rice vermicelli, dill and sauce etc.

 

Kien Giang Specilaities

 

Nhong Fish (Barracuda)

Nhong fish (Barracuda) are in most Vietnam seas. The fish is thin, scale is smooth, there are black dots along the back, small size fish is about 700-800g, and big size fish is about 8-9kg. Nhong fish (Barracuda) in Phu Quoc is more delicious than other place thanks to the environment condition here. Its size is big and meat is delicious. It is good for adult as well as children.

 

Kien Giang Fish Noodles

Mentioning to Kien Giang foods, “forest-food and seafood” is thought because mountains and sea are “available” here. However, “forestfood” of Kien Giang is not as much as its “seafood”. In fact, when coming to Kien Giang, visitors are very interested in enjoying Tich shrimp, crabs, surf clams, snails and sea fishes. This is the most advantage of a coastal province. Moreover, Fish noodles which is made from river fish is a pride of the province.

 

Tric Fish Dish (Sardine)

Trich fish dish (sardine) is in many seas of the central and the south but it is known as a speciality of Phu Quoc pearl isle. Amongst Raw Trich fish (sardine) and vegetables (picture) becomes a simple and unique dish.

 

Different from Trich fish (sardine), bop fish size is very big. It is one of Phu Quoc’s primary seafoods made into various delicious dishes. The most delicious dish is roast and bake such as peppers and salt baked bop fish, live coal fried bop fish, pepper and salt roasted bop fish. By this cooking way, Bop meat is tough and sweety and its taste remains in your mouth rather long. Pieces of vegetables are closely arranged between pieces of fish so that the baked fish cannot be separated. The dish is more and more delicious if it is served with peppers and salt and lemon.

 

Dried Thieu Fish

Dried Thieu fish taste is very strange and attractive whenever it is baked. It takes a meticulous handmade process to make a delicious dried fish from a fish. You just bake and serve. The taste is delicious thanks to Phu Quoc fish sauce taste mixed with sugar, pepper and baked on live coal, giving a pleasant and delicious feeling.

 

Bac Lieu Specialities

 

Cu Cai Cake

Drop in Bac Lieu market to enjoy another specialty that is cu cai cake. The cake originates from Chinese. It is made of white wheat flour mixed with ground turnip powder, which is flattened as steamed thin rice pancake. Inside includes small dried shrimps or tiny peeled ones which are pounded slightly, minced pork and some steamed green peas. All are well stir-fried and added flavour properly. Cu cai cake is eaten with dill, houttuynia, hung lui vegetable, hung cay, que and salad. Sauce is integral. Mix fish sauce with lemon, sugar, garlic, chili properly.

 

Bun Bo Cay (Pungent Rice Vermicelli with Beef)

Bun bo cay is cooked with many fresh capsicums, which makes the red color of the soup pure color. Besides, there are a plate of fresh green cinnamon and a plate of unrefined salt and red capsicums ground with a piece of lemon. Squeeze lemon juice into the bowl of bun bo cay and add cinnamon (enough quantity, too much or a little will lose the flavour of bun bo cay) into the bowl and mix all stuffs in the bowl. Pick up a piece of pork (or lean pork or sinew) and dip it in the mixture of salt and capsicum and then put it into our mouths. Ever stuff has its own special flavour. After finish eating, you will be satisfied in pungent taste with tear move and the crispy, tough, fatty of beef and sour taste from lemon stimulation. But the most happy is that the pungent taste and its heat make pore sweat, which make the body cheery after a night of being drunk and eating the bowl of bun bo cay.

 

Ngang Dua Tam Vermicelli

Ngang Dua tam vermicelli looks simple but is difficult to make because the material is little and is required to be ordinary rice which is produced around the area. With a pair of skillful trained nimble hands, local girls make tam vermicelli which is well known and liked by many people.

 

Ngang Dua tam vermicelli includes 2 kinds: salty and sweet ones. Depending on tourists’ tastes, when sitting around shoulder pole, tourists can enjoy the rural coastal flavour of Bac Lieu. For these reasons, Ngang Dua tam vermicelli becomes an original strange dish attracting tourist from afar.

 

Ben Tre Specialities

 

Ben Tre Coconut Candy

Ben Tre coconut candy is a food speciality and a traditional handicraft manifesting the country’s culture. Ben Tre coconut candy is originated in Mo Cay. The raw materials for producing coconut candy are coconut juice, malt, sugar (now people use refined sugar but before they often used bottled sugar). The malt is filtered from the glutinous rice nourished to sprout shoot. Mo Cay candy officially has its brand name Ben Tre coconut candy since 1999 and has been exported to many countries in the world. Now international tourists know delicious dishes in Vietnam not only through bowls of noodle soup with fume, nice finical luxurious dishes from Hue imperial palace but also remember common simple but sweet coconut candies which were eaten once and become unforgettable.

 

Coconut Duong

Coconut duong is grilled on coal fire by using two bars of bamboo or small bamboo which are splitted to make a clamp. Clamping alive duongs and put them on slight coal fire and turn the clamp around until duongs become well-done and crispy. Pick them out of the clamp and put them on plates. Prepare fish sauce with tamarind (by inserting tamarind in the coal fire for being well-done and then press it in a bowl of Phu Quoc fish sauce and add pimento, sugar and sodium glutamate to the fish sauce for deliciousness).

 

Grilled duongs should be eaten with salad, cai troi, cang cua, cai xanh, basil, perrila, pimento. Use our hands to pick coconut duongs and place them on vegetables and roll them and then dip in the mixture of fish sauce and sour tamarind. Biting the roll and chew it leisurely and enjoy all the flavours such as strong smell and sweet taste of vegetables, scented and fatty tastes of duongs. Adhering to the sour taste of fish sauce with tamarind is the hot pungent flavour of pimento. Though the flavour is common but game delicacy and sea food could not be compared with it. Besides people steep duongs in fish sauce and roll them in flour and then have them fried and eat them with salad, tomato. Duongs are cooked with coconut juice gruel. This dish tastes good. Duongs can be processed to make other dishes which are all scented and fatty.

 

Green-skin Pomelo

Section of pomelo has red color. Peel its skin and hold the inside by hands without being sticky. It is not mentholated but has a sweet taste adhered to not such a sour taste as other pomeloes and has no seeds. Restaurants often use green-skin pomelo to make goi (a dish of grilled fish and vegetables). Separate each part of a pomelo section with a little finger. Grilled trichogaster pectoralis meat is splited into smaller parts and its bone is eliminated. Put pomelo into a plate and mix the pomelo with a spoon of good fish sauce. Then add separated trichogaster pectoralis meat to the plate and after that spread chopped persicaria on the top surface; or boiled half fat and half lean pork is sliced; or boiled shrimps with its shells peeled are splitted half and mix with the pomelo which is already mixed with fish sauce and spread ground roasted peanuts over the top surface of the plate. So it’s the meal with a delicious dish of green-skin pomelo with something. Especially young green-skin pomelo or mature one or the one that is kept for many days can maintain its green skin.

 

Tien Giang Specialities

 

My Tho Noodles with seasoned and sauté Pork (Served hot with other Ingredients)

My Tho noodles with seasoned and sauté pork include main ingredients such as pork, flour cake and soup. It is very different from Chinese noodles, Nam Vang noodles, North noodles served with beef or chicken, Hue beef noodle soup etc. for example, My tho noodles soup doesn’t include salad, vinegar, or vegetables but green beansprouts, lemon, pimento, soya sauce. Many people say that the most delicioius noodles must be made of Go Cat rice (Tau Huong, Nang Thom, Cho Dao varieties). This is an area where scented rice is tilled of My Phong commune in the outskirt of My Tho city. Delicious noodles must be dried. When dipping them in boiled water and putting mixture of oil and onion on them, the noodles look nice and luminous. My Tho noodles soup is an special dish manifesting the nation feature and reminding those who have come and had heart-to-heart in My Tho land. It is rare to find a dish that is made in Southerners’ manner can sastify both Westerners and Chinese.

 

Goi Gia Rice Vermicelli Soup

Goi gia rice vermicelli must be cooked with tamarind, which generates both sour and sweet sauce. Therefore, one who eats it doesn’t feel tired. Especially, it is best to eat it with small shrimp. Peeled small fresh water shrimps and sugpo prawns are all good. Red small fresh water shrimps which are peeled thoroughly look interesting.

 

Nhi Quy Longan (Tien Giang Special Fruit)

Nhi Quy longan is planted in such areas as Quy Thanh, Qui Chanh and Qui Loi. Longan here has many varieties which are classified into 4 ones: cow-skin longan, tieu longan (longan with small size and seed), longan with yellow pulp, long nhan (dragon-eyes longan). Each kind has its own flavour to serve everyone. The longans here are big in size with small seed, thick pulp and thin skin. This may be the reason why Nhi Qui longans become famous. When longans turns ripe, they have fresh yellow chromeh color (dragon-eyes longans have light yellow) with scent pervasion. Peeling one longan skin, you will see its pulp is opalescent. Put it into your mouth, it tastes sweet. Longan seed has deep brown color. But tieu longan has such a very small seed as a chopstick end.

 

Besides, Tien Giang is also famous for Go Cong malpighia glabra fruit, Cho Gao dragon fruit, Ngu Hiep durian, Hoa Loc mango, Co Co pomelo, Go Cong water melon etc. are all famous special fruits of Tien Giang.

 

Lo Ren Star Apple

It has a white transparent soft sweet inside. Its pulp tastes soft with special scent. It is interesting to sit with our backs against star apple tree trunk to enjoy the flavour of star apples and get some fresh air from the field and remember our childhood when we hold baby bottles. That is a common way of eating the fruit. When we serve guests, people often cut peduncle part and use a spoon to spoon up the inside gradually or split a star apple into 6 pieces and use a knife to separate their skins (keep the inside) and put them on a plate. Then use forks to eat each piece.

 

There is another finical way of eating star apple: peel its skin and slice from the peduncle down (eliminate seed and hard part). Then put it into a liquidizer and add sugar or milk, cocoa for grinding. After that, put it into an ice frame in the fridge. We can enjoy it like yoghurt or mix it with planed ice to have a glass of special vitamin.