Bun Tom (shrimp vermicelli noodle )

            No one can tell for how long such a simple food has grown to be an essential part of Hai Phong gastronomy. It's something worth trying, like the rest of Vietnamese cuisines, for the unique taste as well as method of cooking.

            The main ingredients that create this delicious dish is fresh shrimp picked up directly from Hai Phong sea. Shrimp shells are peeled and the shrimp are then fried with green onion until shrinking. Added in with shrimps are yellow grilled chopped fish, grilled chopped “ lá lốt” or grape leaves, Indian taro and a mixture of mashed onion, sliced tomatoes and dill to bring out richer flavor. A soft, white thread of rice vermicelli noodle harmonized with reddish shrimps and tomatoes, together with green onion, Indian taro and yellow grilled chopped fish make a colourful, attractive and lively picture that wake up visitors’ taste.

            As you savour the dish, you will be greatly comforted by the sweet and slightly greasy taste of the broth, fragrance of shrimps and especially the pungent smell of grilled chopped “ lá lốt”. More special is a sour taste of tamarind broth seasoned with common spices like vinegar or lemon. This kind of “bun” is best served with lettuce and some slices of red chilli. All flavours harmonize so well with each other that the first try can bring out immediate temptation for a return.

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Pia in Son La

                          

            Visiting Son La without eating Pia means a failure. Some people say that after just the first try, this dish would never leave your memory. But what is exactly the great secret behind this speciality of Son La?

            Pia is a typical dish of this region; it can be served as a sauce or as a main dish in a meal. When cooking Pia, people can choose the ingredients from the familiar animals such as buffalo, cow, or goat, but the most popular Pia dishes are Cow Pia and Goat Pia. Interestingly, along the National Road No. 6 from ChauMoc to ChauThuan, visitors can easily spot the restaurants selling Pia, which are advertised carefully and humorously in various ways. You can also order Pia in any restaurant in Son La, simply because this is an indispensable cuisine of the region.

            Pia dish in Son La somehow resemble Thanh Co, a speciality of Lao Cai province. However, it is cooked in a totally different way. In order to cook Cow Pia, we need to prepare everything freshly, especially the different parts of the cow including the organs. When dissecting the cow, the local people carefully take the last part of the cow’s RUOT and preserve it. The next steps to cook the dish are also hard. After boiling the cow’s bones for hours until the sauce become sweet, we pour all ingredients into the pot and continue to boil it for hours. When the sauce reaches a brownish color, the last part of the cow’s RUOT is then added. After about one more hour, we can take the pot out of the fire!

            The next step, and also an essential one, is to add a local spice called Mac Khen as well as citronella, ginger, and garlic. When eating, we will notice that Pia tastes bitter at first, but it then becomes sweet and buttery. If we want to eat it right away, we can pour Pia into small bowls, use spoons and have it with veggies. However, it is strongly recommended that you eat the dish as a sauce.

                        

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Pho Chua - Lang Son

Pho is no doubt the most famous one among all Vietnamese traditional cuisines. However, there is not only one but a whole spectrum of different kinds of Pho in Vietnam, one of which is Sour Pho (Pho Chua). Originally from Lang Son, this special dish is the result of the interaction between many cultures of the country.

            This speciality is cooked in a very complicated yet interesting way. To savor a bowl of Sour Pho, you have to eat it slowly to enjoy both its taste and smell. Nowadays, even though Sour Pho appears in many restaurants thorough the Northern part of Vietnam, the most delicious one that you can found must be in That Khe, Lang Son.

            The dish has two components: the dried ingredients and the soup. The first dried ingredient is the noodle. Unlike other kinds of Pho noodle, it has a relatively small size and tastes really chewy. Potatoes are another important ingredient; they are sliced and fried in boiling oil until they become crispy. The others are pig’s liver and pork side, which are also fried. The last dried ingredient is roast duck, but the cook usually gets it from famous restaurants in That Khe to save the time.

            The second component of Sour Pho, the soup, is made solely from garlic, vinegar and sugar. Sometime you might see people adding seasoning powder into this soup. However, the core element of the soup is the juice inside the roast duck, which has both the buttery flavor of duck fat, and the fragrance of the spices added in the roasting process.

            All of these ingredients are prepared beforehand by the cook. Whenever an order comes, he will mix them up in such a skillful way that maintain a perfect ratio between soup and noodle so that the ingredients absorb all the spice. The mixing process, though the last step, can be considered as the most important step.

            However, before serving, the cook still has one last thing to do: decoration. Artistically, he adds crumble peanuts, fresh herbs, veggies, fried garlic and sliced sausages onto the already-tempting bowl of Pho. On top of everything, the cook dust a spice called Xung Xang, a unique speciality of That Khe. Each of the eaters can add limes, chilies or spices according to his personal preference.

            Sour Pho is most popular during summer and autumn. It is considered as the pride of Lang Son people. As a result, it is always served when a special guest visit a Lang Son family.

                        

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Baby Clam Soups (Canh hến)

Preparation:

We need to prepare required ingredients such as baby clams, Chinese squash, green onion, tomatoes, dill, fish sauce, salt and pepper. Baby clams are washed carefully several times to remove dirt, and then boiled in deep skillet for 15 minutes. All vegetables should be washed in advance and tomatoes finely chopped. Chinese squash is peeled and chopped into slices

Cooking:

            Fried onion in oil until fragrant, then we add baby clams to stir until it shrinks and consolidates. Afterwards, we add the clam broth into the pot and slices of Chinese squash with fish sauce. Bring to a boil, about 15 minutes and add fill to finish. “Canh hen” should be eaten while it is still hot and can be served with pickled eggplant and streamed rice.

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Eggplant Soup (Canh cà tím)

Preparation:

From any grocery stores, get two or three eggplants, 1 pound of ribs, mashed turmetic, perilla, tofu, onion, grape leave. Other seasonings include fish sauce, pepper, rice vinegar, salt and pepper.

Cooking:

Eggplants are cut into small pieces, soaked into salt water to remove resin for half an hour  and taken out to dry. Afterwards, we boil the ribs until bubbly with little water and wash the ribs again under cold water. The ribs are then boiled for second time with a desirable amount of water until it is softened and cooked. You can add turmeric powder and fish sauce at this stage.

Tofu, best choice is medium type, is fried until yellow and sliced into small pieces.

As the ribs are cooked, we can start adding eggplant, tofu and stir lightly. If you need more water in your soup, this is when you can add more. Don’t forget a dash of rice vinegar and a pinch of pepper. The soup is cooked on low heat for about 15 minutes. Before serving, garnish your soup with green onion and chopped grape leaves.

            Tip: Canh cà tím” is usually served with steamed rice or good on its own.

            

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Shrimp meat ball and mushroom soup (Canh mọc tôm nấu nấm)

Preparation:

Fresh prawn is best for the dish. If you cannot find it fresh, defrost your frozen one finely. Other ingredients include green onion, mushroom, salt and pepper and of course, fish sauce.

Cooking:

            Prawn shell is removed and cooked with grilled onion and ginger for several minutes. This kept the broth of the shrimp in with the soup. Bring to a boil and discard the shell but keep the liquid. Prawn is milled and mixed with finely chopped onions. Add fish sauce, pepper, sugar and salt. If the mixture is not sticky enough, add 1 egg York to hold them together and roll it into small bolls. Boil the liquid, add more water as well as mushroom. The balls are boiled until floating, which indicates that it has been cooked. At the end, add dill and green onion to get richer flavour. This kind of “canh” also should be served when it is still hot.

                        

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Crab soup (Canh Cua)

To make” canh cua”, we need patience, skills , tactfulness and experience. We need to prepare ingredients including:  red chilli, green onion,  “ quả dọc” , “ nước mắm”, oil, tomato, salt and pepper. Rice vinegar which has sour taste and usually made from fermented steamed rice or” bún” can be used as the sole sour source for the soup. Choosing crabs is quite difficult, we should select fresh, strong, medium size and yellow crabs. Qualities of crabs will affect strongly taste of "canh"

Preparation:

Crabs are washed carefully, removed hard shell (carapace) and “ yếm” , then kept dry. “Gạch” or crag eggs are kept separately. Crabs are ground with some salt, pressed with cool water and filtered carefully to gain liquid. “Quả dọc” is grilled and cut into small slices. If you cannot find this acetic fruit, you can replace with rice vinegar. Tomatoes are washed and finely chopped into small pieces.

Cooking:

We mash onion and chilli together using a mortar and pestle and then heat oil, stir fry mashed spring onion and chilli, we add “gạch cua” and stir until fragrant. Afterwards, we add some spices into the liquid of crabs and boil it for 15 minutes. Then we add tomatoes into the pot. Bring the liquid to a boil and add fried ”gạch cua” and cook for several minutes. While cooking we keep the low level of fire and avoid stirring, which will break the crab mixture into pieces and reduces the flavour. When the pot boils again, we add green onion and salt to taste “ Canh cua” is usually served with pickled eggplant that creates a delicious taste. We can use it with streamed rice or "bún"

                        

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