Hai Phong’s culinary world attracts tourists because of its unique flavors
Recently, the Journey to find the value of Vietnamese Cuisine Culture honored Hai Phong’s crab noodle soup and Ha Lung spring rolls as one of the dishes selected as typical Vietnamese Cuisine.
With the strength of the extremely rich seafood resources of Hai Phong waters and the Gulf of Tonkin region as well as a number of local specialty ingredients, Hai Phong cuisine is considered by many gourmets to be stylish. processing – enjoy unique, diverse and sophisticated local cuisine. It is no exaggeration to say that crab noodle soup and Ha Lung key rolls deserve to be considered representative of the quintessence of Hai Phong cuisine, the dishes that create the culinary value here.
The familiar image of Hai Phong crab cake is a large red-brown rice cake flavored with broth made from crab bricks and a layer of shiny yellow onion fat. Thanks to the unique flavor, those who have ever eaten a bowl of Hai Phong crab cakes will certainly have a hard time forgetting the delicious flavor and attractive color of the crab cakes in harmony with the brown color of the rice cakes and the green color of the crab cakes. Rolled with lolot leaves and green onions with the red color of chili and fried onions.
The bowl of crab cakes here is always beautiful, in full harmony with the five colors, with the dark brown color of the rice cakes mixed with the green color of water spinach (or spinach; celery – depending on the season and the person’s taste). eat), accompanied by the yellow color of fish cakes, dried onions, and crab sticks; peeled shrimp; The red color of tomatoes, steamed chili, the dark color of lolot leaf rolls, all of them have an impact on all senses, helping diners find it extremely attractive just by looking at it.
The ingredients used to prepare Hai Phong crab cakes are not luxurious or expensive, only rural products such as crab, lolot leaves, water spinach… but it is those rural ingredients that are passed through the hands of the people. The ingenuity and meticulousness of housewives have become a delicious specialty. Because of the typical way of choosing ingredients, combining and processing Hai Phong people, they become dishes that not only appeal to the sense of taste, smell but also sight.
Crab cake – Photo: Bui Thuy
When enjoying a hot bowl of crab cakes, the aftertaste of the five flavors – salty, fatty, sour, spicy, sweet mixed in a bowl full of harmonious red and blue colors, blending so many emotions – cannot be described. describe it all.
Hai Phong cuisine: Cha Key Ha Lung – Famous near and far, considered the quintessence of the city of red phoenix flowers
Cha key is a specialty dish of Ha Lung flower villagers (Dang Hai, Hai An, Hai Phong). Ha Lung grilled pork sausage is “memorable” because of its delicious taste and unique shape. This dish is considered the quintessence of Ha Lung sausage making village, a dish that demonstrates the skillful skills of the chef, the harmonious combination of squid, pork and sugarcane.
Ha Lung sausage – Photo: Khoi Nguyen
To have delicious, attractive and unique spring rolls, Ha Lung people attach great importance to the processing stage. The unique flavors to create grilled pork are dried squid, sugarcane and lean pork. If you want to choose delicious squid, you must buy squid in Cat Ba and Cat Hai, then bring the squid home to cut into small pieces, puree with lean pork, marinate with fish sauce, MSG, shiitake mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, pepper… how to do it. The processing method is quite complicated. First, people split the sugar cane into small pieces with their fingers and then divide it into two parts.
On the upper part of the sugarcane, people surround a layer of pureed lean pork with dried squid that has been marinated with spices, and on the lower part of the sugarcane, people leave it open and use it as a handle when eating fried rolls. Next, people will put Ha Lung spring rolls into the pot and steam them. If the heat is too high, the rolls will burn immediately, but if they are too small, the rolls will be tender and the skin color on the outside will not be beautiful.
One thing to remember is that no matter what heat level, the water in the steamer must be enough to allow the steam to evaporate evenly so the patties are just cooked. The sugarcane chestnuts will only release their sweet flavor, mixed with the Ha Lung grilled pork patties to create an extremely attractive dish. After taking the dish out and placing it on a plate, the patty must have a beautiful color, be cooked through, and not fall apart or be too dry.
Once these requirements have been met, you will be able to have a complete and flavorful patty. The dish has a small shape that fits in the palm of your hand, and the outside is a golden crust that is both crispy and chewy. Biting into the patty, you will feel the sweetness of sugar cane, the aromatic aroma of meat and especially the rich, sea-like taste of the seductive pieces of sunny squid.
