The Central region is full of sunshine and wind, where there are many dishes rich in the sea, but also unique in the way they are prepared and enjoyed, making it incredibly charming. The dishes here are extremely delicious, once enjoyed will make you remember that passionate flavor forever. Among the attractive dishes of this land, it is impossible to ignore Nghe An eel vermicelli and Ha Tinh cu de candy, which has just been honored as Vietnam’s typical cuisine in the period I-2022.
Central cuisine: Eel soup from Nghe An
Eel soup. Photo: Bui Thuy
Eel is a product of many delicious dishes all over the country, the South has salted eel, sour eel soup, crispy fried eel with meat, eel marinated in coconut milk…; The North has eel braised with banana, eel vermicelli, steamed eel with salt and lemongrass… Each region has a different cooking style, especially in Nghe An, just a few rustic cooking methods are enough to make the famous “eel from Nghe An” brand. sounds near and far. Eel soup is the most popular dish among tourists, because of its mild taste, easy to eat, and suitable for many people’s tastes.
Eel soup is made from eels carefully selected by the people here and the way to prepare eels is also very unique. Eels must be carefully prepared with salt, kitchen ash, lime water, and vinegar to remove slime and reduce the fishy smell.
After cleaning, the eel is boiled until just cooked, then the meat and bones are separated. The eel meat after deboning will be stir-fried with shallots, turmeric, ground pepper and chili. Eel soup cannot lack shallots – a typical ingredient of Nghe An and Ha Tinh regions that will enhance the aroma of eel and create a spicy level for the soup.
Next is the broth, Nghe An people, in addition to taking the eel bones and simmering them to sweeten the broth, also add chicken bones, beef bones, or pork bones to make the water sweeter. When the bone broth boils, the cook will remove all the foam so the pot of water will be clear.
When enjoying eel soup, visitors will feel the eel meat is sweet and soft, fragrant with shallots, and the broth has a beautiful reddish brown color. When you eat the spicy taste, the heat penetrates and spreads into each eel meat and drop of soup. There is nothing better than eating this dish with banh muot or bread in cold weather. Surprisingly, Nghe An’s banh mi and eel soup go very well together. Crispy bread, dipped in thick soup, imbued with the sweet flavor of eel, spicy from chili and pepper, blending extremely attractively.
Central region cuisine: Keo cu do is rustic but sweet and unforgettable
Cudo candy. Photo: trustreview
Ha Tinh Cu Do candy is a fragrant specialty with a strange but extremely attractive name. Cu Do Candy is unique right from its name to its origin. There are many anecdotes and stories about the origin of this candy.
To create delicious Cu Do cakes, producers must prepare carefully, from choosing ingredients to preparing them. The ingredients to create Ha Tinh’s cu de specialty are not rare or expensive ingredients, they are just very common and easy to find ingredients such as peanuts, molasses, malt, rice paper, and fresh ginger.
Choosing molasses to make candy is one of the most important ingredients. Molasses must be the best, pure, golden color and clear like honey to ensure the delicious taste of the candy. Peanuts to make candy must also be selected to be medium-sized, round, not flat, worm-free, and still have the shell intact. The pieces of rice paper used to make candy are not too big, not too thick, curled evenly and sprinkled with a little sesame to increase the flavor.
Besides selecting ingredients, the process of making candy is also extremely important. When cooking the candy, you must ensure that the heat is medium. If the fire is too high, it will burn, if the fire is too small, the candy will not be chewy and crispy. Delicious, standard cu do candy must have the sweetness and viscosity of sugar, the fatty taste of peanuts, the spicy aroma of ginger and the crunchiness of rice paper. Everything blends together, visitors take a bite of cu do and feel the sweet, fragrant, sticky taste of sugar along with the crunch of peanuts and rice paper, there’s nothing more wonderful.
Cu Do candy is a rustic snack, often served with hot tea. This type of candy is characterized by being flexible and sticky, has the sweetness of sugar, molasses, and the nutty taste of peanuts. It can be eaten plain or enjoyed with tea.
“Green tea with a little spicy ginger/ Cu Do Ha Tinh captivates people’s hearts”
When enjoying Cu Do candy, visitors can feel the opposite but also extremely harmonious combination of crunchy peanuts inside covered by a soft layer of rice paper on the outside, sweetness, and at the same time feel The pleasant taste of molasses combined with fresh ginger is extremely spontaneous.
