GO CONG SHRIMP PASTE

People in the Southern consider "Mam" (a type of paste) as a special gift from God, people can eat mam all year round without getting bored. Mam is both a dish for frugal meals and can become a dish at great parties. Particularly, Go Cong shrimp paste is classified as a long-standing luxury dish when it was offered to kings to enjoy since the 19th century.

Shrimp paste - a product of God bestowed on Go Cong.

Currently, in Go Cong, no one knows when shrimp paste has existed, nor does anyone know who its father is. But the people of Go Cong are proud that their hometown specialty used to be a precious dish that was offered to kings more than 150 years ago. Since the daughter, Pham Thi Hang of Go Cong became Queen Tu Du, the wife of King Thieu Tri, who brought this rustic dish of this homeland to the king, since then Go Cong shrimp paste has become a famous dish.

This paste was then included in the list of dishes used to treat kings and mandarins whenever there was a banquet.

The process of making is very complicated and sophisticated, showing the quintessence of cuisine. The preparation of ingredients, requires meticulousness, the selected shrimp must be natural shrimp from Go Cong, but using farmed shrimp is a "fail". The sauce made must have an unpleasant smell. Famous paste-makers in the region also said that: “This is a product that God has given to the region. The shrimp in Go Cong is better than other places, it is both sweet, fragrant, chewy, and has a very special scent.”

Go Cong is favored by nature when it is an estuary area, not only shrimp but other aquatic products are equally fresh. Every year around the 10th lunar month, after the rice season is ripe, it is also the time when alluvium from the upstream of the Tien River pours in. It is also the time when farmers start harvesting shrimp, which lasts until around New Year's Eve.

How to make exquisite shrimp paste.

The delicate taste of shrimp paste makes many people captivated. The secret from where can create such a taste?

According to Mr. Nam Ho - the owner of Kim Sa paste establishment, the original rub shrimp paste is made from silver shrimp, the size of the ring finger, the meat is fragrant, clear, tough, and sweet. But later, due to less and less silver shrimp, people had to use more turmeric silver shrimp, also known as sea silver shrimp.

Turmeric silver shrimp is only inferior to ground silver shrimp in terms of protein. For example, the protein level of silver shrimp is 19, then turmeric shrimp is only about 16.17 degrees. But whether it is silver shrimp or turmeric shrimp, it must be natural shrimp from Go Cong to make the right sauce.

As for Ms. Huynh Thi Ven - the 3rd generation of the Ba Hai brand of shrimp paste (she took her own brand, Mam Ba Hai 1), added that the steps of making shrimp paste have remained almost unchanged, but changed from making the paste. traditional crafts to machine technology to suit food hygiene and safety criteria.

In the past, in her grandmother's time, she used a mortar to pound, brush the shrimp and dry the paste in the khakis, and then use a mosquito net to cover the paste. In her mother's life, she used a shrimp mill (type of rice mill) with a roof to dry the paste, but she was also afraid that it would rain suddenly. Up to now, she has hired an engineer to make a stainless steel blender, both increasing productivity, and cleaning. She also built a greenhouse to spread the paste, the greenhouse effect makes the shrimp faster to ripen and has more eye-catching colors. With her method, she can do it all year round without fear of erratic rain and sun.

She also shared more about the secret of making shrimp paste, the purchased shrimp must still dance, then be cut off, washed, left to dry, and then marinated with spices including garlic, chili, sugar, and salt. This is the stage that determines the taste of the paste and the secret of each paste oven is also located here. Depending on the taste and individual recipe of each oven, the saltiness and sweetness of the paste can be reduced or decreased. Next is to grind, then rub on the scrubber to get the meat, remove the carcass. It is also because of this method that it is called shrimp paste. After the scrubbing process, the paste will be put in a tray and left to dry in the sun for dozens of days, until the shrimp have turned to the color of shrimp bricks, reaching the plasticity comparable to "lifting the spoon without lifting" and having a fragrant aroma when the shrimp has been cooked.

Only when observing closely can we feel the meticulousness of this type of king shrimp paste. First, in order for the paste to be eye-catching, free from smut, black spots when preliminarily processing shrimp, the shrimp head must be cut past the eye but not too close to the meat. Garlic to marinate shrimp must also be Phan Rang garlic to get a strong egg aroma. The chili must be Ba Tri chili with bright color and pungent flavor. Especially in order to watch the sun to decide when the shrimp is ripe at the right level, only those who have made shrimp paste for a long time have experienced it. If exposed to too much sun, the shrimp paste will be black, not cooked evenly. If the sun is not dry enough, the paste cannot be preserved for a long time.

"Tactics" to enjoy shrimp paste.

If you want to eat delicious shrimp paste, you must know how to combine the taste requirements. The most delicious is dragon beans dipped with pure shrimp paste served with white rice or boiled and sliced ​​pork belly, or steamed paste, grilled paste dipped with shrimp paste, served with sour vegetables such as star fruit, lemongrass, and sweet potato. The acrid taste of green bananas, the taste of cucumbers, and the strong smell of cilantro, herbs,…. Some people like to eat by diluting the paste. Therefore, on the packaging of the product, the owner always includes the preprocessing method.

People here also know that the profession of making shrimp paste is just a job for profit, but they still want to keep this traditional profession, so almost everyone tries to stick to the profession to pass it on to their children and grandchildren. . Therefore, each family tries to create its own secret in how to mix ingredients to be able to create a unique scrub shrimp paste. It is because of this unique feature that has created the attraction of the dish, which has since become the pride of many generations of Go Cong people.

There are many large companies in Go Cong that want to buy a recipe for the production of scrub shrimp paste, but the owners are determined not to sell. For them, shrimp paste is not only a dish but also a livelihood and especially the love of the people, it is deeply ingrained in the blood of the people of Go Cong.