TRAVEL TO DONG THAP TO ENJOY LOCAL CUISINE MADE FROM LOTUS
- Grilled snakehead fish wrapped in young lotus leaves.
Grilled snakehead fish is available in many different places and has become a familiar and rustic dish. But especially in the land of "pink lotus", grilled snakehead fish wrapped in young lotus leaves brings an indescribable, irresistible delicious taste, considered a must-try dish when traveling to Dong Thap.
Snakehead fish is cleaned, removed bile, and then washed with salt, drained. Before grilling, the chef will use a fresh lemongrass stick straight from the mouth of the fish and then bring it to the grill, fresh lemongrass will remove the fishy smell of the fish and bring an attractive aroma. For big fish, in order for the fish to cook evenly without burning the outer skin, people often pour a little water into the mouth of the fish and down to the stomach to keep the temperature and cook the fish inside.
In the past, people often used rice straw to grill fish, and when baking also required ingenuity and technique. A skillful person must estimate the right amount of straw so that when the straw is completely burned, the fish will also cook evenly, without burning. But today, people often grill fish on the charcoal stove, grill until the fish is golden, the skin of the fish is firm and fragrant.
The lotus leaves still have green silk, the edges of the leaves are still curled and have not yet bloomed. They are picked, washed, and then displayed with grilled snakehead fish. Remove the piece of white fish meat rolled with young lotus leaves with some vegetables such as lettuce, herbs, cucumber... and dip it with tamarind fish sauce, guaranteed to make you not want to stop chopsticks.
Dip a piece of fish wrapped in lotus leaf into tamarind fish sauce and feel the sweet and fragrant taste of snakehead fish, the mild acrid taste of young lotus leaves mixed with the sour taste of tamarind sauce, lingering on the tip of the tongue.
- Lotus seed rice
Lotus seed rice is also a specialty that cannot be ignored when talking about pink lotus cuisine. The main ingredients to make this dish are dragon blood rice with steamed fresh lotus seeds and sesame salt then wrapped in lotus leaves. It seems that the combination of simple but harmonious ingredients such as shrimp, lotus seeds, carrots, sausages, etc. creates a dish that suits any visitor, even the most difficult to eat.
It seems simple, but to make this dish, the cook must prepare very elaborately and take a lot of time to cook. People often choose clear, long, and small seeds, wash them and then drain them. After the rice is drained, it is mixed with a little salt and monosodium glutamate and lightly roasted before cooking. As for the lotus seeds, after removing the lotus heart, wash it and bring it to steam, set aside. Other ingredients such as sausages, carrots, etc. are preliminarily processed and diced. Fresh shrimp are peeled, cleaned, and then steamed, diced.
Use lotus broth to put in a pot of roasted rice and cook it like normal rice. Good rice is when the rice is cooked, the rice grains must be slightly dry, not too mushy, too dry, or crushed. After the rice is cooked, stir the rice, let it cool, and beat the rice to pieces. Shrimps, sausages, carrots, etc. are fried, seasoned, and seasoned to taste. Then, bring to mix with rice and lotus hat, mix well. After mixing the rice, choose the lotus leaves that are a bit old, dark green, but not torn, wash and blanch briefly in boiling water so that the lotus leaves wilt, then dry and arrange the leaves on a tray.
Next, put the rice in the middle of the lotus leaf, hold the edges of the leaves and carefully wrap it in the steamer, because all the ingredients have been cooked before, so it only takes a few minutes to make the rice hot again. . The dish, when presented, has a harmonious color and flavor from many ingredients and the faint scent of lotus attracts diners.
- Lotus salad
Salad is a familiar dish in Vietnamese cuisine. Lotus root salad is more familiar to salad lovers, especially when coming to Dong Thap, it is impossible to ignore this dish.
After being washed, cut into bite-sized pieces, the lotus root will be mixed with spices such as lemon or vinegar, sugar, fish sauce, and chili. While waiting for the lotus to absorb the spices, people will prepare shrimp or chicken and bring it to a boil. After the lotus leaves are soaked in the spices, they will be mixed with ground shrimp or shredded boiled chicken, adding a little finely chopped laksa leaves and roasted peanuts to add more flavor to the salad. Depending on the requirements of the diners, the ingredients mixed with lotus root will be different, but the lotus root salad mixed with shredded chicken is the most delicious. The salad has a sour, sweet, and spicy taste when eaten with crispy, sweet chicken, the taste is nothing like.
The special feature of this dish when you enjoy it in Dong Thap is that the lotus root that has just been picked will be processed immediately, so the lotus leaf still retains its crispiness and natural sweetness. Because it is an aquatic plant, when it is still moving away from the lotus root, it will easily wilt and lose its crisp and sweet taste like when enjoying it in the land of a pink lotus.
- Lotus wine
When enjoying the specialties of Dong Thap, people often sip it with lotus wine. This is a type of wine that only Dong Thap has.
Lotus wine (red lotus wine) is cooked in the most traditional way with ingredients from lotus seeds, lotus roots, lotus heart, sticky rice, and lotus powder yeast. From the stage of choosing raw materials, we have seen the fussy and elaborate, lotus pistil must be harvested early when the dewdrops are still on the tree to create the quintessence and elegance of the lotus. After the ingredients have been carefully selected, they will be cleaned and then fermented with yeast. This type of yeast is special in that it is made from the powder of lotus seeds, unlike other yeasts for brewing. After fermenting continuously for 7 days and 7 nights, this mixture will be put into the rice husk oven to cook. After cooking, it will continue to be put in a jar, earthen jar, or crockpot, close the mouth, and buried in the ground. Depending on the aging time, the flavor of the wine will be different, usually, the wine will be aged for about 6 months, but if it is enough, it can be aged for 3 months.
Lotus wine is elegant, has a mellow taste, subtle scent of lotus, sweet aftertaste moves on the tip of the tongue when drinking, bringing a unique flavor that few other wines can match. Lotus wine helps strengthen health, reduce fatigue and stress, and help drinkers eat more deliciously. When traveling to Dong Thap, visitors can go to local people's houses to visit the local people's process of making lotus wine and buy it as gifts for relatives and friends.
