Dịch
The quintessence of Ha Giang cuisine
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| Tay people, Thanh Son village, Thanh Thuy commune (Vi Xuyen) wrap ash cakes. |
Home to a community of 19 ethnic groups with many traditional dishes, bearing the characteristics of each ethnic group, along with famous processing spices unique to the Northern mountainous region such as: Mac Khen, Doi seeds, star anise, cardamom, honey... creating many irresistible delicious dishes with the flavor of the mountains and forests. The first delicious dish that can be mentioned is Thang Co. This is a traditional dish of the Mong people, cooked from horse meat with a very unique flavor. In the cold winter days in the rocky mountains, gathering around a steaming pan of Thang Co in the middle of the market, or on important occasions of the village, confiding and sharing life stories helps people get closer together.
Thang co can be eaten with Men men. Men men is a typical dish of the Mong people made from corn flour. The old people in the village said: To be a Mong man, one must know how to plow on rocky fields, to be a Mong woman, one must know how to make corn wine, weave linen and cook Men men. To have a delicious Men men dish, one must go through many elaborate and meticulous stages such as: Selecting old corn cobs, shelling the corn, grinding the corn with a stone mortar to make the corn kernels fine, sieving, winnowing the corn to remove the corn husks, mixing the corn flour with water, and steaming the corn on a fire. Each stage requires the cook to have a lot of experience and specific skills such as: The size and smallness of the fire, kneading the corn flour with water so that it is not dry or mushy, steaming twice to make the corn fluffy and delicious. When cooked, Men men has a delicious, chewy, and rich flavor.
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| People of Lung Tao Community Cultural Tourism Village, Cao Bo Commune (Vi Xuyen) prepare traditional dishes to serve tourists. |
Another delicacy that tourists cannot miss when coming to Ha Giang is the products made from buckwheat seeds such as: cakes, pho, beer, noodles, dried vermicelli, wine. Buckwheat is a herbaceous plant, with flowers in many colors: white, light pink, purple, red. Currently, buckwheat flowers have become a typical tourist product of Ha Giang, attracting a large number of tourists. Products made from buckwheat seeds are fragrant, delicious, unique, and very popular with tourists; especially buckwheat seeds are exported to Japan by the Japan - Vietnam Culinary Culture Association to be processed into Soba noodles, a spiritual dish of the land of the rising sun.
To the "ambassador" of tourism
In recent years, as tourism has gradually become a key economic sector, local cuisine has become an indispensable part of that development process. From indigenous dishes, imbued with the culture of ethnic minorities, cuisine now carries a new mission, becoming a tourism "ambassador", through cuisine to introduce and promote the diversity and unique cultural values in the lives of local people.
Community tourism is considered the most effective tourism product of the province. In addition to the beautiful landscape, ancient traditional houses, and unique living habits, traditional dishes on the dining table served to tourists when stopping at the villages are indispensable. Ms. Hoang Khanh Linh, a tourist from Quy Nhon shared: "The first time I came to the Nam Dam Community Cultural Tourism Village (Quan Ba), I ate the typical dishes of the Dao people prepared by the host, the taste was strange but very delicious, completely different from the cuisine of the South".
In particular, what touches the hearts of tourists is that in order to have delicious dishes with traditional identity and flavor, ethnic people have searched for ingredients available in the forest such as: wild bamboo shoots, mac khen, moss, wild corn, Au tau tubers, stream fish, colored leaves for making sticky rice, wild vegetables or plants and animals that they raise, grow, and care for to prepare dishes according to traditional recipes and family experience, ensuring food safety. The owners and chefs at the Homestays are all trained in preparing and decorating dishes to serve tourists. Ms. Dinh Quoc Khanh, owner of Skyview Khanh Dinh Homestay in Ban Luoc (Hoang Su Phi) shared: “The ingredients used to prepare dishes at my Homestay are mainly locally produced products such as: Black bone chicken, native black pig, buffalo meat, beef jerky, field carp, stream fish, five-color sticky rice, black banh chung, croissants, bitter bamboo shoots, wild vegetables... Guests coming here, in addition to enjoying delicious dishes, can also experience the process of preparing the dishes themselves. They are very excited, especially foreign guests”.
At festivals and fairs, the culinary culture space is always focused on, with separate areas designed to attract a large number of visitors to visit and experience. Mr. Nguyen Van Ha (Hai Phong) shared: “I am passionate about tourism partly because of the attraction of delicious dishes with the cultural identity of local ethnic groups. I have been to Ha Giang many times, enjoyed carp in Hoang Su Phi, Thang Co in Meo Vac fair, drank corn wine with yeast leaves, and ate buckwheat cake in Dong Van. Each place and each ethnic group has a different way of preparing dishes, but they all have characteristics in the cultural life of the community. That is very interesting”.
Not only to enjoy on the spot when coming to Ha Giang, many culinary specialties of the northernmost land of the Fatherland have become valuable gifts that visitors can buy for relatives and friends. Currently, Ha Giang has 4 dishes including: Men men, Au tau porridge, Thang co and cap nach pork in the Top 100 Vietnamese specialties and 4 specialties, including: Mint honey, Hoang Su Phi snow Shan tea, Tam giac mach cake and Quan Ba seedless persimmon in the Top 100 outstanding gift specialties.
The 2023 North - Central - South and Ha Giang Culinary Culture Festival is held on this occasion in Ha Giang city with many attractive activities to honor, preserve and promote the culinary cultural values of Ha Giang province, build and effectively exploit the culinary tourism brand through collecting, restoring, developing a quintessential, unique and quality culinary and tourism culture; promoting cooperation in tourism development promises to bring many interesting experiences to visitors.
Ha Giang invites visitors from all over the world to explore this majestic and poetic land with extremely interesting experiences and unique cuisine. Culinary culture is an important and indispensable part of the traditional culture of ethnic groups; preserving and promoting the quintessence of culinary culture will contribute effectively to the development of sustainable tourism.
