1. Steamed vegetables

An everyday rustic dish of the Muong people, but it has its own charm. Steamed vegetables are made up of many different types of vegetables, usually, people pick vegetables around the house such as: sweet leaf, squash, leaf mustard, lemon leaves, guise leaves, eggplant (as small as Thai White eggplants but with thorns), forest banana flowers. The vegetables are flexible depending on the types you have in the garden or in the forest, but the indispensable ingredients are papaya leaves with white male papaya flower clusters for the bitter taste of this dish. 

A delicious steamed vegetable dish

In terms of cooking method, the vegetables after being washed are chopped into thin slices, mix well, and then put on steamer called Bang Cuop (a common steamer in ethnic minority areas). After about 15-20 minutes, when you smell the aroma of vegetables, it means that the vegetables are cooked. Vegetables are cooked by steam so they are not crushed, when eaten they have a sweet and rich flavor - a very typical of the mountains.

2. Chicken cooked with sour bamboo shoots and Doi seeds

It is a specialty that many tourists love when coming to Hoa Binh. Fresh bamboo shoots, after being taken from the forest, will be chopped and soaked in clean water for about a day so that the bamboo shoots are less pungent. After that, bamboo shoots are washed and soaked with salt until fermented, giving off a mild sour taste that can be used to cook soup.

 The chicken chosen to cook soup is the type of wild raised hill chicken so the meat is firm, chewy and fragrant. The chicken is cleaned, cut into small pieces and then marinated with a little spice and sour bamboo shoots. Next, stir fry bamboo shoots and chicken with oil until they are cooked. Then, pour some water in and simmer until the chicken and bamboo shoots are soft enough to eat. An indispensable spice of this dish is Doi seed. Doi seeds are grilled for more flavor and pounded to season the soup. When eaten, the soup has the mild sour taste of bamboo shoots, the greasy and fatty taste of chicken and the characteristic aroma of Doi seeds, very delicious.

3. Pock rolled in Pomelo leaf 

Ingredients include sliced pork belly, which people often choose naturally raised pick without being fed industrial bran, so the meat is sweet, firm and very fragrant. After marinating the meat with a little fish sauce and shallots or dried onions, roll each the meat slice with half a grapefruit leaf.  Next, the pomelo leaf rolls will be clamped to a bamboo stick and then grilled on hot charcoal while being turned over many times so that the rolls are evenly cooked and not burnt. When eating, there is the greasy taste of both fat and lean meat, the strong aroma of the pomelo leaves. Remember to dot the rolls with a little salt mixed with Doi seeds to enjoy the standard taste of Hoa Binh pomelo leaf rolls. 

Delicious pomelo leaf rolls after being grilled

(Photo: thegioiamthuc.com)

Lam Chau