CNN praises Nghe An's eel soup.

When mentioning the cuisine of Nghe An province, everyone will surely remember spicy eel, which can be prepared into countless delicious dishes such as eel soup, eel porridge, etc. Recently, CNN published a video praising Nghe An eel soup with its distinctive spicy flavor that diners will find hard to forget after tasting it.

Eel soup from Nghe An is prepared quite simply, not as thick as other soups, but it retains the fresh and delicious flavor of the dish. First, the eel is cleaned to remove the slime and extract the meat. Many experienced artisans even teach their descendants the traditional way of preparing eel, using bamboo splints to separate the meat from the bones without a knife to avoid a fishy taste. After cleaning, the eel meat is stir-fried with turmeric, chili, and ground pepper. A key ingredient is shallots – a type of onion found only in Nghe An and Ha Tinh – which enhance the aroma of the eel and create a spicy kick for the soup.

When scooped into a bowl, the eel pieces remain intact. They are very tender and have absorbed all the spiciness and aroma of chili and onion. The soup has a golden yellow color from turmeric and a green hue from coriander or fresh scallions. Adding a squeeze of lemon juice makes the eel soup truly complete.

Eel soup is often enjoyed with bread (like eating bread with wine sauce), which best reveals its unique flavor. Food connoisseurs often pair eel soup with crispy bread. The combination of a steaming bowl of eel soup, with its spicy, rich flavor and the taste of the eel, along with the crispy, fragrant bread, is irresistible. People in Nghe An province have also created another interesting side dish to accompany eel soup: replacing the bread with a plate of thin, plain rice rolls (banh muot) – a type of steamed rice roll in the North. These thin, plain rice rolls, sprinkled with a little dried onion, are served with the delicious eel soup, offering a satisfying and non-greasy taste.

Entering any eel restaurant in Nghe An province, you'll easily find people slurping up bowls of eel porridge or soup. While eel soup can be found in many restaurants throughout the city, the best ones are said to be those on Tran Quang Dieu and Dao Tan streets...

According to traditional Chinese medicine, eel has the effect of nourishing qi and blood, eliminating rheumatism, and can treat malnutrition, dysentery, back pain, internal hemorrhoids, rheumatism, etc. Therefore, this dish is not only delicious but also very good for health.

Huong Thao