Delicious dishes from Nghe An province

The mountainous region of Hong Mountain and the Lam River is a harsh land. However, perhaps the difficult and arduous struggle for survival, influenced by natural disasters and weather, has led the people of Nghe An to create unique dishes that reflect their diligence, perseverance, and intelligence. From the coastal areas, plains, and midlands to the highlands, every region boasts its own distinctive specialties, leaving a lasting impression on visitors from afar.

Eel dish

Upon arriving in Nghe An, many people will immediately think of dishes made from eel. Using eel as the main ingredient, the people of Nghe An can prepare dozens of delicious dishes such as eel porridge, eel soup, eel vermicelli, eel stewed with banana and peanuts, eel served with rice crackers, and grilled eel. Among these, eel vermicelli has been recognized by the Asian Record Organization as one of 12 Vietnamese dishes that have achieved an Asian record, and eel soup was recently honored and praised by CNN as a dish with an irresistible and unforgettable flavor.

Thanh Chuong hill chicken

Chickens in Thanh Chuong are free-range, raised on hillsides. Because they "run around" a lot, their meat is firm, delicious, and flavorful. The chicken is so good that the people of Thanh Chuong prepare many famous dishes such as: chicken stew, boiled chicken, salt-roasted chicken, lemongrass-roasted chicken, chicken roti, fried chicken, braised chicken… However, the most popular and unique dish in Thanh Chuong is still chicken stew, also known as "chicken cooked in broth".

Nhut Thanh Chuong

Nhút is made from young jackfruit, chopped and salted. When enjoying nhút, diners can feel the crunchy texture, the salty taste from the salting process, along with a hint of spiciness from chili peppers, blended with the sweet taste of sugarcane and the aroma of roasted rice powder. All of these elements create a very distinctive flavor unique to Thanh Chương, Nghệ An. Besides being salted, nhút can also be stir-fried, used in sour fish soup, or made into a pig ear salad, etc.

Quy Duck

Quy duck is renowned as the best-tasting duck breed in Vietnam and is also the top product of western Nghe An province. Quy ducks have small bones, fragrant meat, a long-lasting sweet flavor, and exceptionally tender but not mushy meat that is fatty but not greasy.

There are many ways to prepare Quy duck. Besides steaming and roasting, the Thai ethnic people in Nghe An have long cooked the duck with sour bamboo shoots or grilled it with forest leaves.

Hung Chau mudworms

The ragworm typically lives in burrows along riverbanks, at the downstream end of the river where it flows into the sea. The ragworm season usually runs from September to November each year. In Nghe An, locals continue to creatively prepare ragworms into many dishes such as ragworm and bamboo shoot soup, ragworm patties, braised ragworms, and ragworm fish sauce.

Goat from Cau Don, tamarind from Nam Nghia

The countryside of Nam Dan is a land rich in specialties that, once tasted, will leave a lasting impression. Among these specialties are Nam Nghia veal and Cau Don goat meat. The best are undoubtedly the grilled veal and goat, roasted over charcoal, with their sweet, fragrant aroma of pomelo leaves, lime leaves, and lemongrass, along with the astringent taste of guava leaves. Grilled veal and goat are even more delicious when served with the characteristic herbs of the Nghe An mountainous region, and especially when enjoyed with Nam Dan soy sauce.

Veal sausage (giò me)

Go me, also known as veal sausage, is made from whole cuts of veal, veal bone broth, pepper, and MSG, then rolled up like a sausage and steamed for about 6 hours.

The meat is cooked by steaming, preserving its sweetness and giving it an attractive pink color. When eaten, the sweet, tender, and fragrant meat is sliced ​​thinly and dipped in chili sauce. This makes it an ideal dish for parties, weddings, ancestral worship ceremonies, and as a gift during holidays and festivals.

Tuong Nam Dan

Nam Dan soy sauce – a simple dish from Nam Dan, deeply rooted in the local culture for generations. What makes Nam Dan soy sauce unique is that it's made from crushed soybeans, meaning the soybeans are only broken into pieces, not completely crushed like Ban soy sauce. The ingredients are soybeans, glutinous rice or corn, salt, and water.

When finished, Nam Dan soy sauce is not brown like other types of soy sauce, but has a rich, honey-like yellow color. Pieces of soybeans float in the soy sauce, giving it a fragrant and sweet aroma. Although a considerable amount of salt is added to each jar of soy sauce, the salty taste of the sea salt disappears when eaten, leaving only a rich, sweet flavor on the tongue… This is thanks to the “secret” and technique of the soy sauce makers.

Rice noodle rolls with pork offal from Dien Chau

When mentioning Nghe An province, few people know about the specialty dish "banh muot - xao long" (steamed rice rolls with offal), a unique and flavorful dish that anyone who has tasted it will remember forever.

Banh Muot - Xao Long is a harmonious combination of two separate dishes: banh muot (steamed rice noodles) and braised pork offal. Picking up a soft, white piece of banh muot and dipping it into the hot braised offal, savoring the rich blood, and eating it with the fatty offal, diners can truly appreciate the deliciousness and unique flavor of this dish.

Giang River catfish

The "cá mát" fish feeds on insects on the water's surface or algae when found in bushes, rocky crevices, and fast-flowing areas of the Giang River. When preparing this fish, the intestines are not removed because the fish is very clean, fatty, has few bones, and the head is the most delicious part. People in Nghe An province prepare "cá mát" in various ways, such as stewing, frying, and grilling.

Grilled mackerel

Freshly caught mackerel is cut into pieces and grilled over charcoal to preserve its freshness, sweetness, and firm texture without any preservatives.

Currently, grilled mackerel has been granted collective trademark protection by the Intellectual Property Office. The product is packaged, vacuum-sealed, and placed in paper boxes to ensure food safety and hygiene, so that tourists can buy it as a souvenir.

Do Luong rice crackers

In Do Luong, there is a traditional rice paper making village that has existed for 300 years. The village's products are famous for their delicious taste, so they are favored and consumed very well not only by domestic consumers but also by Vietnamese expatriates abroad in countries such as Germany, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, South Korea, Russia, etc.

The rice crackers here are made from rice flour, pepper, garlic, and various other spices. These small crackers, about 20 cm in diameter, are topped with plenty of black sesame seeds, giving them a nutty and fragrant flavor. Do Luong rice crackers are a simple, easy-to-eat, and convenient snack that can be enjoyed as a side dish, dipped in various soy sauces or other sauces, or served with spicy eel, stir-fried clams, steamed rice cakes, rice flour cakes, and snail dishes.

Coconut-flavored sticky rice cake

Banh gai Doc Dua, from Anh Son district, is a famous local specialty made from mung bean flour, glutinous rice, coconut pulp, sugar, honey, and especially finely ground thorn leaves.

When enjoying Banh Gai Doc Dua (a type of sticky rice cake), diners will experience the natural aroma of dried banana leaves as they peel off each layer of the cake, along with the sweet, chewy, soft, and rich flavor in each piece. This is truly a precious gift for tourists when they have the opportunity to visit the western region of Nghe An province.

M.Chi