The North often calls it "gio", the South calls it "cha". Whether celebrating Tet Northern style, with a "full feast" with many delicious dishes, or more casually Southern style, with pickled onions, pickled vegetables, and braised pork, there must still be "cha" on the feast.
Among all the varieties, pork roll (also known as gio cha) and pork roll are two indispensable dishes.
To make delicious sausage, you have to be meticulous right from the meat selection stage. The pork must be fresh, warm, and pink, the tendons and skin removed, only the lean meat is used, then pounded. Making traditional sausage is very hard, you have to pound the raw pork in a stone mortar by hand. Those who specialize in selling sausage use a wooden mortar, stomping their feet to reduce fatigue, or grind the meat until it is crushed and then mince it homemade style. But pounding by hand is still the best way to make delicious sausage.
Wait until the meat is pounded into a smooth, greasy mixture, then you can start adding fish sauce and spices according to each family's recipe to stuff. Scoop the raw meatballs, wrap them in banana leaves like banh tet, then put them in a steamer. If the meatballs are about 1kg, steam them for about 1 hour, and if they are small, about half a kilo, they only need to steam for about 50 minutes.
When the ham is cooked, it will give off a light, fragrant smell of hot meat. Take it out and hang it to drain, then you can eat it hot with white rice. A good ham slice must have tiny holes, be slightly pink, and be moist. Any slice that is white, smooth, and flawless must contain a lot of borax!
When Tet comes, if you can't give each other pork roll, you should at least give each other some packages of pork roll.
Pork head sausage is crunchy, chewy, and delicious, making it an ideal snack for uncles and aunts during the holidays. It can be made at home, but it is very complicated; it is easy to make but difficult to make delicious. Balancing the ratio between ears, nose, tongue, wood ear, pepper, and spices to make the sausage delicious and crispy is not a small matter. Some people do not like to add pig nose because they are afraid of fat, some want to reduce the pig tongue because they are afraid of dryness, some people like ear cartilage and wood ear so they just put a lot in...
Stir-frying meat requires careful measurement of pepper, fish sauce, onions, and spices, because there is no exact recipe for this dish. Ask your mother, she will always say: “Add a little of each!” Good brawn must be wrapped nicely and compressed tightly. A little secret is to remember to quickly heat banana leaves over a fire, the leaves will be softer, less pungent, easier to wrap, use, and tie.
Vietnamese people can make ham from any meat, including beef ham, horse ham, veal ham, etc. Each region has its own style, each family has its own recipe, and it is impossible to count them all. Therefore, when you go to eat homemade ham, sometimes this year it tastes so good, but the next year it tastes different, because each time you “season this a little, taste that a little” differently.
Just kidding, but my ham is the best. Traveling here and there, eating all kinds of cold cuts, smoked meats, sausages,... I still remember and love the ham the most, served with a bowl of hot white rice, just cooked and eaten.
Song: Pan Banana
Photo: Various authors
