Horror specialties for foreign tourists

Article and photos:Lam Linh

Not only animal meat, viscera is also a dish that Vietnamese people make full use of. In the "list of viscera", ethnic minorities in the highlands of the East - Northwest have thang co and nam phia. These two dishes are difficult for Vietnamese people to eat, let alone Westerners! Nam pia is a dish cooked from the small intestine of a goat, still with its young feces cooked with blood. This dish is both unpleasant to smell and bitter, but is loved by many people. It is found in the Son La region. Thang co is found in many places in Lao Cai and Ha Giang. This dish cooked from horse meat can make many people not dare to touch it with chopsticks. The markets of the mountains and forests always have thang co stalls.

Thang Co is cooked very simply. After the horse is slaughtered, the loin and lean parts are separated for sale. The bones are chopped together with the tendons, fat and other scraps of meat, the blood is cut into small pieces, the organs are all put into the pan, seasoned with traditional spices including salt, cardamom, and groundnut. Stir everything over the fire, then add water, and cook continuously for many hours. While cooking, remove the scum and discard it. Thang Co has a distinctive strong smell that anyone who smells it once will remember forever. The color of Thang Co is thick and unattractive. When anyone comes to eat, Thang Co is scooped into a hot bowl, and they blow on it while eating. Thang Co is served with mint leaves, which has its own flavor, and a cup of strong corn wine.

Compared to many dishes that are difficult to eat for people from other culinary regions, rat meat is also considered a horror dish. The rats used to make this dish are fat field rats that have just eaten their fill of rice that has fallen on the fields after the harvest. Therefore, there are not always delicious rats to eat. The season for rat meat in the Red River Delta is around May and September, and in the Mekong Delta it is around October, during the flood season. After the rice harvest, people eagerly go to the fields to trap rats. Fat field rats are especially delicious when grilled or grilled with straw, and taste just like suckling pig. Although there is not much rat meat, it can be made into many delicious dishes. People who drink during the ripe rice season will not ignore this delicious dish. Not everyone dares to eat rat meat, especially people in the city, because it is disgusting to look at!

Not on the “list of organs” or live animals, but the dish of balut - a nutritious dish present in Vietnamese breakfast and dinner - has a rather horrifying image in the eyes of foreign tourists. According to Oriental medicine, this dish eaten with spices such as Vietnamese coriander and fresh ginger is a medicine, used to treat anemia, weakness, stunted growth, headaches, dizziness, erectile dysfunction, etc. The dish makes a warm breakfast or a light meal for dinner. Balut is sold all over Vietnam, many people like to eat it, many people find it disgusting and cruel because the baby duck has not yet fully formed before it becomes a dish. Balut should be eaten hot, eat the young fruit because when the old fruit, the duck has fully formed and has feathers and wings, you will not want to eat it.

And needless to say, when you see a bowl of fresh blood pudding with a bloody color, a plate of intestines, lungs, intestines, and liver all over. Yet it is a delicious dish, everyone who has eaten it loves it. Chewy, crispy, crunchy, add a little basil leaves, a little shrimp paste and lemon juice and you have a memorable drinking party. Animal organs are also accompanied by the strong, unpleasant smell of shrimp paste. Have you ever seen a Westerner try this dish?

Last on the list of horrifying dishes in the eyes of foreign tourists are insects. Insect dishes are not unfamiliar to many Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia and Thailand. Insects in Vietnam are the same, with all kinds of fried and roasted dishes with all kinds of grasshoppers, crickets, spiders, scorpions... But the most prominent is eating live coconut worms. Coconut worms are larvae that live inside coconut trees, sucking all the substances from the trunk. When coconut worms are plump and plump, the coconut tree dies. In Tra Vinh, people process three types of worms into specialties, including palm worms, coconut worms, and ground worms. Worms are larvae of the planthopper. To increase the deliciousness of the worms, people stuff peanuts into the worms. The fat of the worms mixes with the fat of the peanuts, creating a feeling that is hard to describe. Many people say that dishes made from worms help men increase their ability in the bedroom.

A common way to eat worms in Can Tho that is more challenging than anything else is to eat live worms. The plump, golden worms are placed in a bowl of fish sauce mixed with extremely spicy chili. The worms suck the sauce, wriggling their bodies in the bowl. The brave person holds the still-living worms and puts them in their mouths, uses their teeth to bite off the head. The worms writhe and fall straight into their mouths. Using their teeth to bite, they feel the fatness of the worms, the salty taste of the fish sauce and chili, and the delicious chewy shell. It looks easy but is difficult to eat, so not everyone has the courage to do it. But this is one of the best ways to eat worms with an unforgettable experience.

Culinary culture is a strong point in Vietnamese culture. There are many delicious dishes that are mentioned with pride by friends from all over the world such as pho, nem, bun cha, banh mi… And there are also some scary dishes like the ones above, which bring them curiosity and interest. Truly delicious dishes are long-remembered!

The Thanh