Grilled snakehead fish on charcoal stove

U Minh Ha is a freshwater area so it is very rich in freshwater products, including snakehead fish. In the past, there was a shortage of everything but fish sauce, the land was vast, especially the baby snakehead fish was very large, each weighing 5-7 kg was normal. Every time we took a picture of the pond, drained the pond, drained the canal, we could freely catch snakehead fish, skewer them and grill them. However, in recent years, the amount of fish has decreased a lot, so the government encouraged the people of U Minh Ha to release fish on the banks to preserve freshwater fish, including snakehead fish, a specialty of the U Minh forest land, to develop the economy , especially to serve tourists who come to visit and experience.

The best time to enjoy U Minh snakehead fish is from the 10th lunar month to the first lunar month, because this is the time when the water level at the foot of the forest is at its highest, the abundant amount of young fish is a delicious bait to help the snakehead fish become plump. Snakehead fish is processed into delicious dishes. As the saying goes: "First grilled, second cooked in sour soup, third braised, fourth boiled", the best dish is snakehead fish grilled with straw or grilled on a tram charcoal stove, the type of charcoal that carries the rich flavor of the homeland. Grilled snakehead fish is popular with many diners. This dish is served with co co mint, water lily, and young morning glory shoots...

The elixir of the underworld

U Minh Ha has the largest area of ​​cajuput forest in Vietnam. This place is also the "kingdom" of natural honey from cajuput flowers and other wild flowers. Folklore often calls honey Bach Hoa cao or Bach Hoa tinh, or the elixir of cajuput flowers. The famous Vietnamese traditional medicine practitioner Hai Thuong Lan Ong Le Huu Trac considers honey to be the glue of hundreds of flowers.

U Minh honey is exploited through the form of hanging rafters to attract bees to build nests, from this form, every year U Minh people exploit several thousand tons of honey. Currently, the Department of Science and Technology of Ca Mau province has registered an exclusive trademark for the common product for cajuput forest honey. This is an opportunity for Phong Ngan Group people to exploit their advantages to bring the U Minh Ha honey brand to domestic and foreign markets, contributing to enriching the people, while developing the local socio-economy. The Vietnam Record Organization also established the largest honey bee nest in Vietnam for the profession of hanging rafters at the "U Minh Forest Fragrance - 2022" Festival.

Strange food

If U Minh forest honey is considered a panacea of ​​the land of cajuput flowers, then young honey bee pupae is a rustic dish for generations, now becoming a specialty that is always present at luxurious parties of tourists when traveling to experience the land of U Minh Ha.

Bee pupae salad is made from young bees. When harvesting honey, the forest worker cuts off a few pieces of bee pollen (called cleaning the pollen) to allow the bee colony to continue to develop. The young bee pollen is put into a pan of boiling water to melt the beeswax, the young bee pupae float to the surface of the pan, using a net to scoop the young bees out to drain and then proceed to process. Bee pupae are processed into many delicious dishes, such as fried flour, bee sauce and especially bee pupae mixed with banana blossom, a strange dish from the forest that many people love.

Fish sauce hotpot with wild vegetables

This is a typical dish from the time of reclaiming the U Minh Ha forest. The main ingredients of U Minh fish sauce hotpot are fish sauce, freshwater fish and wild vegetables, such as dot choai, water spinach, coconut vegetables, mac vegetables, lotus flowers, young banana flowers... especially water chives.

Clean and drain the perch, striped snakehead fish, and snakehead fish. Add garlic, fish sauce, and sugar to marinate to remove the fishy smell. The hotpot broth is made from fresh coconut water, seasoned with sugar, seasoning powder, chili, garlic, coriander, etc. Boil the fish sauce with water, then remove the fish bones, season to taste, and then add all the freshwater fish. Eating U Minh fish sauce hotpot should be eaten hot on a charcoal wharf, dipping the hotpot with wild vegetables is the best.

The Vietnam Record Organization (Vietkings) has established the largest U Minh Fish Sauce Hotpot in Vietnam at the "U Minh Forest Fragrance - 2022" Festival, and recently in Ho Chi Minh City. This organization also announced 11 Vietnamese specialties, natural specialties, and gift specialties that set Asian records according to the criteria for establishing Asian Culinary Values, including U Minh Fish Sauce Hotpot.

Eel braised with Morinda leaves

U Minh Ha forest is full of strange stories. Right from the time of reclaiming the land, establishing villages and opening up the South, there were chilling stories about giant king cobras longer than fishing rods made of bamboo, weighing tens of kilos, wrapping themselves around cajuput trees across the fish catching canal; or snakehead fish weighing 5-6 kilos, and countless snakes and turtles, some of which wanted to become spirits, weighing several kilos.

Nowadays, the amount of snakes, turtles, eels... has decreased a lot due to overexploitation. However, somewhere in the U Minh forest, there are still many eels weighing 1-2 kg, with bodies as big as a wrist and golden skin. U Minh eels are cooked into many delicious rustic dishes by local farmers, such as eel porridge with taro leaves, eel cooked in sour soup, eel braised in fish sauce, eel stir-fried with lemongrass and chili... especially eel stewed with noni leaves. The way to prepare this dish is very simple, clean the eel's slime with wood ash, gut it, wash it and drain it, then marinate it with onions, garlic, salt, seasoning powder...; choose noni leaves that are neither too old nor too young, cut off the backbone; grate the coconut meat and squeeze out the coconut juice, set aside the coconut juice. Put the pot on the stove, add a little cooking oil to fry the onions and garlic until fragrant; arrange the lemongrass stalks at the bottom of the pot, then a layer of noni leaves, then a layer of eels, on top put all the noni leaves on the surface of the pot and then add the coconut juice to stew the eel.

Braised eel should be cooked over medium heat so that the eel absorbs the coconut water and noni leaves. When cooked, turn off the heat. Finally, add coconut milk to the pot of braised eel. The dipping sauce for braised eel is made from coconut milk, crushed roasted peanuts, a little soy sauce, chili, and fish sauce. Braised eel with noni leaves is both delicious and sweet from the eel meat, rich from the coconut milk, and the sweet and bitter taste of noni leaves blend together to create an irresistible dish./.

Performed by Huynh Lam

Source: https://baocamau.vn/dac-san-u-minh-a2876.html