Hello… a normal meal

It's worth mentioning the Tet holiday dishes. The first few days were delicious, but after "seeing them so often," I started to get tired of them. Visiting friends' houses for Tet, I still encountered the same Tet dishes. Suddenly, I longed for hot rice and braised fish. Now Tet is over. Life has returned to normal, "returning" to each household a regular meal with fish, soup, and vegetables...

Braised pond shrimp and water spinach soup are two extremely delicious dishes.

This morning, a woman carrying a basket of shrimp passed by my house, inviting me to buy some. Many of them were still wriggling and snapping. The rest were healthy and active, their shells still shiny with moisture. "These are shrimp from An Khe lagoon (Duc Pho, Quang Ngai ), my husband just caught them with nets this morning. Buy them quickly if you want some," the shrimp seller said cheerfully, her voice as quick as a shrimp's.

My friend and I rushed in to buy some. A kilogram of fresh shrimp for 350,000 dong was very reasonable, not expensive at all. My friend chuckled and said that he didn't know yet whether it was good or not, but he just knew that An Khe was the largest lagoon in Quang Ngai, with a pristine ecosystem, and part of the Sa Huynh cultural heritage site, so he bought it anyway. Who knows, maybe eating shrimp from the An Khe heritage lagoon will elevate our culinary culture to a whole new level.

Before marinating, the shrimp must be beheaded, washed, and drained. Marinate for a while, about an hour, to allow the onions, pepper, fish sauce, salt, and seasoning powder to penetrate the shells and soak deep inside. The shrimp have thin shells and are currently translucent, but they will start to turn a deep red as soon as they are exposed to the heat. Keep the heat low and simmer until the liquid in the pan is almost gone and slightly thickened, then turn off the heat.

My family also "makes use" of about twenty small shrimp, peels them, crushes them, and cooks them in a soup with pennywort picked from the garden. Pennywort grows low to the ground, cool and refreshing like the earth, and when cooked in a soup with "hunchbacked fish," they complement each other very well.

The post-Tet meal, featuring braised shrimp and a pot of water spinach soup, is delicious in every way. Each braised shrimp offers a captivating array of flavors. The shrimp, raised in nutrient-rich ecological ponds, are plump, juicy, and succulent; a single bite reveals a savory, sweet, natural, and refreshing taste.

The warm bowl of rice, "long-awaited" since Tet (Lunar New Year), felt both strange and familiar. The fragrant, chewy rice served as the perfect backdrop, making the plate of stir-fried shrimp a must-see for those craving a bite. Each bite was accompanied by the crisp crunch of the shrimp shells and the tender, fragrant, lingering meat.

Let's pause the stir-fried shrimp and savor the steaming hot pennywort soup. The broth is a delicate green, subtly sweet; the pennywort has a bitter taste and a slightly pungent aroma. The shrimp infuses its sweetness into the pennywort and the broth, and the first spoonful elicits a gasp of delight. Pick up a piece of shrimp with a few sprigs of pennywort attached, dip it in the fish sauce with a few slices of chili, and it's so delicious it tingles your lips. The farewell meal for Tet will be gone in no time.

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