I remember, when I was five or six, every time my parents took me from town to the countryside, I would follow my grandmother to the market. During the subsidy period, in the North, it was called a market for show, but in reality, there were only a few rows of makeshift thatched huts. The most eye-catching stalls were the ones selling groceries, which were the most colorful, but the rest were mostly vegetables picked from the home garden, and fish and crabs caught from the fields, stored in baskets woven from bamboo. In that small village, far from the city, the sellers and buyers on the upper and lower lanes all knew each other. At that time, I didn’t care whether the market was crowded or empty, I just wanted my grandmother to quickly take me to the banh duc stall, where right next to it was a tray of candy from an old lady with sparkling black teeth. My grandmother would definitely feed me a full meal of banh duc and also buy me some co candy, a type of candy made from rice flour and sugar, as big as a thumb, shaped like a diamond, both crumbly and crispy, hidden in a layer of pure white dough, extremely attractive.
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| Countryside market. Photo: PV |
At the age of ten, my family moved to Binh Dinh, my father's hometown. The rural market was not much different. There were still a few eye-catching grocery stalls, a few stalls selling clothes, a few stalls selling beef, pork, a few cutting boards of freshwater fish, and the rest were dozens of stalls selling fish sauce, pickles, and vegetables... The vendors were honest and sincere. The first time I followed my mother to the market, I was bewildered and shy because I felt like hundreds of eyes were on my mother and me because of my strange voice and strange way of dressing. I got used to it, and after only a few months, my mother became a regular customer of everyone. Occasionally, she would bring a bunch of chili or vegetables to the market to sell. I liked the cake stall the most because my mother would let me have a full meal. My hometown was in the midlands, surrounded by mountains, and trade was difficult at that time, so most of the food and drinks were self-sufficient. People in my hometown make all kinds of cakes from rice grains such as banh hoi, banh day, banh beo, banh xeo vo, banh canh, banh duc, banh nep, banh it, banh chung or cakes made from cassava, sweet potatoes... with a very rich, unmistakable rustic flavor.
When I was twenty-three years old, I moved to Quang Ngai to settle down. I had the opportunity to immerse myself in the rural market space with a different color. At that time, the subsidy period had passed, the rural market here had more goods and was also more bustling. Quang Ngai people were cheerful, lively and humorous, although I was not familiar with the accent, I was very excited. I discovered a few dishes that my hometown did not have. First was the fragrant sugar-coated rice paper. Quang Ngai is the land of sugarcane, during the sugarcane season, people cook sugar and then dip the rice paper into a hot pan of molasses to create a very typical dish. Looking at the skewers of rice paper covered with a layer of brown molasses in transparent plastic bags, it was hard to resist. Next were the trays of golden corn rolls placed on top of a pan of boiling oil. Corn rolls were rolled with rice paper and raw vegetables and dipped in a bowl of thick chili, lemon and sugar fish sauce, taking a bite was crispy. Then there was the young jackfruit salad sprinkled with roasted peanuts, picking up a chopstick and putting it in your mouth, hearing the refreshing, nutty taste that satisfied your taste buds. The most memorable is the hot bowl of don, the long don pieces slightly longer than the tip of a bamboo toothpick, faintly visible under the green color of fresh spring onions, the smell of chili and pepper mixed together wafting through as if holding people back...
On a rainy day, the sky and earth were beginning to turn winter. I followed my memories back to the old country market and felt extremely warm in my heart. The taste of the countryside imbued with the love of the countryside in the rustic dishes, in the busy appearance of the hard-working country women that I met in the poor markets in those distant days had become an indispensable part of my soul, in my love for my homeland...
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