1. From the song:
"The best fish sauce
Dip the papaya in a daze”…
Phan Thiet has always been famous for its delicious fish sauce. Delicious from color to taste. The most common and easily recognizable difference of Phan Thiet fish sauce compared to other regions is the straw yellow color (if the raw material is anchovy) or light brown (mackerel), clear, with a strong aroma and a rich sweet taste due to high protein. That difference of Phan Thiet fish sauce is explained by the fermentation process under the sun and wind - high average temperature, low humidity positively affects the fermentation mechanism - something that is difficult for any locality to be favored like the South Central region. With more than 300 years of history, the fish sauce making profession in Phan Thiet has become a traditional profession. When it comes to Phan Thiet - Binh Thuan fish sauce, not only people in the country but also foreigners know its special delicious and rich flavor.
Phan Thiet also has a famous proverb: "Literary words are not as good as sardine bones". This saying has been debated for a long time. Some people say that saying so shows that Phan Thiet people do not respect literary words. Others argue that saying so is to show off that their land has a lot of fish sauce, typically sardines and sardine sauce. Everyone has their own reasons. Binh Thuan is the last land established in the Dang Trong strip (1697 - the reign of Lord Nguyen Phuc Chu), far from Phu Xuan but not yet part of Gia Dinh, and carries the curse of "Khanh Hoa tiger - Binh Thuan ghost", how can we use literary words to talk to people. Luckily, God gave this land "Nai, Ria rice ( Dong Nai , Ba Ria) - Ri, Rang fish (Phan Ri, Phan Rang)". Through historical and cultural research works, foreign and domestic researchers have come to a consensus that since the Vietnamese people came to explore Dang Trong, they received the sea culture from the Cham people - the indigenous people, with three main contents: the custom of worshiping Whale, the profession of making fish sauce and going to sea by boat. From historical documents, we can see that fish sauce originated in the Central region, starting from the fermentation technique of the Cham people. After the Vietnamese people migrated, they adopted and developed it into a traditional profession. At that time, fish sauce was known, tried and highly appreciated by foreigners, so it was recorded in documents. Among them, the most famous is Phan Thiet - Binh Thuan fish sauce.
As for the gourd, from the original gourd of the Cham people, it was transformed into the Quang Nam gourd, then in Binh Thuan it became the famous Mui Ne gourd, transporting forest and sea products of Binh Thuan to the six provinces of the South and back to the Central and the North, whose main product is Phan Thiet - Binh Thuan fish sauce.
To say “fish sauce tin” is to say it in short, to say it fully means fish sauce stored in tins. Phan Thiet people thought of a way to make a ceramic tin from baked clay, then made a lid that fits the mouth of the tin, poured fish sauce in, and then welded it together with a glue mixture of lime mixed with water, pink string, and molasses. Each ceramic tin weighs about 3.7 liters, and is tied with a string made from dried leaves (buong) to make a handle on the outside. The fish sauce tins are carried onto boats, neatly arranged, and transported by sea to the South and North. Nowadays, people store fish sauce in (ve) bottles, put them in beautifully labeled paper boxes, and only once in a while does someone mention the name of Lo Tin hamlet, now in Tien Hiep village, Tien Loi commune, Phan Thiet city...
Back to the story of literature. One time, while attending the Cau Ngu Festival at Van Thuy Tu Palace, I met Uncle Bay Van, a Confucian scholar residing in Duc Long Ward (now deceased). He was the seventh uncle and specialized in writing funeral orations for ceremonies and reading parallel sentences on steles at communal houses, temples, palaces, and mausoleums in the area around Phan Thiet, so everyone called him Uncle Bay Van.
The sea and the sun rise, the dragon and the sun rise, looking up at the spring color.
From the mountains come the phoenixes and samsara, the ancient ruins are renewed.
That is a pair of Chinese parallel sentences placed at the martial arts house of Van Thuy Tu, transcribed and translated by Uncle Bay Van as follows:
(Every day) looking out to sea at sunrise, the merchant fleet (boats) race each other to curve in the shape of a dragon, like the spring scenery.
(Looking into) the mountains from the distant sky, a field of phoenix-shaped rice bends in the wind, sparkling as if the heavens have bestowed a new scene.
I was suddenly startled. Is there any parallel sentence more beautiful and interesting than the above one, describing the scenery of the countryside of Phan Thiet - Ham Thuan in the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century, when trade and commerce were flourishing, under the sea, Phan Thiet - Phu Hai - Mui Ne junks were bustling, winding in the shape of a Dragon carrying fish sauce far away. On the shore, the rice fields of Nang Huong, Nang Sau, Mong Chim were shaped into the Mong Phuong rice fields, swaying in the wind, sparkling... Let's continue reading the parallel sentence:
The country's gods are three inches above the capital.
A family of three has its own flesh and blood, how can one skillfully use two hearts?
And say to each other:
In a country people should use prayer wheels to communicate with each other very well.
Every family wants to keep the daily family love should not change the heart.
The advice of the ancients still gives people today to ponder. In life, speaking to each other about good and true things should be done with “three inches of tongue” (tam thon thiet), and when living together, do not be cunning and have two hearts (luong ban tam). Suddenly, I thought that although the literary works in this country are few, they are no less “intelligent”. Talking about folk literature through songs, folk songs, and love between couples that are directly related to the profession of “the fragrance of fish sauce” becoming “the fragrance of love” is no less interesting. For example:
Good fish sauce to dip the catfish
I want to get married, tell me the truth.
Oh my god, the catfish is just a "long mong liet meo" but cooked in a light soup with onion and pepper, dipped in Phan Thiet fish sauce, you will know how delicious it is when you eat it!. If you ask, you have to answer:
Top quality fish sauce
Dip the papaya in the dull, lethargic taste
I complained to you that I was still foolish and naive.
Want to be a daughter-in-law, parents know who to rely on.
Then “who planted this potato”. The great thing here is to cook a pot of papaya soup with pork, pork ribs (in the past, women after giving birth often ate this dish to produce milk) or just boil the papaya and dip it in Phan Thiet fish sauce, it is really silly and sluggish…
On the introduction page of “Fish Sauce Museum – Ancient Fishing Village of Mui Ne” we see documents about the transportation of fish sauce from the shore to the sampans:
“As for the history of Phan Thiet’s gourd boats – a means of transportation and transport of fish sauce back and forth, it was originally a gourd boat from Quang Nam, but when it entered Phan Thiet, it was improved by Mui Ne boatmen to become the gourd boats as they are now. They improved it so that when the gourd boats docked, they would usually not dock close to the shore but a few meters away from the shore, and then the boatman would use a long plank to build a bridge from the boat to the shore. That’s why when the workers transferred fish sauce to the gourd boats, they often used a long bamboo pole, with good coconut ropes tied at both ends, each rope leaving a length of about 30-40 cm, the other end of the pole was tied with a small piece of bamboo about 20 cm long in a T-shaped way. To bring the pure, delicious fish sauce onto the gourd boats, people hooked the gourd rope diagonally to the T-shaped bamboo piece and carried it onto the boat.
It is also because of this that countless interesting things have happened, that is, carrying the fish sauce jars onto the sampans is mostly hired by strong, resilient girls in their late teens and early twenties to carry 6 to 10 jars on their shoulders at a time, this scene has made countless young men fall in love with the image of the girls carrying the fish sauce jars onto the sampans. Then, countless love stories have blossomed from here, from the sampan dock carrying the fish sauce. Some people come to help the girls and conveniently talk, others are shy and miss the point, thus becoming unforgettable youth anecdotes. To the point that there are even verses and words that can still be heard today:
“Good fish sauce lies deep at the bottom of the jar,
drop the papaya to the bottom of the jar,
The candleberry flowers are dyed red by the candleberry,
how many beautiful girls you do not look,
"Yes, I just love you alone".
To conclude part I about popular literature and on the occasion of the spring festival, the new year, I would like to borrow some rhymes from artist Hoai Linh in the song "Spring Wishes" in the year of Tan Suu 2021, the year when the whole country focused on overcoming the pandemic. As we all know, in addition to comedy, Hoai Linh also has a sweet singing voice of Bai Choi from our land of Nau from Nam - Ngai - Binh - Phu to Binh Thuan. Artist Hoai Linh has historical and geographical knowledge when wishing a happy new year according to the characteristics of each province in Vietnam. From big cities to remote mountainous areas, a series of famous landscapes, founding history or unique regional characteristics are all skillfully included by Artist Hoai Linh in the song "Spring Wishes". Immediately, the most heartfelt New Year greeting of Artist Hoai Linh in Vbiz was "liked" by fans and widely shared on social networks. After more than 1 hour of posting, Hoai Linh's New Year's poem of more than 7,000 words and nearly 500 sentences received 86,000 likes, tens of thousands of comments and more than 3,000 shares. Here is the artist's part of the New Year's greetings for Binh Thuan province:
Here I am, hunkering down in the beautiful sea/Wishing my fellow countrymen in Binh Thuan province/It's been a leap year, the pandemic has been prolonged/Things have not been implemented smoothly/Phan Thiet is waiting, the opportunity has come/Let's develop strongly, the peak is reaching/Entering the new year, I wish you peace/Green dragon fruit with a bumper crop, high prices/Mui Ne is prosperous, tourists are coming/Developing boats and canoes in Lagi is prosperous/All plans and wishes come true/Maintaining the traditional fish sauce industry/The fragrance is imbued with hard work/Raising the economic value very high/Wishing the fellow countrymen in Phan Ri, Long Huong/Vinh Hao good luck, prosperity and prosperity. (To be continued)
Source: https://baobinhthuan.com.vn/chu-nghia-van-chuong-tu-huong-nuoc-mam-127364.html
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