What are Son La's specialties? 6 specialties imbued with the Northwest mountains and forests

Pa pinh top

Pa Pinh Top is made from fresh carp, grass carp or silver carp weighing only 0.5 - 0.8 kg. After cleaning the fish scales, the chefs use a knife to cut along the back instead of cutting open the belly to easily stuff the spices. According to the Thai people, cutting the fish this way will make it easier to fold the fish when grilling, and at the same time help the spices inside penetrate deeper into the fish meat.

The indispensable spices when grilling Pa Pinh Top are lemongrass, ginger, chili, green onions, etc. All are crushed and mixed with mac khen seeds to make the dish more delicious and unique.

Pa Pinh Top is grilled on a charcoal stove, when the fish begins to cook, a unique aroma will appear that attracts anyone standing nearby. When enjoying, diners will feel the fatty taste of fish fat, along with the richness of fish meat soaked in spices, completely different from the usual grilled fish dishes you have eaten.

Buffalo skin salad

For the Thai people in Son La , buffalo skin salad is an indispensable dish on the traditional dinner table. Made from special ingredients, this dish requires meticulousness and skill. After peeling off the skin, it must be heated over a fire to clean off the thick and hard hair. The outer black skin will be carefully scraped off before being put into a pot to boil for about 1 hour. To make the skin crispy and chewy, before slicing it into thin pieces, it must be soaked in cold water.

Like many other salads, sourness is the main flavor, but Thai people do not use vinegar or lemon but use bamboo shoot juice. The buffalo skin is skillfully sliced into thin, even pieces, soaked in sour, cool bamboo shoot juice. After soaking, the buffalo skin has a light yellow color, very beautiful to look at.

A typical Son La salad must have all the local ingredients and spices: wild canarium fruit, mac khen seeds, Vietnamese coriander, Vietnamese coriander, herbs, roasted peanuts, etc. Each ingredient is a little bit but blends well together to create the unmistakable flavor of the Northwest mountains and forests.

Fried veal

In addition to buffalo skin salad, Moc Chau fried veal is also a delicious Son La dish worth enjoying for tourists. After being cleaned and deodorized, the veal will be cut into bite-sized slices or square pieces depending on the place of sale. However, the meat pieces are usually small to make it easier to marinate and fry on the stove.

A delicious piece of fried veal is when the outside is golden and crispy, cooked evenly, the meat inside is soft and sweet and has absorbed the marinated spices. The veal is soft and sweet, fragrant with lemongrass, with crispy skin, dipped in rich tamarind sauce, and eaten with herbs.

Velvet antler porridge

This special porridge is one of the specialties of Son La but not many people know about it. The mac nhung fruit has a bitter taste, a bit spicy and a little sweet aftertaste. This fruit is green, its fruit is only as small as a papaya seed.

The mac nhung tree grows naturally on fields or cliffs along the forest edges. When the fruit is ripe, it falls and develops into young trees, growing in clumps, climbing around tree trunks, or spreading on the ground. This type of tree is very popular in Son La.

The velvet apple is cooked with sticky rice and bone broth for many hours to create a dish that is both delicious and nutritious. To have a bowl of delicious velvet apple porridge, first you have to choose a bunch of fresh fruits, remove the stems, wash and drain. When cooking, add a little oil to a hot pan, then add minced meat and stir well until the meat is golden brown. Mix sticky rice flour with enough water, stir well and pour into the pot, add spices, seasoning powder, fish sauce, ginger, pepper, then add velvet apple and stir. When the porridge boils and smells fragrant, it is done.

Chieng Mai Duck

Chieng Mai duck is a small duck breed, weighing only 1.5-1.7 kg. They have small bones, yellow skin, fragrant meat, sweet taste, soft but not mushy. Chieng Mai chefs use duck to prepare dishes such as boiled duck, duck stewed with bamboo shoots, duck stir-fried with lemongrass and chili, duck fried with galangal, etc. Chieng Mai duck makes many tourists praise its deliciousness when enjoying it.

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