Muoi Ngot Eco- tourism Area (Khanh Binh Tay Bac Commune, Tran Van Thoi District) is one of the options for tourists to find ancient traces of the forest and enjoy unique dishes from the skillful hands of the villagers.

Having experience in cooking traditional delicacies since her youth, and being known as a talented woman, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Cam (Mr. Muoi Ngọt’s wife), from Tan Hung commune, Cai Nuoc district, knows how to cook many rustic dishes. With her experience, when she returned to the land of cajuput (about 8 years), Mrs. Cam and her daughter-in-law researched and learned to prepare many new and unique dishes of this place such as: braised eel with Morinda leaves, stir-fried eel with lemongrass and chili, bee salad, crispy fried bee, sour hotpot with fermented rice, grilled snakehead fish, etc.

Coming to Ca Mau when the fields have been harvested, visitors can experience grilling freshwater fish (snakehead fish, perch...) with straw.

Ms. Cam confided: “Visitors entering the tourist area will be taken on a tour to explore the profession of beehive-keeping, then weave through canals to remove traps and eel cages… Only when tourists see the products with their own eyes, and then process them into dishes, will they remember them forever. Seeing tourists enjoy delicious dishes from the countryside makes me happy.”

Making such delicious dishes is not easy, it takes experience. “Seasoning becomes familiar, but I have my own secret to suit the taste of many people and it has to be exactly like my mother-in-law’s. For example, when people from the West come here, I add sugar, but for people from the North, they have to order in advance to suit their taste, especially the sour hotpot with snakehead fish and fermented rice, which is not added with sugar,” said Ms. Le Kieu Phien (Mrs. Cam’s daughter-in-law).

One of the most unique and popular dishes among tourists is braised eel with Morinda leaves. The eels are placed in canals in the middle of cajuput forests, while the Morinda leaves are grown naturally…

Ms. Le Thi Lan, a tourist from Tan Phu district, Ho Chi Minh City, said: “The highlight of this dish is the soy sauce, coconut milk, and peanuts… all of which melt in the mouth and linger on the tip of the tongue. Anyone who has tried it will want to come back to enjoy it next time.”

Melaleuca cuisine is made up of delicious dishes made from local products, from what is considered rustic and closely associated with people's lives. (Photo taken at Huong Tram Tourist Area).
Grilled snakehead fish with straw is an indispensable dish when coming to the river region. The simplicity of the dish has partly recreated the process of reclaiming land of our ancestors in the past.

As for bee products: young bees (eaten on the spot), bee salad, crispy fried bees, young bee milk soaked in wine... The bee's rafter stalks are also soaked in rice wine.

Mr. Muoi Ngọt said: “These are also new products from bees that I came up with myself, because many tourists who come here find them fragrant, delicious, and good for their health, so during the last Tet holiday, customers ordered several hundred liters, sometimes all the way to Ho Chi Minh City…”.

When it comes to U Minh, it is impossible not to mention U Minh fish sauce hotpot. Recently, this hotpot dish has entered the top 100 Vietnamese specialties, elaborately prepared at Huong Tram Tourist Area (Khanh An Commune, U Minh District). It is the charming flavor of the snakehead fish sauce along with the delicious, firm fresh fish and wild vegetables that have created the brand of the famous fish sauce hotpot dish.

Ms. Le Hai Nghi, Deputy Director of Huong Tram Eco-Tourism Area, said: “The hotpot here is made in a systematic way, so that visitors can enjoy the most authentic and unmistakable taste. Many visitors from Ca Mau eat it and become “addicted”, and come here with their families on weekends or free days to enjoy it.”

U Minh people are simple and honest, not only expressed through their personality but also through the sophistication of their hands in preparing food. Coming to U Minh, one must discover the breath of the forest, of what belongs to the forest and the people who built it./.

Nhat Minh

Source: https://baocamau.vn/du-vi-xu-tram-a2679.html