Grilled chicken with bamboo rice

Eating in Dalat

Tam Nguyen Chicken Restaurant welcomes guests from 10am to 12pm. Guests who want to eat must book a table one day in advance and transfer a deposit. The restaurant owner will confirm the meal time after receiving the deposit and guests are required to arrive on time. If they are late, they will not be allowed to eat. A meal includes a whole grilled chicken, grilled pork, boiled cabbage, stir-fried squash and bamboo rice.

Rumors about the most “posh” restaurant in Da Lat were spread by word of mouth. We were invited by two friends to try it out. The process was as follows: order food - transfer money - set a time - show up on time - eat, drink.

The owners are an old couple who live a slow life with their own principles. They see guests as friends who need a place to stop and enjoy food . The restaurant has no staff, only the couple who cook, serve, and clean, so they cannot serve too many guests.

The reason why the reservation process and the time to enjoy the dish seem so difficult for customers is because the bamboo rice dish, including the time to soak the rice, takes a total of 8 hours to complete.

To make a delicious chicken dish, you must ensure two factors: temperature and time. Whether it is 1 chicken or 5 chickens, you still need to use the right amount of charcoal to ensure the temperature. The chicken needs to be grilled for about 3 hours so that the bones are cooked, the meat is not dry, and the skin is crispy. The art of cooking lies in that strictness.

Carefully prepared dishes should be enjoyed with the most refined senses and at the most appropriate time. If guests arrive early, the meat will not be cooked; if guests arrive late, the chicken will be dry or will have to be re-grilled, losing its delicious taste.

As we ate, we used our hands to tear the chicken meat and the bamboo tube shells. Indeed, the feeling of eating rustic grilled dishes with our hands always brought us great joy. The aroma of the charcoal stove lingered on our fingertips. Not to mention, eating with our hands also reminded us of the feeling of being a child, often going into the kitchen to pick up freshly cooked food from our grandmothers and mothers.

Roadside restaurant Dak Lak

The second time, during a visit to Buon Ma Thuot, on the way to Dray Nur waterfall. It was around noon, to avoid going to the waterfall in the hot sun, we stopped at a roadside restaurant with a sign for grilled chicken and bamboo rice. The simple restaurant was built in the middle of the forest with a few house pillars and a corrugated iron roof, inside were a few tables and chairs for guests to eat and a few hammocks for guests to lie down.

Having enjoyed the delicious grilled chicken with bamboo rice in Da Lat, I honestly did not have high expectations for a simple restaurant like this, even though I knew that grilled chicken with bamboo rice is a specialty of the Ede ethnic group in Dak Lak.

However, the food on the table was much more delicious than I had imagined. The restaurant owner is an Ede couple, so they prepared the dish in its original way, without changing it to suit the tastes of the city's customers.

The chicken skin is thin and crispy. The meat has an original flavor without being marinated. Bamboo rice is made from fragrant sticky rice grains, grilled in a fire through a bamboo tube and compressed with banana leaves.

Thinking back to the two memories of grilled chicken with bamboo rice, I realized that this dish would be less delicious without the scenery. The proof is that besides those two times, I have eaten grilled chicken with bamboo rice many more times at home or in restaurants specializing in local specialties, but none of them were really delicious. Thinking back, those two times, we enjoyed lunch while watching the sky, grass and trees, in the cool breeze, occasionally hearing the rustling of the sky and earth.

Eating rustic dishes, sitting in a rustic space, close to nature or imbued with regional culture will enhance the flavor of the dish because the dish is not just food but also a part of traditional culture. Sitting and eating grilled chicken with bamboo rice in the middle of a natural setting creates a very special and unforgettable culinary experience.

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/ga-nuong-com-lam-3152653.html