Mangosteen chicken salad causes a 'fever', tourists flock to Binh Duong to taste the famous specialty

Made from a famous fruit in Binh Duong, mangosteen chicken salad has long become a delicious specialty that diners tell each other they must try if they have the opportunity to travel to this land.

Although not a new dish, recently, mangosteen chicken salad has suddenly become a "fever" on many online forums about tourism and quickly created a culinary trend, attracting customers to "catch the trend".

Mangosteen chicken salad has been widely shared on many online forums recently and is a famous specialty of Lai Thieu, Binh Duong (Photo: Huynh Hong Dao).

Mangosteen season is from April to the end of June. In addition to ripe mangosteen, people also harvest green mangosteen to serve customers who need to prepare dishes (Photo: Trang Nguyen).

In Binh Duong, Lai Thieu mangosteen is the most delicious. Therefore, many tourists from neighboring provinces are willing to travel a distance of several dozen kilometers to come here to enjoy this famous specialty.

Even many diners in the North who have not had the opportunity to set foot in the "capital" of mangosteen do not hesitate to spend from several hundred thousand to millions of Dong to find and enjoy this strange sweet and sour salad.

While ripe mangosteen is sold for about 40,000 - 65,000 VND/kg, green mangosteen is priced ten times higher because it is an ingredient used to make the famous chicken salad (Photo: Huynh Hong Dao).

Mr. Le Lam (in Ho Chi Minh City) said that after reading posts about mangosteen chicken salad, he decided to drive more than 30km to take his whole family to Binh Duong to enjoy the specialty of Lai Thieu region.

“If I order green mangosteen and make it myself, it will be expensive and I don’t know how to prepare it, so I decided to take my wife and children to enjoy this dish. Although the distance is far, not to mention the traffic jams on weekends, when I tasted the crispy, sweet and sour mangosteen chicken salad, I felt like all the hard work was worth it,” said Mr. Lam.

Mangosteen chicken salad is made from ingredients such as green mangosteen, boiled chicken, onions, carrots, herbs and mixed with sweet and sour fish sauce (Photo: Hang Tran Bigsize).

Ms. Thanh Dao (from Binh Duong) was surprised when a familiar dish for many years suddenly became a "fever", becoming a trend that many tourists responded to.

On weekends, the number of customers from inside and outside the province coming to her garden restaurant doubles or triples just to enjoy the famous mangosteen chicken salad.

Some acquaintances from far away even called her to ask her to help them order a few dozen kilos of green mangosteen to "catch the trend" of this delicious dish that has been taking the internet by storm in recent days.

“Green mangosteen has a lot of latex, so processing it takes a lot of effort and time. However, seeing that my friends and relatives living far away are looking forward to enjoying this local specialty, I bought green mangosteen, peeled it, sliced it, prepared the ingredients and dipping sauce, then vacuum-packed it and sent it to them by plane,” she said.

Through the elaborate and meticulous preparation steps of the processor, the mangosteen still retains its whiteness, crispness and is not crushed, making the dish both delicious and aesthetically pleasing (Photo: Dang Tai Gioi).

According to Ms. Dao, to make delicious mangosteen chicken salad, you must choose fruit with a hard, slightly green skin, still unripe or slightly yellow but ripe enough. The chicken must also be selected from a local chicken or a bantam chicken, with firm meat, yellow skin, and a natural sweetness.

After cleaning, boil the chicken with a little fish sauce, pepper, seasoning powder... to make the meat more flavorful and fragrant. The chicken broth is used to cook porridge, add some straw mushrooms, and serve with mangosteen salad, very delicious.

The most important and elaborate step in preparing this dish is peeling the mangosteen. After harvesting, the fruit is soaked in diluted salt water to reduce the latex and make the peeling process easier.

Mangosteens must be peeled under running water to remove the yellow sap, then soaked in ice water to preserve the color, increase crispness and reduce astringency. After that, the mangosteens are sliced into thin, beautiful flower-shaped slices and mixed with vinegar and sugar or lemon to prevent browning.

When making salad, people take out the mangosteen to drain and mix it well with shredded chicken, grated carrots, onions and Vietnamese coriander, seasoning with spices such as salt, sugar, fried onions and roasted peanuts.

Mangosteen chicken salad has a unique and refreshing flavor. Each portion of salad with porridge costs from 400,000 - 650,000 VND/serving, suitable for 2-4 people (Photo: Ngoc Huong Tran).

To make the dish more flavorful and delicious, Binh Duong people also mix in a sweet and sour fish sauce, thick. Diners can dip it separately or mix it together to eat with the salad.

Diners who have enjoyed mangosteen chicken salad commented that the dish has a sweet, soft taste of chicken mixed with the slightly sour, sweet taste of mangosteen, a little bit of roasted peanuts, and the crunchiness of carrots. This salad also has a refreshing taste, helping to cool down effectively in the summer.

Phan Dau

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