Nem Cha village operates at full capacity to serve the Tet market

Not as bustling as flower villages or noodle villages, these days the nem cha Cho Huyen village (Tuy Phuoc district, Binh Dinh) is quietly producing at full capacity to serve Tet.

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Cho Huyen Nem Cha Village in Phuoc Loc Commune (Tuy Phuoc District, Binh Dinh) produces spring rolls all year round, but on the days leading up to Lunar New Year, every facility is "sweating" in a race against time to have enough goods to serve consumers during Tet.

Nem Cha Cho Huyen is a famous culinary brand nationwide, especially for men, because this is a very "spicy" dish. To find out why this culinary product is called "nem cha Cho Huyen", we were told by the elders in Phuoc Loc commune (Tuy Phuoc district): Previously, Cho Huyen was located in Hanh Quang village (Phuoc Loc commune), meeting right on the old National Highway 1, a place that attracted wholesalers and consumers in Tuy Phuoc district.

Nem cha is sold along National Highway 1 through Phuoc Loc commune (Tuy Phuoc district, Binh Dinh). Photo: V.D.T.

Cho Huyen is also the place where the profession of making nem cha originated. At that time, the first nem cha maker here named his product “Cho Huyen nem cha” so that consumers could easily remember it, and also to distinguish it from nem cha produced in other localities.

According to Ms. Tran Thi Thu Thao (born in 1976), the third generation descendant of a family with many generations of making Cho Huyen spring rolls, Mr. Tran Vo (Ms. Thao's grandfather) was from Nhon An commune (An Nhon town, Binh Dinh) and moved to Tuy Phuoc district to start a business, residing in Hanh Quang village (formerly Quang Tin village). Mr. Tran Vo was the one who "founded the world" of making Cho Huyen spring rolls with the brand name "Bay U spring rolls" famous throughout the country at that time.

Thao's childhood was filled with the bustling atmosphere of her grandfather's spring roll making business - Mr. Bay U. At 3am, Thao was awakened by the owners of pig slaughterhouses delivering meat to her grandfather's spring roll processing facility. After Mr. Bay U, Thao's father, Bay Liem, took over his father's business as the owner of the spring roll production facility. At this time, Thao was an adult and could help her father with the spring roll making business.

Hand-rolling ham in Phuoc Loc commune (Tuy Phuoc district, Binh Dinh). Photo: V.D.T.

“Fresh, tendonless pieces of meat are selected to make spring rolls. The raw meat is chopped into small pieces, put into a mortar, and 4-5 people pound it by hand until it is very smooth, each mortar only grinds 1-2kg of meat. Each mortar of meat is pounded for about 30 minutes to achieve smoothness, then spices are added to make spring rolls. The meat pounding process lasts from 3am to 1pm. Back then, if you wanted to make 1,000 spring rolls, it would take from 3am to 1am the next morning to finish, so the spring roll processing factories at that time attracted a lot of labor,” Ms. Thao recalled.

Later on, the descendants of the elders in the Cho Huyen nem cha making profession, when they got married, carried on the traditional profession of their ancestors. According to the Binh Dinh Department of Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery Product Quality Management, there are nearly 80 nem cha production establishments spread across the province, most concentrated in Tuy Phuoc district.

Finished spring rolls at the Thu Thao spring roll production facility of Ms. Tran Thi Thu Thao in Dieu Tri town (Thuy Phuoc district, Binh Dinh). Photo: V.D.T.

“Break up” with traditional ways of doing things

Currently, the production of nem cha in Cho Huyen as well as other localities in Binh Dinh province has almost "said goodbye" to the manual method as before, most of the stages are done by industrial machines. Thanks to that, the product not only ensures food hygiene and safety, but also saves labor, and the processing capacity is many times higher than when done manually.

Now the pork used to make nem cha is ground by machine, so it is many times smoother than meat ground by hand. After being ground, the meat is put into a mortar placed above the measuring machine, the meat in the mortar flows through a stainless steel pipe down the conveyor to the part that cuts into nem pieces.

Ms. Thao's son operates the machine to measure and make spring rolls. Photo: V.D.T.

Ms. Tran Thi Thu Thao shared more: Depending on the operator of the machine, the machine will set the default time for the number of spring rolls to be produced, and then the facility will only spend labor to wrap the spring rolls. For spring rolls, it takes 3-5 days to reach the right sourness before they can be eaten. In the sunny season, it takes 3 days for the spring rolls to be sour, and in the rainy season, it takes 5 days.

Cha lua is also made from fresh lean pork, ground, packaged, and put into a steamer. Depending on the order, if the customer orders the sausage to eat immediately, the facility will make sausage sticks as small as 2 fingers; if the customer orders it from afar, the facility will make sausage sticks as large as 2 fingers. If any facility can install a grinder, a measuring machine, a sausage steamer, etc., it will save dozens of workers, and the product will ensure food hygiene and safety.

Ms. Thao introduces meat grinders for making spring rolls. Photo: V.D.T.

“My facility alone has contracts with 12 pig slaughterhouses in different places, each day each slaughterhouse supplies 10kg of pork, which means that each day my facility purchases 120kg of pork to produce spring rolls. The time near Lunar New Year is the peak production season, I will ask the slaughterhouses to supply more raw meat. Normally, each day my facility supplies the market nationwide with about 100kg of finished products, during Tet the consumption is higher, from 300kg to 500kg of finished products,” said Ms. Tran Thi Thu Thao.

“Currently, along National Highway 19 passing through Phuoc Loc commune, a “nem cha street” has been formed, stretching about 1km. There are nearly 20 traditional nem cha production facilities and more than 50 specialty restaurants. Cho Huyen Nem Cha Street has become an interesting destination for tourists. The local government creates favorable conditions for people to do business and comply with food safety and hygiene regulations to maintain brand reputation,” said Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phu, Vice Chairman of Phuoc Loc Commune People's Committee.

Source: https://nongsanviet.nongnghiep.vn/lang-nem-cha-hoat-dong-het-cong-suat-phuc-vu-thi-truong-tet-d375738.html