Cool seaweed soup | QUANG NAM ONLINE NEWSPAPER

In the hot season, for a person living far away from home like me, there is nothing cooler than enjoying Nui Thanh seaweed soup, listening to the "sound of waves in my heart" with nostalgia for my homeland...

On a weekend morning, receiving a gift from my friend from my hometown along with the message “sending you some taste of the sea to ease your homesickness”, I suddenly felt strangely happy. The gift package was small and light but it had traveled hundreds of kilometers from Nui Thanh to here, so it was filled with so much love. Without even opening the package, I could guess that it contained seaweed.

My friend is a person who loves his hometown sea passionately. He has been to almost every part of his hometown sea. With just a phone, he has taken hundreds of beautiful pictures of Nui Thanh beach, some of which are as good as those of a photographer.

He has very unique angles that only those who love their hometown sea the most can see. Every seaweed season, he takes pictures and sends them to me with the message “photos go in first, seaweed will go in later”. I left my hometown early to study, then started a career far away and rarely returned to my hometown, but thanks to the sincerity of my childhood friend, I know that my hometown is always with me…

I like seaweed more than other seafood. Seaweed is healthy, cool, nutritious, easy to eat, and can be made into many delicious dishes. If making soup, you can cook seaweed with shrimp, meat, fish cakes or tofu.

Cooking seaweed soup with mackerel, hairtail fish or silver pomfret is even more delicious. Otherwise, just soak the seaweed, wash it, cook it with a little de-compressed peanut oil, add a little seasoning powder, MSG and a handful of green onions and you have a delicious bowl of seaweed soup. In the middle of hot summer days, sipping a bowl of seaweed soup feels so refreshing.

For me, the deliciousness of seaweed soup lies in the “taste of the sea of my homeland” as my friend used to say. People say that if you put your ear to a seashell, you can hear the call of thousands of ocean waves. For me, just a chopstick of seaweed is enough to hear the salty and cool taste of my hometown sea.

Anyone who has gone through the rough sea seasons, waited patiently for the seaweed seasons, anyone who has sweated and soaked in the water to pick seaweed can fully understand the heart of the coastal people, can fully hear the deep love of the sea in each bowl of seaweed soup. In my childhood memories, the hard seaweed seasons passed, the meals my mother cooked with a hot bowl of seaweed soup are places of love that are always gentle and longing.

For lunch, I cooked a bowl of seaweed soup with shrimp for the whole family. Clean the shrimp, peel and remove the vein, then marinate with a little seasoning, pepper, shallots or onions. Heat the peanut oil with the shallots until fragrant, then add the shrimp and stir quickly, add a bowl of water and bring to a boil.

Seaweed should have some snail shells mixed in. Soak, wash, remove and drain. When the water boils, add seaweed, season to taste and add chopped green onions and cilantro, then turn off the heat. Seaweed is already salty, so when tasting, be careful not to overdo it or the soup will lose its sweetness.

While cooking, I took the opportunity to read the newspaper in my hometown to follow the news of my hometown. I learned that in recent years, Nui Thanh seaweed has become known in many places, and that my hometown people have an additional source of stable income from seaweed. I felt happy. Eating a meal in a foreign land was like having a meal at home when I was young, sitting with my parents at the beginning of the summer, listening to the sea breeze. A bowl of seaweed soup in the middle of the city suddenly became strangely delicious...

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