( Quang Ngai Newspaper) - In fishing villages, there is no shortage of dangerous cliffs running along the coast. This is the breeding ground for many species of seaweed. Of these, the majority is jelly seaweed - the type of seaweed that is the main ingredient for sweet and cool bowls of soup on summer days.
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| Candied seaweed soup cooked with eggs. PHOTO: TRAN CAO DUYEN |
When I was young, during school holidays, my siblings and I often followed my mother to the reef to collect seaweed. I wanted to go with them, but my mother wouldn’t let me: “The rocks are very slippery, it’s easy to fall. You stay home.” Collecting seaweed is not easy. The person who collects seaweed must be proficient in the “technique” of walking on rocks, have good footholds on rocks, and maintain good balance on uneven rocks. A little carelessness can cause you to fall flat on your back because the rocks are slippery and wet. Many times, the seaweed collector has to endure the sun, waves, and wind to get a few kilos of seaweed. Sometimes, while scraping seaweed, they are “overwhelmed” by waves, and they are soaked and struggling, and the seaweed they just scraped is also thrown away. It’s so difficult that my hometown’s fishing village has a saying: “If you want to eat seaweed soup, I invite you to go to nine waterfalls and ten reefs with me.”
Many people think that the verses about local products are often exaggerated to impress first-time visitors. But that is the truth, the seaweed harvester works hard all day on the wharf to get 4-5kg of seaweed. The price of fresh seaweed is 50,000 VND/kg, and dried seaweed is 350,000 VND/kg. Tourists often buy dried seaweed as gifts. Hot summer meals need a pot of soup. And seaweed soup is chosen by many housewives. Fish, shrimp, crab, squid are not lacking in the coastal village, but seaweed soup is not always available.
Wash the seaweed with fresh water several times to rinse off the salt and remove impurities. Candied seaweed is suitable for soups with many variations. For luxury, cook seaweed with shrimp, minced meat, crab. For ordinary people, cook seaweed with a few chicken eggs or quail eggs. For families with many children and hardship, the soup pot only has candied seaweed. When cooking, just saute oil with a few shallots before pouring water into the pot. Add seaweed and additives after the water has boiled, then season to taste.
The delicious thing about candied seaweed soup is that no matter what ingredients are used, the soup is still sweet and has a characteristic scent of the sea. The candied seaweed in the soup is both crispy and has a mild aroma. Break the crispy rice paper into the candied seaweed soup, making the dish even more delicious. If it is a main meal, a candied seaweed soup will make you eat up more rice.
TRAN CAO DUYEN
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