People living far from home are nostalgic when they 'meet' Chau Doc fish noodle soup again

I belong to the group of people who were born and raised in Chau Doc ( An Giang ) but left their hometown to make a living in another place. After more than 20 years of being nurtured by Saigon, I love this land very much. However, like many other children far from home, the nostalgia is always smoldering and lurking.

Sometimes, while driving across a strange street in a suburban district of Saigon, I suddenly smell the rich aroma of fish noodles, and my homesickness flares up...

Chau Doc is the central city of many districts and communes. The fish noodle dish has many different flavors. Only the locals can distinguish this. Even in Chau Doc, there are differences in the level of richness of flavor and aroma. This depends on the skill of the cook, although the ingredients are basically the same, so every pot of fish noodle has the aromatic scent of the herbal mixture of mugwort, turmeric, lemongrass, and a hint of shrimp paste.

The difference is that some places only sell pure fish including the meat and head of snakehead fish, but some places also serve it with crispy roasted pork, pork roll, and duck eggs. These toppings make the fish noodle soup more vibrant in smell and taste. Imagine eating a bowl of fragrant noodles, sweet fish meat, and then adding a piece of crispy, fatty pork skin, it would be really interesting.

A bowl of Chau Doc fish noodle soup in Saigon evokes so many memories of my hometown.

Or the rich taste of pork roll or the sweet taste of duck eggs. Regarding the dipping sauce, some places only serve pure fish sauce, but others add salt and chili, tamarind juice and diluted shrimp paste for diners to mix as they like. Yes, dipping a piece of fish into the fragrant and spicy fish sauce, but if you dip the fish meat into salt and chili, the salty taste is different, it seems more concentrated, but if you dip the fish meat into the sweet and sour tamarind sauce, you can eat some more vermicelli. The vegetable plate of fish vermicelli is simply bean sprouts, shredded water spinach and water mimosa flowers. Water mimosa flowers with a sweet and fragrant aftertaste are something that makes diners nostalgic.

The fish noodle soup in Chau Doc is very delicious to the locals, and both delicious and strange to tourists from all over. However, the taste of fish noodle soup in my maternal hometown, Vinh Truong island, 20km from Chau Doc is what sticks in my memory. My maternal hometown is poor, so the chef cooks much simpler than in the market. The country women cook noodles with firewood on a clay oven. Usually they cook with linh fish. It is that simple, but perhaps the smell of firewood has permeated the broth, creating a very strange, rustic, common, and memorable aroma.

A person of my stature cannot eat just one bowl of country fish noodle soup because it has too little protein, just a few thin slices of linh fish. Usually, I have to eat 3 bowls, to both ease my nostalgia and enjoy the indescribable aroma.

Meet a fellow countryman selling Chau Doc fish noodle soup in Saigon

There was a time when I couldn’t go back to my hometown for almost a year. Suddenly, I had a craving for fish noodle soup. I drove around Saigon looking for it but couldn’t find it. One day, without having to search, I discovered a Chau Doc fish noodle shop on the sidewalk right at the intersection of Hai Ba Trung and Vo Thi Sau. I quickly stopped to eat and realized that the seller was a neighbor from the same hometown. So the two people far from home had a chance to chat and reminisce about their hometown. That was the place I visited every month after that.

In recent years, Chau Doc fish noodle soup has appeared more and more in Saigon. Some restaurants keep the original Chau Doc flavor, some restaurants flexibly add spices to suit the taste of the 3 regions, but in general, all places are delicious.

A nostalgic noodle dish for those who work far from home

Now, the place I usually eat is a sidewalk restaurant near my house on Ung Van Khiem Street, Binh Thanh District. This restaurant is also owned by a couple from Chau Doc who cook directly, so the taste is very familiar. Currently, I eat Chau Doc fish noodle soup not only because I miss the smell of my hometown, but also because this is a healthy dish, easy to digest thanks to the fish meat having no bad fat and turmeric, lemongrass, and mugwort which are herbs that stimulate the spleen and stomach. I eat it at any time without fear of feeling heavy or having excess calories.

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/mon-ngon-mien-tay-nguoi-muu-sinh-xa-que-boi-hoi-gap-lai-bun-ca-chau-doc-185230225174553552.htm