Missing the shredded chicken, the spicy and sour Hue pork roll, the fish sauce jar of my grandmother and mother.

Author Le Ha had the opportunity to travel all over Hue and the culinary map of Hue continues to grow through trips from the plains to the great mountains, from the hometown meals cooked by her mother in her childhood to dishes with the taste of the mountains and forests in the windy highlands.

Le Ha, author of the book "Missing My Hometown" - Photo: NVCC

With the essay "Remembering the Homeland" , Le Ha seems to confide to readers that food creates memories, making us forever remember the simple yet fragrant kitchens, the names of places and people that have gone from strangers to familiar, from familiar to close after a meal entertaining guests from the lowlands. That nostalgia is so sweet, so profound...

Cuisine always opens up wide horizons.

The first part of "The Taste of Nostalgia" collects delicious dishes from difficult times, recalling the rustic, familiar taste of the countryside in the meals of Hue people such as: chicken salad, spicy and sour Hue pork roll, sweet potato soup, fermented fish sauce and pickled melon, sticky rice cake, "dầu trôi" (pickled melon) in spring...

Part 2 - The scent of the mountains and forests , writes about dishes that often appear in the meals of the Pa Co, Ta Oi, Co Tu people... in the A Luoi region (a mountainous district of Thua Thien Hue province).

Not simply a book about Hue's delicious dishes, "The Taste of Hometown" is a collection of emotional slices that Le Ha has collected from her nostalgic memories of food.

It could be "chicken salad" - actually a banana flower salad with fake chicken but filled with a lot of love from grandma for her grandchildren:

"My grandmother loved her grandchildren, so she often tried to process rustic ingredients into diverse dishes. Steamed banana blossom mixed with Vietnamese coriander has a taste exactly like chicken. Or steamed banana blossom, then coated in flour and fried until crispy, dipped in ginger fish sauce, has a taste exactly like duck. My grandmother often jokingly called the dish "climbing chicken" or "climbing duck".

Book Missing My Hometown - Photo: Publishing House

Le Ha shared that in her mother's fish sauce jar, the thing that "attracts" her sisters is still the fragrant, crunchy, spicy and salty pickled melon: "Every rainy season, without having to go to the market, my mother opens the fish sauce jar and has something to eat. The fish pickled melon is used to braise, steam eggs. The pickled melon is used to stir-fry with oil, stir-fry with pork belly."

According to the author, to make delicious pickled melon, you have to process it first, like the melon must be cut into bite-sized pieces. Put a few spoons of oil in a hot pan, add chopped onion and garlic, fry until golden, then add pickled melon, stir quickly, then a little MSG and sugar to add a salty taste. Before turning off the stove, add a handful of chopped leaves, the aroma will fill the kitchen.

There were only those rustic dishes, but they evoked in Le Ha so much nostalgia. There, everything seemed old, only the aroma of the food always smelled sweet and fragrant thanks to the hard-working hands of her grandmother and mother.

Cuisine always opens up wide horizons, where there is the delicious taste of food, the smell of memories, the taste of intoxication when enjoying a delicious dish, over time, those sweet flavors will follow us forever.

Le Ha, author of the book "Missing My Hometown"

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LAKE LAM

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nho-thit-ga-bop-tre-hue-chua-cay-hu-mam-thinh-cua-ngoai-va-ma-20250710131852543.htm