Promoting culinary culture in tourism activities

Cuisine is one of the important factors that attract tourists when choosing a destination and exploring local culture. In Can Tho, culinary culture is promoted in a variety of tourism experiences.

Bringing cuisine into tourism products

Ms. Nguyen The Ngoc, Director of Ngan Long Home & Camp - Con Son, said: “In the products we introduce to tourists, besides the experience imbued with local culture, cuisine is indispensable. Because food is the bridge for tourists to remember forever the locality they have passed through”. For example, to make the experience product “Death anniversary on the islet”, Ms. Nguyen The Ngoc and the gardeners found old dishes often seen on the tray of offerings such as: island, spring rolls, braised pork with duck eggs, banh xeo, banh tet, banh it… The dishes not only carry the old flavor through the cooking and processing methods of the women and girls in the garden but also contain stories behind them associated with the lifestyle and customs of the people of the West.

Dishes in the program Memorial service on the island.

Similarly, in each experience journey that Ngan Long Home & Camp - Con Son serves tourists, they cleverly incorporate local cuisine and specialties. Specifically, the garden honey experience tour will include enjoying honey tea, honey-grilled chicken or honey-grilled sweet potatoes. The sunset tour on Hau River will include making and enjoying traditional cakes, the banana tree tour to preserve the soul of Vietnamese villages will include delicious dishes made from bananas...

Also at Con Son, visitors can enjoy the unique cuisine of the local people with the "flying menu" - a typical culinary feature of the Con Son Agricultural Tourism Cooperative. Here, each dish will be prepared by each household and they will gather and bring it to the garden where visitors are stopping to rest.

Ms. Phan Kim Ngan, Director of Con Son Agricultural Tourism Cooperative, explained: “The menu originates from the loving lifestyle of the people of the island, whichever family has something delicious will bring it over to give to their neighbors to eat. When doing tourism, we want visitors to experience this culture.”

Introducing dishes and specialties to tourists not only diversifies the experience of tourists but is also a way to promote hometown products. For example, at Cau Duc pineapple community tourism village. In addition to visiting, harvesting pineapples, and learning about the lives of the local people, tourists can also experience making pineapple pancakes, pineapple dishes, and pineapple wine. Or at Co Diep guava garden (Tan Loc islet), the flavor of delicious guava dishes becomes a highlight for tourists to return here.

Ms. Le Hong Diep, owner of Co Diep guava garden, said: “In addition to guiding tourists to visit and pick fruit, our garden also has guava cuisine such as: guava salad, guava pancakes, guava wine... Including guava wine that is an OCOP product. Customers who have tried it all love it and come back a lot!”

It is not difficult for tourists to find and experience culinary tourism activities in Can Tho. In particular, when Can Tho City currently has a wide open space with a diverse ecosystem, it creates more rich experiences. Typically, when tourists learn about the process of raising and caring for goats for milk at Ngoc Dao Goat Dairy Farm, they can enjoy goat milk products: yogurt, pasteurized fresh milk, cheese, freeze-dried yogurt... Or with the experience of exploring the forest in Cu Lao Dung, tourists can enjoy seafood under the forest canopy, dishes made from mangroves: mangrove fish sauce, mangrove tea, mangrove salad, mangrove hotpot...

Eco-gardens in Can Tho all build unique culinary experiences to create highlights, such as Can Tho Vitamin Village with cuisine exploited from durian, or gardeners in Phong Dien with dishes from fruit specialties: mangosteen chicken salad, braised chicken with mulberry...

Diverse experiences and promotional forms

Exploiting culinary culture in tourism is inevitable because it will create long-term values. Tourists easily remember and miss the land they visit because of the unique local flavors that can only be found there.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong Doan, head chef at Mekong Silt Ecologe, shared: “International guests staying at Mekong Silt Ecologe often love Vietnamese dishes because they want to experience the unique culture of the locals. Many visitors register for cooking classes because they love the taste of Vietnamese dishes.” Accordingly, at Mekong Silt Ecologe, there are many programs for visitors to experience and learn about local cuisine through cooking classes, workshops... to meet diverse requirements: making traditional cakes, cooking traditional Vietnamese meals. With these activities, visitors will be guided to the garden to pick vegetables, catch fish in the pond and process them under the guidance of local people. Such experiences with the rich flavor of the fields and gardens attract visitors because in addition to delicious food, they also learn about the culture and lifestyle of the local people.

Similarly, Vam Xang Rustic Can Tho offers visitors unforgettable culinary experiences: setting up and unloading fishing nets, cooking meals with the flavors of the countryside. Victoria Can Tho Resort serves visitors many unique experiences of local cuisine. In addition to traditional market trips and cooking classes, Victoria Can Tho Resort also has workshops selling traditional cakes, Tet cakes, especially the Street Vendor program with more than 30 dishes with bold flavors of Western cuisine.

With MDC Travel, the journey to introduce local culinary experiences has a different color. Ms. Cao Thien Ly, Business Development Director of MDC Travel, shared: “Food tour is one of the product lines that MDC Travel introduces so that tourists can have authentic experiences of local culture”. Accordingly, MDC Travel takes tourists to meet local people, learn how to cook delicious dishes or simply ride bicycles or motorbikes to explore local restaurants. Sometimes these are sidewalk restaurants or restaurants in small alleys that are loved by many locals. And when traveling and interacting like that, tourists will clearly feel the lifestyle of local people, thereby forever remembering the genuine emotions of the journey to explore Can Tho or other lands in the Mekong Delta.

The Vietnam Tourism Development Strategy to 2030 identifies culinary tourism as an important product line, contributing to enhancing the competitive advantage and brand of Vietnam's tourism. Vietnamese cuisine has proven its appeal and spread its value globally with many dishes being awarded many prestigious international awards and titles. The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism also aims to build attractive, quality culinary tourism products, focusing on providing experiences and discoveries about the cultural identity and community activities of the destination associated with each dish and drink. Thus, with the advantage of expanding space as it is today, Can Tho has great potential to exploit culinary tourism products with multiple experiences. In particular, Can Tho also has a system of famous specialties such as: purple sticky rice cake, pia cake, rice vermicelli with hammock, vermicelli with broth, grilled snakehead fish, banh cong, vermicelli with salad, vermicelli with duck cooked with pepper... showing unique traditional cuisine, creating an advantage for Can Tho to build its brand and promote the development of culinary tourism.

Article and photos: AI LAM

Source: https://baocantho.com.vn/phat-huy-van-hoa-am-thuc-trong-hoat-dong-du-lich-a190462.html