Intoxicated by the flavors of autumn

Fragrance - the boundless fragrance that seems to come from a fairy tale

Fragrant season

That day, I was waiting at the red light at the intersection, expecting to feel the frustration of the day because I was stuck in traffic. But strangely, my heart suddenly felt refreshed when suddenly a scent wafted past, penetrating the thick layer of my mask.

The scent of star apples - the immense fragrance that seems to come from a fairy tale, makes the mind full of worries suddenly become strangely relaxed. Amidst the noisy car horns, the crowd of people, the frantic calculations of a bustling life, the scent of the ripe golden star apples on the old tray of an old man sitting in a small alley seems to magically attract my mind.

Star apple is not a typical fruit of the Southern land. But from mid-September onwards, you will occasionally see clusters of ripe yellow star apples appearing somewhere on the streets of Saigon. Street vendors and humble trays of star apples are hidden in small alleys. Yet the fragrance of the star apples still rises up in the air, reminding the people of this land that autumn has arrived.

The fruit is not a delicious or special one. The flesh is soft and the seeds are large, but it is only good in its round shape and fragrant aroma. The round fruit is like a lantern, adding to the beautiful golden light of autumn to the streets.

That is why every autumn that passes by the streets of Saigon, I always take the opportunity to buy a few bunches of star apples with their branches and leaves intact to decorate my house. No Tam will ever emerge from that delicious fruit. But autumn has come, lights are on, scents are on and it has been waiting for me since time immemorial!

Alley food

This season the streets are beautiful, so beautiful that it is captivating. The roads are still the same, still crowded, still congested, still rainy, still flooded. But the weather is mild, not capricious, not as harsh as summer; along with so many special gifts of autumn pouring in, making people's hearts a little lighter.

Com lang Vong - a unique autumn gift in the Southern city.

This season, people in Saigon suddenly crave to go “cutting alleys” more, because another aroma is calling: the smell of green green rice from Vong village brought in from the North. This type of rice is made with all the meticulousness and delicacy of people, from the golden sticky rice grains, plump and shiny. And only Vong village rice is made when the rice has just turned brown, winnowed, roasted and pounded busily to produce batches of fragrant sticky rice wrapped in fresh lotus leaves.

One day, sneaking into a small alley, hidden behind a row of tall buildings, gathering with a group of friends at a small but fragrant stall of a Hanoian , I opened a package of green rice flakes in lotus leaves, being careful not to lose the fragrance of that beautiful green rice flake. This elegant green rice flakes, strangely, is rarely sold on the main roads, but is mostly “hidden in alleys”. Yet the fragrance of the green rice flakes is still strangely alluring.

If summer can make people "overwhelmed" by the strong smell of durian, then autumn helps people relax more with the gentle aromas of green rice, ripe star fruit, yellow star fruit, and the smell of baked cakes spreading throughout the alleys, big and small. It feels like everything stops for a moment, slowly flowing.

People are afraid of missing out on beautiful things and also because the scent of autumn gifts lingers in the heart. I also stopped many times somewhere on a street corner, to inhale the aroma of roasted coffee, butter, and the strong vanilla scent from the colorful cake stalls along the road.

On the fragrant autumn mornings, in my usual coffee shop, I sit waiting for the coffee to drip, pick up a piece of green rice loosely wrapped in lotus leaves, and slowly savor the sweet flavor of autumn infused in each fatty grain of green rice. And at noon, I will buy a glass of pomegranate juice, also inhaling the scent of pomegranate to fill my lungs, before enjoying the drink with that sweet color.

When I open my heart to welcome sweet scents and new things, I know a new season is ready.

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/say-long-voi-huong-vi-mua-thu-3141567.html