Fall in love with the flavors of autumn

Perfume - the fragrant scent 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 a scent suddenly 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, the anxious 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 aroma of star apples still permeates the air, reminding people of this land that autumn has arrived.

Thi is not a delicious or special fruit. Thi's flesh is soft and its seeds are large, but its only beauty is its round, full shape and its strong aroma. The round thi's are like lanterns, adding to the streets the beautiful golden light of autumn.

That is why every time autumn comes to Saigon, I always take the opportunity to buy some bunches of star apples with their branches and leaves intact to decorate my house. No Tam will ever come out of that delicious fruit. But autumn has come, the lights are on, the scent is on and it has been waiting for me since a long time ago!

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 “chopping 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, round and plump. 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 lotus leaf green rice flakes, quietly afraid that the fragrance of that beautiful green rice flakes would disappear. This elegant green rice flakes, strangely, are rarely sold on the main streets, but are 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 scent of roasted coffee, butter, and strong vanilla from the colorful cake stalls along the road.

On the fragrant autumn mornings, in my usual coffee shop, I sit and wait 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 that sweet-colored drink.

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