In the rainy season, the tamarind trees in the heart of Saigon sprout young leaves, and people far from home in the coastal areas of Phan Rang (Ninh Thuan), Phan Ri ( Binh Thuan ) often immediately think of mackerel soup cooked with young tamarind leaves.
In the rainy season, the tamarind trees in the heart of Saigon sprout young leaves, and people far from home in the coastal areas of Phan Rang ( Ninh Thuan ), Phan Ri (Binh Thuan) often immediately think of mackerel soup cooked with young tamarind leaves.
The summer heat is dispelled when sipping a bowl of sour soup with the taste of young tamarind leaves and the fatty taste of mackerel - Photo: NGOC DONG
In the sunny Phan land, the tamarind tree has thick, green leaves all year round, often covered with sand and dirt by the strong winds from the sea. After being washed clean by the summer rain, it puts on a new coat of fresh green tamarind leaves the color of banana buds, dotted with pale yellow tamarind buds.
Young tamarind leaves and tamarind buds, when put into the mouth to sip, melt into a pleasant sour taste, not rough or astringent like old tamarind leaves. Just stand and pick young tamarind leaves for a few minutes, and you have a sour soup meal.
Young tamarind leaves and young tamarind buds - Photo: SON LAM
This is also the season when fishermen often catch schools of baby mackerel, the size of an adult's finger, with soft, sweet meat that is not too fatty like large mackerel.
Phan people cook mackerel soup with young tamarind leaves. In addition to these two ingredients, they also add tomatoes, some green onions, cilantro (also known as coriander), and a few basil leaves (white cinnamon) to add aroma.
Ingredients to cook mackerel soup with young tamarind leaves - Photo: SON LAM
Wash everything, put a pot of water on the stove, add a little salt, then cut the tomatoes and put them in to boil.
Usually when there are no young tamarind leaves, people have to cook with old tamarind shoots. In that case, they have to put the tamarind leaves in to boil until the water comes out, then scoop out the leaves, because the leaves become fibrous and tough after cooking.
But with tamarind leaves and young tamarind buds at the beginning of the season, you can put them in the pot of boiling water at the same time as fresh young mackerel.
While waiting for the soup to boil, crush some chili and garlic to make a bowl of fish sauce. Boil the water again, the mackerel will be firm, the water will be pale white from the young tamarind leaves, the soup is done.
Turn off the stove, chop some green onions, cilantro, and perilla leaves, then add a little fish sauce from the chili garlic fish sauce bowl you just prepared.
Phan people often add a little basil leaves (white cinnamon) to make sour soup more fragrant - Photo: SON LAM
The summer heat is dispelled when sipping a bowl of sour soup with the taste of young tamarind leaves, the refreshing taste of tomatoes, the sweet and fatty taste of mackerel, the fragrant aroma of onions, coriander, perilla leaves and the slight spiciness of the added spoon of fish sauce, chili and garlic.
Sweet and fatty young mackerel, dipped in fish sauce and biting into the bone, full of rice but still not bored.
But if you want to eat this dish, you have to "take advantage" because tamarind leaves only last a few days before they quickly become old, dark green and thick.
In the middle of Saigon, the season of young tamarind leaves only lasts a few days. Luckily, Lac Quang market in District 12 often has perilla leaves sent from the Central region to sell every weekend, and is also the place where young mackerel fish from Vung Tau are occasionally brought up, still fresh.
Having a meal of mackerel soup with young tamarind leaves in the middle of Saigon feels like being back in the countryside during my childhood summer days.
In the rainy season, tamarind trees in the heart of the city sprout new leaves - Photo: NGOC DONG
On the occasion of the Dragon Boat Festival, my mother often told me to take a knife and chop a few lines on the tamarind trees in front of the house. So that the following rainy season, clusters of young tamarind leaves and buds would grow from those chopped lines.
Two simple verses of poet Lam Dien, a son of Phan Ri, echo in my heart:
"Twelve sunny seasons I'm far from the sea
Craving mackerel soup with young tamarind leaves"./.
According to TTO
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