The quintessence of highland cuisine

Smoke is a unique “spice” for dishes in the highlands. Photo: TC

"Mountain flavor" is conveyed in each dish and drink, conveying the quintessence of mountain cuisine and encapsulating the generosity and open-mindedness of the mountain people...

Welcome guests with sincerity

We set foot in the house of Alang Beo, a mountain friend in Blo Ben village (Song Kon commune, Dong Giang). The small house with palm leaf roof smelled fragrant, a rattan tray full of “specialties” was served. Grilled meat, bamboo rice, fish, buffalo horn cake... and a jar of rice wine was indispensable.

The famous mountain fish, along with the buffalo croissant, bamboo rice with spices such as wild pepper and “rang ray” salt, create a memorable experience for those who have the chance to set foot in the highlands and participate in the communal feast of the villagers.

The dishes are not too elaborately prepared but still have their own unique appeal. Photo: TC

The Co Tu people where Alang Beo lives always welcome guests with all their heart. Beo said that the tray of food to welcome guests is the heart of many families in the village. Each person brings a dish, contributing to treat guests from afar.

The custom of “raising food together” has been deeply ingrained in the subconscious of the people, as a testament to hospitality. It seems that thanks to the sentiments wrapped in each simple food brought, the parties are always joyful.

Joy in the eyes of the shy highland girls next to the jar of rice wine, drunk in the songs of the old people, humming the Ly verses to welcome guests. And beautiful, thanks to the arrangement of special foods on the smoky rattan tray, the green of the leaves wrapping the buffalo croissant, the hot bamboo tubes of sticky rice with the aroma of new sticky rice in the hands of visitors to the village...

Another time, stopping by Bac Tra My, we were invited by Tran Thi Luu Ly, a local Co girl, to drink wine in jars, using tiny tubes stuck deep in the jars. Drinking wine is done by measuring water and pouring it into the jars.

Guests and hosts take turns tasting the wine, one person in the group will steadily pour water into the jar so that the jar is always full. The best, most flavorful wine is deep at the bottom. The sweet yeast of the wine permeates, the party lasts all night, in the immense love of the mountain people.

The Scent of the Mountains

I noticed that there was a unique “spice” of mountain dishes that could not be mistaken for any other in every communal meal. It was smoke. Smoke from the stilt house kitchen permeated the dried meat hanging on the kitchen rack, permeated the bamboo rice, and grilled meat. Smoke drifted around where we sat. In the stilt house, by the fire, the wine in the jar, the wine in the ta-vat, and the tr'din seemed to have a stronger flavor, making us tipsy.

Someone had started to get drunk and they sang. The lyrics followed the smoke from the kitchen, rising, vibrating in the cold of the highlands, warming the whole house. One person followed another, the jar of wine was passed from hand to hand, making people dizzy and intoxicated in the space filled with traditional culture.

It is difficult to count all the dishes that make up the “brand” of each locality, because each ethnic group and each land preserves its own recipes. The adaptation in traditional culture also makes the cuisine of the highlands more diverse, suitable for tourists. However, the traditional characteristics are still kept intact.

Mr. Tran Ngoc Hung - Head of the Department of Culture and Information of Nam Giang district said that cuisine is a lively piece, containing the unique values of each ethnic group and each village.

Can wine and Ta-vat wine are also available in Dong Giang and Tay Giang, but the people in Nam Giang will have their own way of making them, so there will be certain differences.

The same goes for dishes, with the same ingredients such as anchovies, pork... but the way of preparation and the spices used to season them will create a unique dish, affirming the unique color of each region.
Community creativity makes the cuisine more and more unique, some dishes are being developed into OCOP products such as smoked black pork, bamboo shoots, Ta-vat wine, wild bananas...

“Through promotional activities, we hope that traditional cuisine will not only exist in the village community but also go further, attracting enough tourists to enrich their experiences when coming to the highlands,” Mr. Hung shared.

There will be many strange things to discover , with many specialties such as wild meat with salt of the Co Tu and Ta Rieng people, grilled hill chicken with honey, jelly-cooked rock frog, sour ant salt, wild rat meat with Ngoc Linh ginseng... Rustic but unique, simple but enough to stimulate all senses, highland cuisine always invites with its own flavor of the mountains and forests.

Return to the mountains to enjoy the quintessence of the highlands wrapped in every dish, every sip of wine, wrapped in the generous and sincere hearts of the people of the highlands...

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