Returning to Canh Duong, eating Ham Huong fish sauce and missing Mr. Cong

Surrounded by water on three sides and windy and sandy in four seasons, Canh Duong - a 380-year-old fishing village on the Roon River (Quang Trach, Quang Binh), where silver waves and the aroma of fish sauce create the flavor of a fishing village. The village is famous for its fishing industry, fishing festivals, coastal murals, and especially Ham Huong fish sauce, a royal product that was once likened to a "scent tax" associated with the ups and downs of the people in this stormy region.

The scent of fish, the soul of the sea

Not many people know that in that place at the head of the waves there is a small fish called Ham Huong. The old fishermen in Canh Duong passed down the story that this fish is only as big as the tip of a chopstick, has clear pink flesh, thin skin, and only comes back every year around the 6th and 7th lunar months. The natural fragrance of the fish allows people downwind to recognize it when the school of fish appears upwind. That is why the fish is called "boi huong". "It is as if Ham Huong was born with a noble fragrance like the name of a royal beauty", said local researcher Nguyen Tien Nen.

Ham Huong fish sauce is now fermented in large barrels.

But Ham Huong fish is not just a matter of smell. When salted into Ham Huong fish sauce, this small fish becomes a royal specialty, a "national spirit" of Canh Duong. Since the Le Dynasty, Ham Huong fish sauce has been designated by the royal court as an annual tribute, a product that a fishing village must shoulder like a tax.

According to Mr. Nguyen Tien Nen, who is known as "Canh Duong scholar" by local academics, "The Later Le Dynasty issued an edict requiring villagers to present the king with 400 jars of Ham Huong fish sauce every year. It seems like a small number, but for the villagers, it is four hundred storms."

Some households use earthenware jars.

Fish only appear for a few weeks, catching them is difficult, making fish sauce is even more elaborate. The fish must be fresh, just a few hours late and it will spoil. The salt must be dried in the sun and dew to remove the strong acridity. The best fish sauce is when salted in wooden jars, left in the sun for months to develop color and flavor. Only women who have experienced the wind and salt have enough patience and skill to make the fish sauce that is called "fragrant as an oath".

But the fishing season was sometimes good and sometimes bad. The people of Canh Duong village often "could not eat well or sleep well" because they did not have enough fish sauce to pay tribute. The court's order was the king's order. Without enough fish sauce, the district magistrate sent soldiers to beat, arrest, and search every jar of fish sauce. There were years when the whole village was left penniless because of a stormy sea season.

The story has become a legend. In the midst of the chaos of the fish-losing seasons, a man named Do Duc Huy, who had just passed the royal examinations, chose to hide in the capital, seeking a way to enter the court to find an opportunity to untie the knot for the village. He was neither an official nor a teacher. He disguised himself as a servant, asked to work for a high-ranking official in the court, and managed everything.

But no one can be a “servant” forever, if that person is intelligent, patient and has an incomparable heart. Do Duc Huy quickly became a trusted person, assigned to write memorials. One day, when the mandarin was happy, he confided in his heart about the village where fish sauce was made with sweat and tears, about the fate of the people who did not dare to eat the food they made. He said: “If you can help my village escape that burden, I will remember that favor for my children and grandchildren.”

Canh Duong Fish Market

The mandarin was moved and nodded. Mr. Cong Huy wrote a petition and presented it to the king. Thanks to the mandarin's intervention, the king issued an edict to abolish the Ham Huong fish sauce tribute.

From then on, the people of Canh Duong village felt as if a huge rock had been lifted off their chests. The first jars of fish sauce were no longer sent to the capital, but were sold to the South and the North. The fish sauce was fragrant, the people were warm. And they did not forget the person who brought that. A rhyme began to be passed from home kitchens to the village communal house: "Eating Ham Huong fish sauce, remembering Ong Cong" is like that.

From fish sauce jar to heritage

Nowadays, Ham Huong fish has become rare. Although the batches of fish sauce still have a faint aroma, the fish sauce makers in Canh Duong have to admit that pure Ham Huong fish sauce is now only a memory. Most production facilities can only mix Ham Huong fish with other small fish. But even when mixed, the characteristic aroma still permeates every drop of fish sauce, as if the fish has left its soul in each ceramic jar.

Ms. Cao Thi Ninh, who has been making fish sauce for many generations, said: “Ham Huong fish sauce is not just a fish sauce, but the memory of a village. It is the sea season, it is my mother’s fish basket, it is the story my father tells every night when the season comes.”

In the stories told by villagers at Canh Duong Festival, they do not forget the tribute student Do Duc Huy.

Canh Duong today is different. In addition to the fishing festival, Canh Duong also has a kilometer-long mural road, with walls depicting the village's history, scenes of villagers making fish sauce, rowing boats, and even Mr. Cong with a petition in his hand. Quang Binh province and Quang Trach district are shaping this place as a unique cultural- tourist village of the Central region, with the main product being fish sauce.

Canh Duong commune secretary Tran Trung Thanh said: “We don’t just want tourists to come and take pictures. We want people to understand that when they eat a piece of Ham Huong fish sauce, they are tasting the flavor of a whole community memory, of a sea culture, of a humane anecdote.”

Nowadays, there is no more tribute to the king, no more tax collection. But in each jar of fish sauce, in each verse passed down, Canh Duong still seems to echo the voice of a young man, disguised as a servant, because of a belief in justice. Like the aroma of fish, the fragrance that does not need to be applied, does not need to be named, still lingers in the sea breeze of June every year.

About Canh Duong to eat Ham Huong fish sauce, love the tribute student

And Canh Duong, from a boat drifting on the river, is now breaking the waves and embarking on new journeys, carrying with him the story of Mr. Cong and the flavor of fish sauce that never loses its aroma.

Mrs. Ninh said that although they do not mass-produce Ham Huong fish sauce as in the traditional way, they still make small jars of Ham Huong fish sauce in their house to eat when they have guests. The June meal is served with the smell of the sea, the ancient fragrant smell of Ham Huong still evokes the chivalry of hundreds of years ago. Mrs. Ninh said: "It is pure, so the ancients were connoisseurs. The taste is different from dozens of fish sauces from other fish species. Because it is rare, it must be presented to the king, but if it were common, no one would dare to present to the king. Now it is hundreds of years ago, but the scent of Ham Huong fish sauce still fills the village."

It was exactly as Mrs. Ninh said. Just a slice of pork belly touching the fish sauce bowl was like swallowing the cool sea breeze. The first drop of fish sauce evoked the taste of a distant sea season, the second drop was the memories of generations of Canh Duong people, condensed into the flavor of their homeland. The last drops were like an echo not only of the fish, but also of Mr. Cong, born in the past, who wrapped up a whole message of love for the people in a petition in the heart of the royal court.

MINH PHONG

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/ve-canh-duong-an-mam-ham-huong-nho-thuong-ong-cong-post801016.html