About Tay Ninh vegetarian

When it comes to Tay Ninh cuisine, many people immediately think of rice paper, Trang Bang rice noodles or Go Dau shrimp salt and chili. However, it would be a mistake if you have never enjoyed the vegetarian cuisine here.

Vegetarian dishes are not only frugal but also beautiful.

From rustic vegetarian dishes

Tay Ninh is considered the cradle of Cao Dai religion, with a large number of followers. Like other religions, Cao Dai Tay Ninh guides people towards goodness and away from bad habits. And vegetarianism is one of the basic rules for Cao Dai followers. Followers must observe 10 vegetarian days a month or be a full vegetarian. Therefore, the number of vegetarians in Tay Ninh can be said to be the largest in the country.

From being a regular vegetarian, Tay Ninh people have been creative and transformed vegetables, tubers, and fruits in their gardens into simple but extremely attractive and unique vegetarian dishes. Vegetarians can turn young banana trees into salads, sour soup, or stir-fry them with turmeric. When cashew season comes, just a few fresh cashews, along with okra and tomatoes, will make a bowl of sweet and sour soup, rich in flavor, or to change the dish, there will be cashews braised with lemongrass, cashew fish sauce...

Tay Ninh's famous vegetarian spring rolls are made from grapefruit peel.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thi (67 years old, living in Truong Dong commune, Hoa Thanh town) said that she has been a vegetarian for more than 30 years. Being a long-term vegetarian, her menu is often changed so that she does not get bored: sometimes turmeric stewed with salt, sour soup with soy bean leaves cooked with okra, or lemongrass stewed with soy sauce, stir-fried bean sauce, boiled banana blossom with soy sauce... All are vegetables available in the home garden.

“With just one young jackfruit in the garden, I can make many dishes. The simplest is to peel and thinly slice the unripe jackfruit, mix it with herbs to make a salad. A more elaborate way is to boil it, then mix it with fried oil, peanuts, and Vietnamese coriander to make a salad wrapped in rice paper, or stew the boiled jackfruit with fresh coconut water or coconut milk to make a stewed jackfruit dish. When the season comes, I dig it up in the back garden, mostly make it into powder, eat it right away, then pound it, mix it with some spices, green onions, fry it, and you have a new, delicious dish,” Ms. Thi said.

Vegetarian food, if you don’t have much time to cook, you can go to the market to buy some food. In Tay Ninh, it seems like every market has vegetarian food sellers. The most is Long Hoa Market Trade Center (Hoa Thanh town). Here, the dishes are more diverse and abundant. Fish sauce is made from white radish, papaya, cucumber, pineapple; sour sausage is made from grapefruit peel; roasted pork is made from flour and bread; bitter melon stuffed with tofu, tofu skin rolls…

Mam Sac (also known as vegetarian mam thai) is made from papaya, red radish, white radish, cucumber, pineapple...

Ms. Phan Thi Thu Thao, who lives in Truong Dong commune, Hoa Thanh town, has been selling vegetarian food at Long Hoa Trade Center for more than 10 years. She said that she only orders tofu, the rest of the dishes she sells are made by her family. During the day, she sells at the market, and in the afternoon, she and her husband stay up until midnight to prepare everything for the next day.

“I sell every day. But on vegetarian days, it’s twice as much as on normal days. And especially at the end of December, almost every household buys it to have vegetarian offerings during the three days of Tet. Most of our families follow religion, so vegetarian food is quite easy to sell,” Thao said with a smile.

Soybean sauce - a familiar dish of Tay Ninh vegetarians

In Tay Ninh, vegetarian dishes are available everywhere, even on non-vegetarian days. From the popular vegetarian restaurants with rare cheap prices starting at only 12,000 VND/plate with full of rice and dishes, to the long-standing vegetarian restaurants with a diverse, rich menu that changes regularly. Or the vegetarian noodle soup, noodle soup, crab noodle soup, vegetarian porridge shops... are always crowded with customers.

Go to a local vegan restaurant

Mr. Ngo Tran Ngoc Quoc - Vice Chairman of the Provincial Tourism Association commented that vegetarian cuisine is a unique and different feature of Tay Ninh that needs to be exploited and used as a highlight when tourists come here. Vegetarian cuisine is closely associated with spiritual tourism, associated with two major tourist destinations: Ba Den Mountain and the Holy See. We must do something to make tourists remember that "if you have not eaten vegetarian food, you have not been to Tay Ninh".

Vegetarian salad is made from many kinds of vegetables, tubers and fruits.

Anh Quoc shared: “Once, when I received a group of foreign guests who came to Tay Ninh to do research and they wanted to enjoy our country’s vegetarian cuisine, I asked the ladies at Tri Hue Palace to cook for them. The foreign guests were very excited and enjoyed the food very much.

They appreciated Tay Ninh vegetarian dishes as extremely unique and when saying goodbye, they said: You have a great treasure of vegetarian cuisine. Please preserve and develop it for the world to know. This makes me even more concerned and determined to build a vegetarian restaurant to promote Tay Ninh vegetarian cuisine to everyone."

Crispy fried cassava is a very unique rustic dish of Tay Ninh people.

His 10-year-old plan gradually took shape. Since the 15th of August, Phuoc Lac Vien Eco-Restaurant (Dien Bien Phu Street, Tay Ninh City) with local vegan dishes has been in operation. The restaurant has a menu of about 200 dishes, with a capacity of 600 - 800 diners.

Vegetarian dishes made from fresh foods

“I sent the chefs to study all the dishes of the restaurant with the folk cooking artisans of Tay Ninh. After the chefs finished studying, about a year ago, we had a weekly cooking show to invite the local Cao Dai priests to come and enjoy and give their opinions.

The vegetarian dishes of Tay Ninh people are all processed completely naturally, from fresh vegetables, tubers, and fruits, especially without using pre-packaged products. That is what makes the difference of Tay Ninh vegetarian cuisine compared to other places and is also what our Phuoc Lac Vien eco-restaurant wants to introduce to everyone", Mr. Quoc shared.

Vegetarian pancakes

Vegetarian snakehead fish dish made from bean curd and seaweed

Anh Quoc added that Vietnam Airlines Corporation has just asked him to provide some pictures of the restaurant's vegetarian dishes for Vietnam Airlines to promote on its flights.

“This is a way to bring vegetarian cuisine to many people across the country and the world. However, if I do it alone, it is not enough, but we need the cooperation of all Tay Ninh people. I believe that when everyone cares about vegetarian cuisine, preserves and honors it, the vegetarian dishes here will not only be simple dishes but also the heritage of our Tay Ninh,” said Mr. Quoc.

On December 31, 2020, the Provincial People's Committee issued Official Dispatch No. 3349 to the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism requesting to include "Vegetarian Culinary Art, Tay Ninh Province" in the List of National Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The Provincial People's Committee determined that this is a unique folk cuisine of Tay Ninh province, representative, expressing the identity of the community - locality, empowered through many generations and voluntarily committed to be protected by the Tay Ninh community.

Ngoc Dieu - Hoa Khang

Source: https://baotayninh.vn/ve-tay-ninh-an-chay-a129667.html