Simple specialties of Cua Lo

(Baonghean) - Coming to Cua Lo, everyone wants to find a specialty with the color and flavor of the sea as a gift. And to please tourists, the specialties of the coastal town always have their own flavor that is hard to find elsewhere...

Grilled shrimp and fish specialties of Cua Lo. Photo: Tran Hai

Cua Lo people have been in the "city" for a long time, but among the hustle and bustle of goods, there is still a unique specialty that when traveling along the S-shaped strip of land, many customers still have to go to Cua Lo to buy. My friend who works for VOV TV channel is the same. The TV industry has gone from the South to the North, from the mountains to the sea, he has been to almost every place in 62 provinces and cities. However, at the recent class reunion, over the phone, he only said one sentence: Last time I went to Cua Lo, a colleague from the local station took me to a craft village and I bought a bottle of pure, underground fish sauce that was very good. Hanoi has many things, but I only crave a bottle of pure fish sauce like that. Remember to buy it for yourself... Yes, no matter what, Cua Lo fish sauce is a true specialty. But if you want to buy the right "genuine" product, pure and not be overcharged, you have to go to the Hai Giang fish sauce craft village in Nghi Hai ward. From the town center to the craft village is only about 2 km, not far. Visitors can rent a private electric car, ask a motorbike taxi driver for a ride, or more romantically, rent a tandem bicycle and ride along the casuarinas towards Cua Hoi beach. This journey is certainly not monotonous because when you come here, you can also see with your own eyes how the locals make fish sauce. It is quite a feat.

"Without hard work, how can we make good fish sauce?" - Uncle Pham Xuan Loan, owner of the Viet - Loan fish sauce facility, affirmed to us. The fish sauce making business is a family tradition, passed down from Uncle Viet's grandmother. Uncle Loan added: When the two of them got married, the whole Hai Giang village was still a sandy beach. Over time, the sea level has increased, and new residents have moved to form a village. Hai Giang village currently has nearly 100 households making fish sauce, some are few, some are many, but those as meticulous as Uncle Viet Loan's family can probably be counted on the fingers of one hand. Perhaps that's why, despite being very popular, his family only salts 10 tanks each year, just enough space in the yard behind their house. To have good fish sauce, the first thing to do is to make sure the ingredients are good. It's all fish, but if you don't choose carefully, the fish sauce won't be fragrant and will spoil quickly. Good fish must be anchovies, just caught from the sea, not soaked in water. The salt selection process must also be careful. Like Uncle Loan's family, for many years now, they have only used one type of salt, Ho Do salt (Ha Tinh), bright white, dry grains. Depending on the time the fish arrive, the family will put the salt in a separate tank and dry it outside to let all the water drain out. The fish can be soaked for about 6 months to become a product. But to make it delicious and concentrated, it takes from 12 to 18 months. During that time, the most difficult step is "stirring", which means having to drain the water every day and then dry it outside. In the afternoon, when the sun is gone, pour it back into the tank and mix well to let the fish sauce soak in. The best fish sauce is the first filter, called the essence of fish sauce, pure fish sauce. The deeper you go, the lower the protein content, the lighter the fish sauce. To have underground fish sauce, after the finished product, it must be soaked deep underground for another 1 to 1.5 years. The standard fish sauce must be amber in color, fragrant, rich, and the water will not form sediment when left for a long time. After 1 to 2 years, it can even turn black. Shrimp is also a famous specialty of Hai Giang craft village. Northerners often like stinky shrimp (also known as shrimp paste). People in the Central region prefer sour shrimp (after salting, add roasted corn kernels, crushed) and galangal. However, whether stinky shrimp or sour shrimp, to be delicious, it must be salted with te shrimp, caught right at Cua Lo beach, and immediately salted right after being caught from the sea.

Cua Lo specialties are also dried fish, dried squid, and shrimp. However, not everyone who comes to Cua Lo can buy the right products, but customers must be really discerning. Experience shows that this product of Cua Lo is often not as bright in color as the products in the South, and is not soaked in salt. On the contrary, dried fish is simply anchovies caught from the sea and dried in the sun, not soaked in salt. Squid is a small type of squid but has a thick body, it tastes sweet and rich, the more you chew, the more flavorful it is... One-sun dried squid is truly the "quintessence" of the sea, but to find the right tourist customers, you should ask the shop owners along the coast or go to the boats to order. After being caught, the squid will be split right on the boat and dried in the sun for exactly one day. Therefore, the price is also nearly half as expensive. Ms. Phung Thi Lan - Block 5, Nghi Thuy Ward further explained that: Squid, fish and shrimp in Cua Lo are often more delicious than all other coastal areas, the fish and shrimp are sweet and rich, not too salty. Furthermore, the products here are all processed purely, without any seasoning, so if you want good products, they must be fresh, and no bad products can be mixed in.

Another interesting thing for tourists who love to do housework is to go to the seafood market to buy fresh products. Crabs are not difficult to find because you just need to find one that is still alive, firm and has a lot of roe. As for mackerel, you should be careful, do not choose one that is too big, because it is frozen fish, delicious mackerel must be fish that has just been caught, not iced. Fresh fish, after being cut open, will be brought to the back of the market to be grilled with charcoal. Each fish is shiny golden, fresh, does not need much processing, just need to fry it again to enjoy the true flavor of the sea. Recently, to meet the needs of tourists, Cua Lo people also make frozen squid, shrimp, and vacuum-packed squid. As for this product, customers should not be afraid to "freeze" it because squid and shrimp can only be frozen when the goods are new, just off the boat. Therefore, after returning home, simply defrost it and it will be fresh and delicious, just like the "flashing" squid in the sea...

Just walking about 2 km in Cua Lo, you will see countless seafood and specialties. If you still like adventure and discovery, go down to Nghi Tan to see people raising fish in cages, buy sea bass, red snapper. Further, you can see people catching oysters, scallops... Cua Lo continues if you go up to Nghi Thiet, Nghi Khanh and return to the night market in Vinh City to feel the rich flavor of the hospitable land of Nghe An.

My Ha