Coconut Country's Nem Chua 'wins the hearts' of consumers during Tet season
(Baonghean.vn) - When talking about nem chua, people immediately think of Thanh Hoa. However, for nearly 2 years now, nem chua from the Coconut region (Tuong Son, Anh Son) has been very "popular" with consumers because of its unique flavor. During Tet, nem made is not enough to supply the market.
The house of Ms. Le Thi Chung in the small alley of Hamlet 3, Tuong Son Commune (Anh Son), is always bustling, especially on the occasion of Lunar New Year. The small, neat and clean house is also the place where the family produces nem chua.
“In the past, I did many jobs to make a living, but it was just enough to get by, lacking sustainability. In 2021, at the suggestion of an acquaintance, I went to Thanh Hoa to learn how to make nem chua. In 2022, I started opening a factory at home,” said Ms. Chung.
Nem chua is a famous specialty of Thanh Hoa, so conquering the market is not easy. In addition to competing on price, the important thing is that the processing must produce quality products that suit the taste of local people.
“Making nem nem requires a secret recipe, because among thousands of nem chua making establishments across the country, each has its own secret recipe, creating a difference to attract diners. But one thing in common is that the raw material for making nem nem must be the meat of a healthy pig, a pig that has just been slaughtered, still warm, so using the butt meat will be more delicious and have a more beautiful color.
Next is how to use additional types of pork skin and rice bran appropriately and carry out a suitable fermentation process to ensure the finished product reaches consumers with delicious taste and is memorable," said Ms. Chung.
Every day, from the early morning, Ms. Chung wakes up to go to the market to buy fresh, delicious pork skin and pork. The secret to making delicious spring rolls is that the pork skin must be fresh, clean, and crispy. The skin processing process requires meticulousness and care. After buying the skin, wash it with salt water and boil it. After taking it out, immediately pour it into cold water to make the skin crispy and easy to clean the hair, remove all the fat under the skin; cut it into small pieces like vermicelli.
Pork must be lean, carefully filtered, tendons removed and finely ground. Then mix the lean meat and pork skin with dry roasted salt, fish sauce, pepper and rice powder. Rice powder is an important ingredient that creates the unique flavor of each type of nem. Rice powder is made from rice, roasted until golden and fragrant, then ground very finely.
To make the spring rolls have a rich, slightly spicy, and aromatic flavor, it is indispensable to use leaves such as fig leaves, guava leaves, ginseng leaves, garlic, and chili. The spring rolls will be held by hand, with a few slices of chili and thinly sliced garlic added. The spring rolls will be wrapped in a layer of plastic before being tightly wrapped in many layers of banana leaves. Depending on the weather, the spring rolls will ferment quickly or slowly.
With the learned recipe and secret recipe, the spring rolls of Coconut land have a moderate sourness, mild aroma and a full range of sour - spicy - sweet flavors, very popular in the market. Every day, Ms. Chung's spring roll production facility makes about 2,000 spring rolls, supplying the district market. Creating jobs for 4 local workers.
During the Lunar New Year, the demand is usually higher, and every day, the whole family and relatives have to mobilize nearly ten people to work and support each other. Currently, the Tet orders have reached hundreds of thousands, and in addition to producing according to daily orders, her family also has to focus on overtime and increase production to serve customers during Tet and as gifts.
"The advantage is taking advantage of local idle farm labor; available raw materials so the price is competitive. In particular, Tuong Son sour sausage has its own flavor, suitable for the taste of consumers in the district and province, so it is chosen by customers. Particularly in the summer and peak Tet season, the amount of sausage produced is not enough to meet the market demand. Currently, we have to refuse many Tet orders," said Ms. Chung.
Mr. Nguyen Tai Quy, Chairman of the People's Committee of Tuong Son Commune (Anh Son) said: "The nem making profession is a new profession that has just been introduced to the locality in the past 2 years. Although the income from making nem chua is not really high, it is still many times higher than that of agricultural production. Initially, the consumption market is wide open, now no longer limited to the district and the province but has spread to many provinces and cities across the country, present in many restaurants, hotels and especially brought as gifts by children working far away from home.
In the near future, we will build the Nem Xu Dua brand, connect and find stable outlets for the products, thereby creating jobs and increasing income for local people."
