(Baonghean.vn) - Soy sauce is one of the traditional products of the people of Nam Dan. Using the folk experience passed down from their ancestors, along with passion and creativity, the people in the soy sauce making village in Phan Boi Chau block, Nam Dan town (Nghe An province) have developed a product with a brand name and increasingly high quality. With a production volume of 350,000 to 400,000 liters, the revenue exceeds 2 billion VND per year. From a simple dipping sauce, soy sauce has become a specialty gift of Nghe An province.
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| The main ingredient of Nam Dan soy sauce is soybeans grown on the alluvial plains along the Lam River. After being purchased, the soybeans are carefully selected by the producers before being ground. |
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| Besides soybeans, an indispensable ingredient is mold - a type of yeast made from glutinous rice or corn soaked in green tea water and then dried. |
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| After grinding, the soybeans are placed in a pot and cooked continuously for 20-24 hours. |
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| After mixing salt, mold, and clean water, the mixture is stirred once and left to ferment. During the fermentation process, the villagers have to stir the soy sauce daily. (In the photo: checking and stirring soy sauce at the facility of Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong, Mai Hac De block, Nam Dan town; the facility produces 5-7 thousand liters of soy sauce annually). |
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| When fully cooked, the sauce has a fragrant aroma. (In the photo:)A jar of fermented soy sauce has been fermenting for almost 40 days and is nearing the stage of being ready for sale. |
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| During the soy sauce fermentation process, people must constantly check the fermentation progress. Once salt and mold are added, they only need to stir once and wait for the soy sauce to mature. |
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| After ripening, the soy sauce is bottled in various sizes: 0.5 liters, 1 liter, 2 liters, or 5 liters. On average, the best quality soy sauce costs 30,000 VND/liter (pictured: soy sauce at the production facility of Mr. Pham Hai Duong in Phan Boi Chau block, Nam Dan town). |
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| Reputable, high-quality soy sauce producers are labeled with the production date and expiration date clearly indicated (in the photo: Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong's soy sauce production facility in Mai Hac De Hamlet, Nam Dan Town, is stamping the expiration date on product labels). |
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| Mr. Pham Hai Duong, Head of the Craft Village Management Board and Chairman of the Nam Dan Soy Sauce Cooperative, inspects the use of trademarks at a production household. |
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| Authentic, clean soy sauce products are labeled with the address of each production facility, the phone number of the owner, and most importantly, the production date and expiration date. If you have any concerns about product quality, you can call the Head of the Village Management Board and the Chairman of the Soy Sauce Cooperative at 0979.325.134 for advice and answers. |
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| Soy sauce products are displayed for sale at a stall in Phan Boi Chau block (Nam Dan town). According to Mr. Pham Hai Duong - Head of the Management Board of Nam Dan Soy Sauce Village, there is currently a lot of low-quality, unregulated soy sauce on the market, affecting the reputation of Nam Dan soy sauce in general and the craft village in particular. |
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| Representatives from the craft village and the owner of a stall selling soy sauce from the cooperative advised customers on how to distinguish between clean and safe soy sauce produced in the craft village and soy sauce produced haphazardly on the market. |
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| Tuong Nam Dan is an indispensable dipping sauce when enjoying dishes such as goat meat, pork with tamarind, and other rustic dishes like boiled sweet potato leaves and boiled water spinach in every family. |
Delicious, sweet soy sauce is sun-dried, made with fragrant glutinous rice mold and plenty of soybeans. Looking into the jar of soy sauce, you can see pieces of soybeans floating in the thick, viscous liquid. It has a fragrant aroma with a hint of wine, but is intensely sweet. Its color is not brown like Bần soy sauce, but a golden, glossy hue like honey. Nam Dan soy sauce is used as a dipping sauce for boiled meats, for braising fish, as a dipping sauce for vegetables and beans, and as an everyday accompaniment to rice. It can also be used as a dressing. In the summer, dipping boiled sweet potato leaves, boiled water spinach, and boiled eggplant into the sauce and eating it with rice is refreshing and full of the flavors of the countryside. Boiled beef or veal dipped in sweet soy sauce with a little ginger and garlic creates a uniquely unforgettable flavor. People in Nam Dan often grind roasted peanuts or black sesame seeds and mix them with thick soy sauce to dip thinly sliced green bananas or sour starfruit, which they eat with rice. Sticky rice dipped in sweet soy sauce is also quite appealing. |
Nguyen Hai - Luong Mai
