Mam ruoi - specialty of the lower Lam River
Having been attached to the rươi for generations, people in the lower Lam River in Hung Nguyen district have gained a lot of experience in processing rươi into attractive dishes, of which rươi sauce is a famous specialty.
For people in the “rươi villages”, the main purpose of raising rươi is the fields, and growing rice is secondary. In the summer-autumn season, if they do not grow rice, they still plow and fertilize with manure. According to the people, doing so will make the fields deep, especially when harvesting, removing a lot of stubble, adding manure, making the soil loose, the fields will have a lot of rươi, big, fat and yellow.
In the past, when the season of rươi came, people had to make torches and light lamps to collect rươi with bamboo baskets. Now the fields are full of nets, people know how to make baskets to catch rươi, so it is less difficult. When the tide recedes, from underground, rươi crawl out and swim freely in the fields, following the water flow into the baskets.
Each time the rươi floats, each household with rice fields along the river can also earn 10-30 kg of rươi. Households with many fields can harvest 1-2 quintals of rươi per season.
Hung Nguyen's roe can be used to make many nutritious dishes, such as roe rolls, braised roe, roe sauce... In the past, people here collected a lot of roe, but could not eat it all fresh. Without a refrigerator to preserve it, they came up with a way to make fish sauce to use gradually.
In the past, shrimp paste was just a rustic food, local people mainly made it for family meals. When the demand for shrimp paste in the market increased, many households focused on making shrimp paste for commercial purposes. In communes with shrimp paste such as Chau Nhan and Hung Loi, it seemed that every household could produce shrimp paste. Households that made it for food would salt a few kilos of shrimp; households that made it both for their own use and to sell salt by the kilo.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Linh (48 years old) - a woman with decades of experience in making shrimp paste in Phu Xuan hamlet, Chau Nhan commune said that each shrimp season, her family harvests hundreds of kilograms of shrimp paste, most of which are sold to traders, leaving only about 30kg to make fish paste for her family and to sell on the occasion of Lunar New Year.
According to Ms. Linh, making shrimp paste is not difficult but requires meticulousness and skill in each step. To make a delicious batch of shrimp paste, according to local people, the shrimp must be fresh, just brought back from the field, do not use rotten shrimp to make the sauce. After catching the shrimp, they are washed with well water, put in a basket to drain. If the shrimp still has a lot of water or if the shrimp gets exposed to rainwater during the fermentation process, the sauce will be spoiled or not delicious.
People in Hung Nguyen do not salt the whole shrimp like those in the Southwest, but grind them together with spices such as shallots, tangerine peel, ginger, chili powder, etc. In the past, when there were no food processors, people often put the shrimp in a ceramic jar and beat it vigorously with two large bamboo chopsticks until it was crushed. Nowadays, there are many types of multi-function machines, grinding shrimp has become simpler.
Depending on each household, the seasonings mixed into the shrimp paste are different. Ms. Linh's family usually makes the fish sauce according to the formula of 10 kg of shrimp paste, 2 kg of salt, 1 kg of onion, ginger, 0.8 kg of rice bran, and 1 handful of tangerine peel. The thick shrimp paste after being ground will be seasoned with a little salt and rice bran and poured into a ceramic jar, glass jar, or clean plastic container, sealed, and placed in a cool place.
During the first week, every morning you have to open the jar to add salt and rice bran, making sure that after 7 days you have added all the salt and rice bran as planned. During the fermentation period, you have to occasionally take the jar out and mix it from bottom to top. After about 1 month, the fish sauce will turn reddish brown and have a characteristic aroma when it is ripe.
With natural spices and unique fermentation method, Hung Nguyen shrimp paste has a unique color, aroma and flavor that not every countryside has.
On average, 10 kg of shrimp paste can make 10 liters of fish sauce (20 bottles, 0.7 kg of fish sauce/bottle). Shrimp paste can be eaten “raw”, that is, scooped out from a jar, add spices such as chili, galangal and eat immediately, or fry onions and fat to heat the fish sauce before eating. Shrimp paste is often used as a dipping sauce for pork, goat meat, salad, rice rolls, pickled eggplant, pickled onions, etc. All are delicious and attractive.
Previously, shrimp paste was just a rustic dish, but now it has become a famous specialty, favored by markets everywhere. When the paste is ripe, it is also the time when Tet is near, the paste is brought out and bottled, each bottle is sold for 500 - 600 thousand VND.
Mr. Vo Trung Truc in Phu Xuan hamlet, Chau Nhan commune shared: “Every season, my family uses about 50-60 kg of fresh roe to make fish sauce. Usually, my family only makes orders from acquaintances in the countryside and both in the South and the North. Every Tet holiday, the products are sold out, and there is no roe sauce to sell.”
It is known that there are currently many establishments producing shrimp paste in Chau Nhan and Hung Loi communes. Each shrimp season, a facility processes hundreds of tons of shrimp to make shrimp paste. According to local people, the shrimp paste making profession brings in a good income, the revenue can double the capital invested.