Hunting field mice as a 'specialty' in Nghe An
(Baonghean.vn) - After the harvest, people in many communes of Yen Thanh district invite each other to go to the fields to hunt field mice to prepare dishes. Many people have never tried these attractive dishes made from field mice.
 |
| After the summer-autumn harvest, field mice are plentiful and fat. On this occasion, people from the rice fields call each other to go to the fields to hunt mice for food. Field mouse hunters usually bring two main tools: hoes and buckets. |
 |
| They go in groups, each group has 1-2 people whose job is to dig holes to catch rats. The people holding the hoes to dig holes must be strong and healthy. The high fields with dense grass are places with a lot of rats. |
 |
| After digging, if you still don't see the mouse, you have to use a bucket of water to fill the hole before the mouse will come out. |
 |
| When the mouse comes out of its hole, the mouse catchers must be quick in capturing it. |
 |
| The joy of the "experts" when catching field mice. |
 |
| Hunting field mice is quite a hard job, muddy ground, torn clothes are normal, sometimes you get bitten by mice or encounter snakes or nests of baby mice... |
 |
| Each day in the field, each group catches 50 - 70 mice (about half a plastic bucket). |
 |
| The rats are beheaded, tailed, and skinned, and only the best meat is taken. The meat is clamped onto long bamboo sticks and grilled over a straw fire. |
 |
| Yen Thanh people process rat meat into many attractive dishes such as: fake dog rat, stir-fried rat with lemongrass and chili, braised rat, fried rat... On this occasion, returning to the rice fields, everyone will enjoy attractive dishes made from field rats that locals call a countryside specialty after the harvest. |
| Clip: Hunting field mice after harvest in Yen Thanh |
