Random thoughts on Vinh's gift

(Baonghean) - As many people say, cuisine is the culture of an entire region. This city is not that long or wide, but count with me the street corners, small shops, dishes... I guarantee, you can go for a whole month and still not finish!

Bustling and full of temptations, sometimes I want to go far away, away from the hustle and bustle. Sometimes I miss it so much. I miss the feeling of wandering on the streets without fear of getting lost, going back and forth among the faces of strangers so I don't fear being lonely, then rushing into any small shop, to listen to the noise of trivial, everyday stories of life. If it's a cafe, sitting alone is also fun. But when going out to eat, you have to have a group, have to invite, make a date, to eat and talk... So, never go out to eat alone, I will definitely invite you to eat together, if you come back to Vinh!

Banh Muot Shop at Thanh Gate

So, in the afternoon, a text message was beeping, “Quang Trung collective snail”, replying immediately after a second “Ok”! So after work, the happy single girls gathered together in the restaurant that didn’t need to be luxurious, even seemed shabby, but very comfortable and happy. A stir-fried dish, a boiled dish, some rice paper, plus a plate of ham and banana, was the source of many trivial but very real stories about love, family, work… Not in a hurry to go back to the empty rented room, or intentionally coming home a little late to avoid the complaints and urging of parents about the eternal question “when will you get married, honey”. If the weather was cold and rainy, we would sit even longer.

While eating, sniffling, tears and snot everywhere. The scene of eating is clearly miserable, but without spicy food, the taste of the cuisine is not the same, it is no longer Vinh snail dish. Especially the stir-fried snail dish is marinated with spices, lemon leaves, lemongrass, chili, stir-fried with coconut, which is rare in other places. Just take a sip and you can feel all the rich, spicy, salty, fatty taste of each snail. In Vinh, there are snail restaurants that have become "brands": Mrs. Lien's snail (Cua Nam), Mrs. Thuong's snail (Doi Cung), Mrs. Soa's snail (Cong Thanh)... Always crowded with people. Some restaurants only open in the afternoon until early evening, some only open from 7 pm, making customers remember and visit more every time they have the chance.

Many streets are remembered by name only because of the impression of a dish. When talking about Nguyen Van Cu Street, people will immediately think of snails, Hai Hue rice cakes, etc. There are many places selling rice cakes, but the most and most delicious is still here. Therefore, many people even renamed Nguyen Van Cu Street to “rice cakes” Street. Speaking of this dish, it has only appeared in Vinh in the past ten years or so, but it has become a familiar and favorite dish of many people, especially students.

... and some street food in Thanh Vinh.

Banh beo is made from tapioca flour with shrimp or meat filling, stir-fried with onions and eaten with coriander. The sweet taste of banh beo, mixed with the rich taste of shrimp and meat, mixed with a bit of spicy chili, the fragrant taste of fried onions and coriander, awakens all the senses of the person tasting it. Fried banh beo is cooked by frying in oil. When eating this cake, dipping it in chili sauce, you can feel the crispness of the crust, the soft aroma of the dough and the shrimp filling is not lost, of course it will be spicy. Banh beo la is carefully wrapped in banana leaves and cooked in a pot so when eaten it is still hot. A plate of banh beo la has about ten small cakes about the size of two fingers. When eating, you have to peel off the banana leaves just like when eating banh gai, gio la... Banh beo la therefore also has a more special smell, which is the aroma of banana leaves.

I still remember when I was in college, many of my friends missed it so much, and wanted to let the “Northern” people know the taste of Vinh banh beo, so they decided to open a shop. They also kneaded the dough until their hands were tired, also wrapped, shaped, and meticulously made the filling… How interesting that in the capital city, where there are countless delicious and strange dishes, many people were still a little surprised and attracted to Vinh’s cakes. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much time, because they were still studying and taking exams.

But when it comes to "eating and staying" and appearing with the highest frequency, it is still at the City Gate and South Gate. Simply because this is considered the city's culinary area, a place that can satisfy my stomach at any time with: rice noodles, crab vermicelli soup, eel soup, wet rice cakes, grilled food, snacks... everything. This neighborhood, compared to the development of the city now, seems to be stagnant, with old and moldy houses. But in terms of food and drink, perhaps no other place can catch up. It has become a familiar place, a place to return to full of memories.

I will take you to eat porridge - Cong Thanh porridge, you will remember it after eating it once. There are many flavors of porridge such as shrimp porridge, pig trotter porridge... but for Vinh people, the most familiar is still meat porridge. The vendors often simmer pork bones to get the broth. The broth has the sweetness of bones and meat, the spiciness of chili, and the richness of lean meat. Wheat flour is the main ingredient to create porridge. The chef will have to knead the flour (mixed with water) until it is smooth, roll it out thinly and cut it into small, even strands. The noodles are just a little bigger than chopsticks, and when eaten, they are usually soft and chewy. Wait until the pot of bone broth has been simmered, drop in the white noodles, add shrimp, minced meat stir-fried with fragrant fried shallots and you will have a delicious bowl of porridge.

There are dishes that are not only available in Vinh, but each region has its own unique characteristics, so it is called a culinary culture. For example, banh muot. Each hot cake is topped with fragrant fried onions, just eaten with a bowl of fish sauce with lemon and fresh sliced ​​chili is already delicious. If Thanh Tri rice rolls (Hanoi) are famous for being made from the number one fragrant rice, then banh muot in this windy and sunny strip of land is only modestly formed from the normal rice that people still grow after each crop. The cake is also bigger, thicker, not small and soft like the Northern rice rolls.

There is nothing better than eating Banh Muot with eel soup. When it comes to eel, there is no place like Nghe An! The bowl of eel soup stands out, attractive with the yellow color of turmeric, the green color of coriander leaves or fresh onions. Banh Muot is thinly rolled, without filling, cut into small pieces, dropped into the bowl of soup, with a piece of eel and slowly put into the mouth and feel the flavor spreading on the tip of the tongue.

And there are countless donuts, corn cakes, potato cakes, mixed cakes, sesame cakes... that can be found everywhere on the sidewalks of Vinh City.

When the weather starts to get chilly, it is also the time when the stoves of grilled corn and grilled sweet potatoes are fanned to a bright red. Many times, unintentionally, but accidentally lost in the road around Goong Lake, I cannot resist the fragrant smell that is spreading. I sit down next to the charcoal stove, on top are the corn and sweet potatoes that are giving off an attractive aroma, waiting for the seller to wrap them in old newspaper and eat them while exclaiming because of the heat. Someone once told me, perhaps because of the people's love of spicy and salty food, every dish here has a stronger taste than other places. The same goes for grilled corn, the corn is seasoned with spices: salty, spicy, sweet. The seller flips the corn that has been doused with a sauce made from butter and chili sauce, on the charcoal, while telling the story: she has been sitting here for nearly ten years, every winter she brings the potato bag, corn bag and the stove to sit and fan. Many people know the face and the shop, they say they have been to many places but only in Vinh can they eat corn with such rich flavor. Whenever they have to take a day off, they miss it and feel restless, as someone mentioned.

Next to grilled corn and grilled sweet potatoes, there is steamed sugarcane with ginger - a Vinh specialty. Sugarcane is cut into pieces, and crushed ginger slices are put into the steamer. Don’t eat too much corn and sweet potatoes until you have no more room for steamed sugarcane with ginger. That simple dish has warmed my heart and stomach many times in the cold winter.

I still want to tell you a lot: spring rolls on Hong Bang Street, grilled vermicelli with grilled pork at Ba Hai Street (Truong Chinh Street) which I still had to eat with my younger brother even though it was raining and stormy, all kinds of salads, vermicelli, cakes on Ngu Hai Street… Oh, and also the traditional banh goi and banh nep on Dinh Cong Trang Street. The places I have been to, with my friends, have made me feel attached to and love the city because I have actually “lived” here!

And when, very late at night, the hurried sounds of life begin to subside, the yellow street lights are turned off, the distant cries of "Who wants hot buns? Who wants sticky rice, who wants boiled corn!" make people feel unsteady. Although the cries are no longer the same as before (they are shouted carelessly), the feeling of loneliness, isolation, the feeling of people struggling to make a living on every street corner when everyone is already warm in their homes, makes us strangely sad...

Article and photos: Ho Lai