Quynh mantis shrimp

(Baonghean) - While sitting grilling mantis shrimp, Ms. Phan Thi Duc, 43 years old, in Thoi village, Son Hai commune (Quynh Luu) told us: "When I first became a daughter-in-law in a fishing village, my father-in-law came back from the sea and brought back a bunch of mantis shrimp, I was scared. Later, I learned that it is one of the closest seafood species to fishermen"...

According to Ms. Duc, the fishermen have tasted all the delicious seafood specialties of their hometown, but when eating mantis shrimp, there is something special. For example, when serving a meal, they usually do not set a tray, the whole family gathers around the basket of shrimp, eating and chatting animatedly. On moonlit nights, they do not use oil lamps. Neighbors are often invited to join in and talk about the village and the sea... At first, the mantis shrimp is scary to look at because it looks like a strange centipede. If you reach out to catch it while it is fresh, you might cut your hand, or it might swell up. When the mantis shrimp is cooked, the person eating it must also know how to eat it, otherwise it is easy to scratch their mouth. In the past, the fishermen ate mantis shrimp for a meal like farmers ate potatoes and cassava. Now this shrimp has become a specialty dish, valuable to those who go fishing.

Ms. Duc grilled mantis shrimp

The mantis shrimp has had its ups and downs. Not long ago, women from the fishing village carried mantis shrimp on their bare feet to the markets near and far. Like at Ngo market, people from 5 or 7 communes gathered to buy and sell seafood, but every day the mantis shrimp was unsold. Many times, after carrying their baskets, they would return with the pile of sea mantis shrimp almost intact, rotten, because people did not like them, saying that they had little meat and too much shell, and that they had a bland taste, so they had to call them river shrimp and plain shrimp... old man! In this Thoi village, back then, every family that went to sea was like that; small boats went out to catch mantis shrimp. After each night of fishing, each family would have a few baskets full of mantis shrimp, which could not be sold, so they would give them away after finishing their meal...

Many times, selling a basket full of mantis shrimp only got a few kilos of rice, but the villagers were very happy. During his lifetime, Mr. Thuong - Ms. Duc's father-in-law went to sea every night, and spent the remaining half of the day "wrestling" with mantis shrimp with his wife and children. The nets were heavy with mantis shrimp, which made him sad. As soon as the boat reached the wharf, he diligently picked out each fish for his wife to sell at a distant market, then continued to work hard with his children to pick out the freshest mantis shrimp, encouraging each other to take them to nearby markets to sell.

Remembering her father-in-law, a hard-working old fisherman who loved her children very much, Duc reminisced about her first days as a daughter-in-law in a fishing village. On moonless nights, under the oil lamp in the middle of the yard, the whole family sat around a basket of sea shrimp, and Mr. Thuong always peeled the shrimp for his wife and children to eat. She remembered the image of him cutting the shrimp and turning to his daughter-in-law, explaining: "This is the first time you've eaten a mantis shrimp, so you have to look carefully!" Then he used scissors to cut both sides of the shrimp, peeled off the shell and took out the meat, and in a flash he had peeled a bowl full of delicious, plump mantis shrimp. He kept choosing the best ones and put them in the bowl for his wife and children. One day, Mr. Thuong saw that there were too many uneaten mantis shrimp, and he ate them day after day and then wasted them, so he discussed with his two daughters-in-law how to use the mantis shrimp to make animal feed. Duc had just come to the fishing village as a daughter-in-law, and had no experience, so every time she processed the mantis shrimp, her hands were scratched and swollen. But thanks to using mantis shrimp as feed to develop pig farming, the family has had extra income and overcome many difficulties...

There was one thing that Ms. Duc hesitated to confide in us. She did not understand and had not yet asked when her father-in-law passed away; that is, she and her husband were learning from Mr. Thuong, every time the sea brought a lot of shrimp and fish, she and her husband always chose delicious mantis shrimp to offer to the ancestral altar, praying to him... Ms. Duc said: "This season, eating mantis shrimp is delicious, the meat is firm and fragrant. But to choose delicious shrimp, you have to gently squeeze the middle of the shrimp, the hard tissue is fresh shrimp, the soft one when boiled does not have much sweetness anymore. Therefore, the people of Thoi village, in addition to importing mantis shrimp wholesale, always classify the shrimp brought to the market which have roe and which have meat, absolutely never confusing good shrimp with bad shrimp. Buyers often do not know at first but when they eat them, they know, doing so would lose their reputation!"

Thoi villagers never expected that one day mantis shrimp would become valuable, comparable to crabs, squid, mackerel in the list of seafood specialties. Mantis shrimp gradually helped people go to sea to increase their income. Mantis shrimp rushed to markets and coastal tourist areas, and they were sold out. And now, the villagers were able to show off many ways to process and preserve mantis shrimp to make them attractive and keep their fresh taste for a long time. Like this afternoon, Ms. Duc grilled a basket of mantis shrimp to sell at the afternoon market. Before, I thought that mantis shrimp could only be steamed with lemongrass or stir-fried with tamarind, but when I saw Ms. Duc skillfully grilling the mantis shrimp, the attractive aroma, and tasting the delicious taste of the ocean, I learned about another delicious dish made from mantis shrimp. I eagerly asked: "Grilled like this is also very delicious, but anyway, selling fresh will be more expensive, right?" - “Yes, mainly sold fresh. But we don’t have to sell far, the boat leaves at 3am and returns at 1pm, traders from everywhere come to buy at the wharf. But I always leave out a dozen kilos to grill, here every time we have guests or friends over they run out to buy a kilo of grilled shrimp to nibble on, it sells out in no time. Oh, and I also learned this way of grilling mantis shrimp from my father-in-law...” Then Ms. Duc boasted: “Now mantis shrimp is very valuable, at least 60, 70 thousand VND/1kg and at most 150 thousand VND/1kg.”

The once rustic mantis shrimp of the coastal countryside of Quynh has now become a specialty in restaurants and eateries. The meat of mantis shrimp is delicious, sweet, and firm, the shrimp head has a lot of roe, both rich and fatty, and full of the sea flavor. Mantis shrimp can be processed into many dishes such as steamed, boiled, grilled, then dipped in salt, pepper, lemon or Cua Lo fish sauce, there is nothing better. Gourmets eat mantis shrimp with raw vegetables and mustard, the taste is even more delicious. Just take some herbs, cucumber slices, fresh chili slices, put the mantis shrimp meat in, wrap it up and dip in fish sauce, salt and lemon, the aroma of the meat, the fatty, fatty taste of the mantis shrimp roe, the spicy taste of mustard powder and chili is really attractive. In the summer, just buy a few quantities of mantis shrimp, crush them to get the juice, saute shallots, then add tomatoes, spices, star fruit or tamarind leaves, sour plums or some river slices, mix well on the stove, pour the mantis shrimp juice in and boil to have a pot of sour mantis shrimp soup that is extremely eye-catching and effective in cooling down. The bowl of soup has a golden color from the shrimp fat, the aroma and richness of the shrimp meat, the light sour taste of star fruit, sour plums... Mantis shrimp soup is delicious with rice or noodles. With small mantis shrimp, grill them on hot coals and bite them whole to enjoy the crispy, sweet aroma of the shrimp, which is extremely special.

Mantis shrimp is now not only a delicious dish, valuable to the people of Thoi village in particular, but also used to lead the story to remind descendants of a poor Thoi village in the past, when mantis shrimp had no value, but people still cherished and attached to it...

Article and photos:Thu Huong