Back to Phu Tho to enjoy dishes from palm

Phu Tho is a convergence of unique and difficult dishes. As the land of ‘palm forests, tea hills’, the lives of the people here are always tied to palm trees. Ancient palm leaves are often used to roof roofs, make fans, brooms, hats, blinds … and the palm fruit is an indispensable ingredient for many dishes.

Plump One of Phu Tho’s specialties is palm palm, processed from a small glutinous palm variety, for a flexible, fragrant part. After picking, people wash the palms and heads by boiling for 5 – 10 minutes to soften, then take out and enjoy. The steps are simple but require workers to be experienced because if they are done too carefully, the brush will be crushed and lose fatness; if not well, the brush will be embarrassed. Palmina is a popular dish, often served with garlic fish sauce. In addition to the red palm, the Phu Tho people also make palm salt into a melon or warehouse with fish. Palm leaves rice ball To have a fragrant and sticky palm leaf rice dish, choose a delicious rice cooked with rain water. After blowing the cooked rice, a wet towel was pulled out, then grasped tightly, rolling it thoroughly so that the rice ball was round, firm but still soft and supple. Before that, people had to choose the leaves of the rice cakes (young leaves), cleaned, dried and heated to soften. Next is to cut the palm leaves into square pieces and wrap the split rice balls, tie the ends up, then roll over and over. Rice is held with palm leaves for a sweet, fragrant flavor that can be kept for a few days. The palm leaf rice ball is often dipped with sesame salt or eaten with dry roasted pork, salted eggs … Palm silkworms Palm silkworm is a dish that only Phu Tho has. 1 week before processing, people cut a palm tree and then drop into the trunk about 20-30 silkworms to eat them until they are fat, the skin turns yellow and white before they can be processed. The first is to drop silkworms in a bowl of diluted vinegar to let them get rid of dirt, and prepare spices including salt, chili, pepper, and MSG. Then, people skew the silkworms through the bars of a small brush and grill over charcoal. When the aroma emanates from the grilled silkworms, the yellow brown color can be enjoyed. Grilled palm silkworms will taste better when enjoyed while still hot.