Delicious and strange dishes from wild vegetables

Every time you go to a strange land, how in the meal, guests from afar can also enjoy some specialties. In particular, in addition to fish and meat processed in the way of indigenous people, there are also very strange vegetables that visitors can taste for the first time…

Try rock moss Among the countless strange vegetables, the first must be mentioned… rock moss. Moss is a familiar dish of people in the Northwest provinces. It grows naturally, clinging to rocks under streams, appearing only in late autumn and early winter. People who go to get moss often choose places with fast flowing water, the moss here is both clean and delicious, without many grit. After taking the moss, people often use a pestle to beat it many times on the stone or cutting board and pick up the gravel, sand, and gravel mixed in the moss. Next, the moss will be thoroughly crumpled in large pots of water to ensure it is clean and free of oil. The cleaning process ends with the moss being grasped into large handfuls before being sautéed, cooked or grilled. Because it is a seasonal harvest, when not used up, people will bring dried moss to use gradually. In the past, when trade was not yet developed, every house picked that house to eat. But when this dish became more known, tourism flourished, these special dishes were sold a lot in the Northwest highland markets. People in the Northwest have many ways to prepare dishes from moss such as grilled moss, moss soup, fried moss with garlic, moss mannequin… People often chop the moss and drop it into a pot of simmered bone broth or chicken broth. A bowl of hot stone moss soup is very suitable for the winter here. Moss mannequin is made from young moss that has just grown for 3-4 days. After cleaning, the moss is cooked in a pot and then brought out to cool, mixed with spices such as: ginger, coriander, mac Khen, chili, salted fish sauce… is a specialty. According to the evaluation of gourmet diners, the most significant must be the grilled moss. Moss is mixed with spices of the Northwest, wrapped in banana leaves and grilled over charcoal. When the outer bark is scorched, the moss is ripe. Grilled moss is used to eat as soon as it is hot or served with grilled stream fish, pork, chicken… Grilled moss has a strange taste, mixed with the smell of doi seeds, and it makes it impossible for anyone to taste it once. forget. Rock moss grows a lot in streams in the areas of Van Chan, Nghia Lo (Yen Bai), Tuan Giao, Muong Cha (Dien Bien), Xuan Son (Phu Tho), Lai Chau (along the Da River)… Of course, no Not all mosses can be eaten, only the indigenous people have the experience to distinguish and know which ones are edible and which ones are not. Specialty… flowers Also in the Northwest, there is another special dish made from… ban flowers. Every time Spring comes, you bloom in the Northwest sky. Not only beautiful, but also delicious when processed into unique Thai specialties. Ban flowers are picked, blanched in boiling water and then made mannequins. There are also some kinds of mannequins, with bamboo shoots or with young neighbors. Besides, there is also sticky rice with flowers. Fresh flowers are picked and washed and cooked with sticky rice. Hoa ban sticky rice is often served with occipital cross, a very characteristic dipping spice. The creativity does not stop there, the women of the Northwest also create many other dishes from flowers such as Hoa ban porridge, Hoa ban stuffed with fish, stuffed with grilled chicken, Hoa ban cooked with minced pork… Picky vegetables There is one more vegetable that cannot be ignored when talking about Northwest specialties, which is coriander. Lettuce looks like a fern – a plant that grows wild on the banks of streams or in humid places. Lettuce is a bit viscous, so not everyone can get used to it and find it delicious right away. On the way to the Northwest, just go to Da Trang slope (Hoa Binh), where the cars going up and down National Highway 6 often stop to drink water, eat boiled corn, grilled meat … you will see people around bringing local products. for sale. The Thai people call the vegetables “pok put”. Lettuce is a vegetable that can’t be kept for a long time, pick it up wherever you go and can be processed into many dishes. Lettuce is usually stir-fried with garlic. Old-heated fat, smashed garlic, sauteed and then added coriander to stir well. It only takes a few minutes for the vegetables to cook, then turn off the heat and remove to a plate. Lettuce salad is also a cool and memorable dish. Cooking this dish is also simple. Pick a bunch of vegetables to pick out delicious tops, boil them briefly, take them out to drain the water. When the vegetables are cold, add crushed roasted peanuts, a few spoons of lemon juice, chili, garlic, crushed ginger, salt, sugar, and main noodles. Lettuce salad has a fleshy, cool taste with the typical flavors of spices. Lettuce can also be stir-fried with sour bamboo shoots and papaya leaves. If you want to enjoy the most authentic taste of the mountains, just boiled until cooked, dipped with fish sauce mixed with garlic and chili is attractive enough. More sophisticated, there is a dish of mixed vegetables with shrimp and meat. River shrimp, diced pork belly marinated with minced purple onion, fish sauce, monosodium glutamate, pepper… mix well for a few minutes. Then fry the onions until fragrant, then add shrimp and meat and stir-fry. Lettuce before mixing, it needs to be boiled. The culinary habit of the Northwestern people is that in the dishes, there is always a must-have hookah. The same goes for the dishes from coriander, sprinkled with a little more fragrant and fragrant makhan to make the dish taste much better.