Hungry to call summer

When the sound of cicadas tinkling on the arches of the crocodile tree is also the time when the crocodile season is in full swing in my hometown. Although the fruit is not much, but it is dark green, with a sharp, thick pulp, giving the taste of dishes cooked from crocodile fruit with a faint aroma. In the middle of summer, enjoying this soup with the flavor of ‘interference’, ‘inter-regional’, we remember the ancestor of the ‘Southern onion’ of a time when ancestors settled and opened the world..
When the sound of cicadas tinkling on the arches of the crocodile tree is also the time when the crocodile season is in full swing in my hometown. Although the fruit is not much, but it is dark green, with a sharp, thick pulp, giving the taste of dishes cooked from crocodile fruit with a faint aroma. In the middle of summer, enjoying this soup with this “interfering” and “inter-regional” flavor, we remember the “Southern onion” ancestors of a time when ancestors settled and opened the world..

Crocodile soup cooked delicious snakehead fish. My house is in the suburbs of Da Nang, in recent years, the rows of crocodiles planted on the streets of Le Dai Hanh, Nguyen Phuoc Tan… have been almost “old” by the workers of the Urban Environment Company. Da Nang city planted a few decades ago has flowered and produced results. Crocodile does not give as many fruits as the northern localities, but the taste of “heritage” crocodile in Da Nang is not inferior to other localities. Crocodile fruit when still green is used to cook sour soup, soaked in drinking water… Ripe fruit is used to make crocodile apricot umbrella, pickled crocodile, vinegar sauce… The most impressive thing is the crocodile soup cooked with fish and fruit. (Tel fish, snakehead fish…). Cooking method is as follows: Fish and fruits are made and washed, drained, then marinated with seasoning powder, pepper powder, chopped red onion, paprika for aroma. After 10 minutes for the spices to infuse into the fish meat, then put the casserole on the stove, fry the cooking oil with garlic until fragrant, put the marinated fish in it for aroma. When the fish is almost cooked, add boiling water to continue cooking. When the fish is cooked, add the crocodile (cleaned and smashed) and pineapple (pineapple, pineapple), tomatoes, sour bamboo shoots… in. After the soup boils again for a few minutes, then remind and re-season to taste. Ladle the soup into a bowl and sprinkle more scallions, chopped cilantro into the bowl of soup to make it fragrant. Looking at the bowl of crocodile soup cooked with fish and fruit with the ivory white color of fish meat, the green color of the crocodile, the yellow color of the pineapple, the red color of the tomato and the moss green color of the spices, it looks very eye-catching. This bowl of crocodile soup is extremely fragrant, delicious and nutritious with the sweetness of fish mixed with the sour and sour taste, the bar, the aroma is very attractive for a meal on hot summer days. When enjoying this soup, we “have to drink it at the same time” and often jokingly say that it is a “inter-regional” sour soup. It’s really: “Crocodile sour soup, cooked calamari/He ate a bowl of all his sorrows and sorrows immediately” or “Spring with crocodiles to call summer / Cooking snakehead fish soup to eat immediately”… Crocodile sour soup cooked with fish fruit is a special “chorus” because crocodile fruit originates in the North (Hanoi), fish is most abundant in the South (Central, Southern). In the middle of summer, enjoying this soup with this “interference” flavor, we remember the “Southern onion” ancestor of a time.