One day in the first day of February on the lunar calendar, Mr. Nguyen Viet Chung, Director of Nghia Lo Town Cultural and Communication Center (Yen Bai) called me, saying: ‘Hey, there are mosses, get up early’. I used to go to Nghia Lo many times, but I always “made a mistake” with … moss. It has been a long time since the locals talk about grilled spring moss, but the times we were there were different from the moss season.
Do not think stream moss always exists, it must be in the spring, the moss is green and cool, as long as the hair of a Thai girl flows down the blue water of the untouched streams in this country, it is time to salvage. moss. Moss is sold in heap at Muong Lo market, for every 2 piles can make 1 plate of grilled moss on a tray …
The Muong’s tray The weather in Nghia Lo is very strange this season, a day consists of all 4 seasons. Spring weather in mountainous regions was cold, making that morning field steps even more eager. Around through the cool green rice mat, a complex of 2 long stilt houses appeared. It is the house of Ms. Ha Thi Chinh’s family in the village of Diem 2, Nghia An commune. Ms. Chinh is also the chef of a culinary restaurant, holding in hand the secrets of creating unique dishes, bringing the breath of the land and people of the Northwest. 
We gathered to watch her processing the moss. After being cleaned, the moss is cut into pieces and mixed together with spices such as pasta, soup powder, herbs such as cumin, onions, dog basil, lemongrass, ginger, and sprouts … Next she packs the moss into leaves. bananas then put on the stove to grill embers slowly. About 1 hour, the moss ripe, bring up a hot plate. The grilled moss that day had a natural sweet taste, was very strange and cool. No wonder it is something that cannot be ignored when tourists go to the Northwest. Besides grilled, steamed moss is also very delicious. Ms. Chinh said that the moss is steamed in a pot but does not add water, simmer it to allow the moss to drain and ripen. While making moss, Ms. Chinh looks after a large rice bowl cooking in the middle of the yard. It was strange that when I opened the pot, under the smoky smoke I saw the sticky “cutting boards” of green, red, purple, yellow … separated by layers of banana leaves. All colors of sticky rice are derived from plants, taken from flowers and plants. The finished sticky rice dish has 5 different colors, so it is called “five colors” sticky rice. Red color is taken from the leaves of the red rice plant (Khau Lanh tree); yellow color from crushed turmeric, or from Bop Phon flower (yellow sticky flower); Purple and Black palate leaves are processed. Green color is taken from the leaves of star fruit tree, wild pineapple, sugarcane, gerbera leaves, ginger leaves … but must be mixed together. The leaves are crushed in a stone mortar, then boil the residue, filtered to get water into 4 different pots. Paddy rice has long and flexible seeds, taken from Lao sticky rice, grown by the Mong people in Tram Tau and Mu Cang Chai districts. The rice is soaked for at least 3 hours in 4 pots of colored water above, the longer it is soaked, the more flexible the sticky rice is, then poured each type of rice that has caught the color on the wooden wooden board, separated from each other by layers of banana leaves. Boil sticky rice just over fire, about 40 minutes is fine. 
Lunch tray of Thai Nghia Lo people Xoi served with “Pa Pinh Tat” – (that is, grilled fish is twice as much as the tail). The fish are brought back, cleaned, pecked from the back, discarded the intestines, prepared to reduce the pieces and then chopped, mixed well, stuffed into the fish’s body, grilled with a grill, or a bamboo clip on the charcoal stove for about 1 hour. to ripen to be delicious. The rice tray for Thai guests on average has from 5 to 6 dishes, containing the philosophies according to the human life of the people here, as well as the tonic for the body in addition to nutritional value. For example, if there is a Korean dish, there must be a heat dish to balance yin and yang. In particular, in Thai food, spice seeds are indispensable – a kind of forest seed only available in the Northwest with a fragrant aroma after grilling and pounding. This nut has the function of “odor indicator”, which is the number 1 important reduction in many dishes, dipping foods. That lunch in addition to “Pa PinhTop”, bamboo-shaped blue-fish, grilled insect plate, including rake, stink bugs, bee pupae …, also a bowl of bonito soup, was introduced as a “traditional trick” . The Thai Nghia Lo people have a saying: “Nao kin bon, thun kin pi” (that means, eat bon soup in cold, eat banana flowers in the heat – PV). Ms. Chinh said that the sweet potato plant grows wild, when picking leaves, one must read a “spell” to “turn into soup”, otherwise it will itchy when eating. The way of processing carbon soup is also quite sophisticated. Take home, wash, cut into pieces and mix with other types of discount such as Chinese coriander, cumin, cumin, ginger, lemongrass, squash, amaranth, eggplant, eggplant, shrimp paste, or soy sauce. Do not stir the bon broth when cooking, or only one side of the pot should be stirred and it must be simmered until the bon is over. A very special kind of food dish of Thai people, it is a sour, sweet “clumping” soup that helps to relieve alcohol. The way to make this kind of soup is also quite sophisticated. First to filter the beef feet, buffalo feet to get skin and tendons, remove the bones, then chopped, simmered and seasoned, sprinkle rice flour on the soup, stir well, chopped the leaves and then put them in the pot for about 5 minutes to Next nine, about to eat new. Carefully nibbling a lumpy tendon in his mouth. 
Ms. Ha Thi Chinh discussed with reporters During the meal, the landlord advised us to dab the sticky rice with a very strange dipping recipe, called “simmering”. Materials made from soybean seeds, boiled seeds, picked out leaves and wrapped, put upstairs in the kitchen for 5-6 days to ferment. When hanging up the kitchen, it is absolutely forbidden to cook all kinds of firewood with smell, especially burning and baking the buffalo skin underneath because it will damage the soy sauce. Next, bring the soy sauce down the mortar, crush it, make it into small pieces, wrap it in hairy leaves (like eggplant, white eggplant) so as not to rot, then put the kitchen guard to dry naturally. When eating, bring the soy sauce to grill and mix with the seeds, garlic, coriander leaves, grilled chili … into the perfect food for sticky rice, boiled meat, vegetables and fruits. This is the best dish of Thai people. In Nghia An commune, there are 2 old people who make this dish very delicious. The Thai people in the Northwest have quite a high alcohol intake. Having partyed, or met or met, there is indispensable cup of wine. The Thai girls are healthy and youthful with silver buttons, leggings, black skirts, wine cans and cups in hand. They both offered wine and sang: “This wine, I invite you, drinking from the beginning of the village at the end of the village is still fragrant. One cup of fragrant wine is like a thousand cups, for years, the wine is still fragrant, fragrant with your love”. There have been cases where guests panic because of the welcome cup, off the cup, they jumped from the window to the yard to “hide” the wine. Near the end is when the show begins. The girls who blocked us on the stairs of the stilt house to offer wine before, turned into dancers, performed ancient Thai dance such as “Khâm praise” (hand spread round); “Khap towels to open hot pot” (lift towels to invite wine); “Ripper” (circle of applause); “Destroying” (dancing for 4 people); “Falling kisses” (spread forward and backward); “Aluminum khan” (tossed scarf) … After the broadcast, the girls switched to perform the songs “Xin Le” and “Ha Oh” … Turn national customs and cuisine into tourism products Explaining the position of Thai cuisine in the local tourism economy, the director of Nghia Lo Town Culture and Communication Center Nguyen Viet Chung said that, according to the epic Quam To Muong, Muong Lo is the ancestral land of the people. Thai in Vietnam and neighboring countries. The mainstream folk culture in this land is the customs and habits of living with folk songs, folk music, folk dance … of the Thai people. 
Processing moss In which, traditional cuisine is a very unique culture that has been “packaged” into a typical tourism product with high economic value. Currently, there are about 20 homestay businesses owned by Thai people, providing services from eating, staying, taking tourists to visit the sights in the Muong Lo basin area, to experience making dishes, transplanting rice, harvesting agricultural products. Guests are immersed in the lives of people, cultural and cultural exchanges, so they are very interested. Many people have therefore returned to Nghia Lo during the tourist seasons and local festivals.
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