Exciting Spices Festival

Many similar stories also surround the bitter and sweet tomatoes (button tomatoes) in Chu Ma Ray village, Sa Thay town, Kon Tum province; just as with other spices mentioned above. This time, they are served together with a stew made of local pork. The tomatoes are still fresh and green and remain a strongly aromatic. “Heo lông ba chấu” is a specific type of pig similar to wild pig. The belly fat is about half of the common pig, but it is very crispy and extremely delicious. Chef Hoang said that the Bana people, of Gia Rai raise the pig by releasing them to roam run free in the jungle. This enables crossbreeding with wild pigs, with the resultant offspring called F1 pigs. These make for very good eating.

In the jungle of Eastern area lies Bombo village, where our soldiers received much support during the war. It is here that traditional musicians sing songs like “Nổi lửa lên em” by Hoang Hiep about Gnetum gnemon leaves. Also called Melinjo, it now competes with other spices in the VND 1 billion Golden Spoon contest. Thanks to this the soup cooked with fresh water crab has become sweeter and has the taste of wild jungle leaves.

There are two different types of Gnetum gnemon, one is oval shaped and the other is of inconsistent shapes. They describe them together as “lovers” and were hoping to bring both to the festival. However the chefs of the team No.62 (My Le Tourist area in Binh Phuoc province) despite seeking permission from Xi’tieng ethnic village elders in Soc Bombo, to learn more about new spices, were unable to bring the oval shaped one, which has values like medicine.

This team also brought “Crac lang” plants to the contest, to use it as the H’Mong would when steaming chicken or the grilling lamprey from the Đăk Quýt River. Crac plant has the look of lemongrass but is thinner and harder. Inside has a milk white color and contains 4 to 5 common tastes such as lemongrass, Galangal root, turmeric and “xá xị”. The chef peels off the skin from the outside and cuts it into segments. It is then used to stuff the chicken which has already been seasoned; the skin will be crushed and rolled around the meat, which is then steamed for 15 minutes. According to Chef Tuan Ngoc Dinh, the basic spices for this traditional dish include Gnetum gnemon leaves, bitter tomato and “Crac làng” plant. This is how it is made in Xi-tieng Binh Phuoc province and assists the digestion as well as liver and kidney if we eat it frequently.

“Crac làng” plant

Just as important in status, chefs from the Southern region also present surprising spices to the judges such as: Galangalflower that is used to make a sauce, Custard Apples, and Vietnamese plants like “củ xá kiến”, “lá sọ chó”, “lá vông vang” and more. Mr Sakal Phoeung - Chairman of Escoffier Vietnam Chef Association and Head chef of Sofitel Saigon Plaza, one of the food experts and one member of the Judging team, all commented immediately that the food was “really excellent” just a quick taste of “lá sọ chó” was sufficient. “Lá sọ chó” is a wild plant that grows up in jungle of Mountain Ba To (Quang Ngai province). The leaves look like “cây cần thăng” – a kind of bonsai tree. Its oil has the taste of mint but a little more bitter. It has a pleasant subtle aroma like a weaker version of curry leaves. It also has the slight taste and smell of dried tangerine skin or as it is called here, “trần bì”. Local people crush it and use it for seasoning on various meats before grilling. It brings very good and unique aroma. In the Golden Spoon Contest, “lá sọ chó” deserves to be served with lobster as the Chefs of Van Thanh Tourist area would like.

The Leaves and flower of “cây sọ chó”

For a more luxurious dish, the chefs of team No.36 (Binh Quoi I Tourist area) take the bud of “cây sọ chó” plant and cook it with dragon prawns to create a dish that not only tastes better but also looks more colorful.

Talking about team No.36 we must talk about the capon cooked with “Củ xá kiến” and served with fresh rice noodle. This dish added one more new spice, appearing for the first time in Golden Spoon Contest and the team absolutely nailed it. “Củ xả kiến” is a relative of turmeric, and galangal root in both smell and taste. It has strong aroma like galangal root but it is hot and taste a bit like mint. Chef Anh Duy said that we just use only a small amount of this spice we can make this capon dish become a truly outstanding one. The simple capon will crow once more.

Củ xá kiến

There is a spice that comes from the Central Region but is now found in Dong Nai province. This is of course, “Vông Vang” or “Bông Vang”. It was introduced by Chefs from Mua Vang Restaurant. It is related to grapefruit and has separated leaves, a green stem, with succulent and scattered shoots. It has a light, sour flavor, suited for cooking soup. This is the reason why sour soup cooked with “Vông vang” and “moi” (a dried baby shrimp) stays fresh in the memory of Chef Ha Thanh Le. A golden dish is soup cooked with grouper fish, turmeric and “Vông vang”.

Chef Ha Thanh le used “Vông Vang” leaves to cook the soup with grouper fish and turmeric

Talking about how difficult and risky challenges we have to mention Chef Nhu Cuong of Kim Do Hotel. He utilized spices cleverly as he combined one specific spice into various dishes in a menu. In the previous round, the menu was for “the party”. The subject was to use “trái giác” as a main ingredient; to successfully prepare a menu for the “Choir” with Annona Glabra as a main ingredient: a Annona Glabra salad with pork and shrimp, rolled cake with Annona Glabra and Baby sour shrimp, Fresh water crab stir-fried with Annona Glabra, Annona Glabra hot pot with “bò hóc” sauce and grilled beef with Annona Glabra sauce. According to Chef Nhu Cuong, the challenge here is to make dishes with various flavors but all of them come from the Annona Glabra. Therefore if it is a young Annona Glabra it tastes like cucumber suited to a salad with it. If it is bigger we can use it to make hot spot and if it is old then we can use it to bake a cake. Its core could be chopped in small pieces, dried it and used as a kind of tea.

Annona Glabra

Chef Nhu Cuong also shared good news that the rolled chicken served with sticky rice and “trái giác” sauce was already served in restaurant and doing good business. It is really good to hear this news, because it is hoped that all the spices that were introduced in the Golden Spoon Contest will soon start to be enjoy by diners as much as possible by appearing on the menus of restaurant and hotels.

To go further with spices and delicious hometown dishes

Tri Trung