Northern Vietnamese Food: The convergence of highland and flatland specialties

The semifinal for northern regions of the Golden Spoon Awards 2016 took place in 27 and 28 September 2016, witnessing a multi-color grand feast filled with novelty values in the so-called “hub of Vietnamese cuisine” or “the land of strictly followed rules and conservative style”.

Northern highlands: Home of food with medicinal values

Known as “the capital of spices”, the Northern highlands are considered an ideal destination for new flavors and excursion into exotic spices for the Golden Spoon Awards judges and participants. Multiple herbs had played a leading role in the menu of several teams, such as da hien leaf, barrenwort, cistanche, chinese black olive, rose myrtle, creek premna, sichuan pepper, anise, rock salt, etc.

According to Oriental medicine, chinese black olive is believed to cool down and detoxicate the body as well as protect liver against diseases. Wormwood, in the meantime, helps remediate blood circulation, maintain regular menstrual cycle and pregnancy, an effective therapy for rash treatment, sciatica and aching joints. Barrenwort, balanophoran fungus and cistanche are all listed in the Book of Invaluable Herbs and Herbal Medicines in Viet Nam, possessing features that benefits liver health, strengthen bones and joints as well as cure arthritis.

Sa Pa – one of the famous tourist attractions in the North is a hot spot of reputable highland cuisine. Popular ingredients such as salmon, cod, black-bone silky fowl, Seng Cu sprouted brown rice and Bac Ha plum along with herbs like doi seed, morinda root, radix pseudo ginseng flower have together brought medicinal, healthy values to following dishes: eel wrapped in guava leaf served with chinese black olive sauce, stewed black-bone silky chicken wing in radix pseudo ginseng flower, simmered black-bone silky chicken in bamboo tube, lamprey eel soup with lolot leaf, wormwood cake, etc.

Red River region: plenty of specialties

Although food in the North is not as diverse than that in the South, it has certain cultural notions and geographical distinctions. Ranked in 50 Top Vietnamese Special Dishes, Ninh Binh mountain goat – firm, lean chevon of goats inhabiting around the limestone mountains, is cooked medium, grilled or made into fresh rolls with vegetables. Also, Tien Yen chicken gets its reputation for a special ingredient - pastured-raised chicken that is succulent, chewy but not greasy. Further down to the sea level, the midland has embraced the bucolic variety of local ingredients, such as eel and yellow perch, to take up their space in high-class banquet menu.

Along the coastline of Tra Co, there live a multitude of exotic sea creatures, for instance, Cu Ky shore crab, peanut worm, sea grapes, etc. Specifically, Cu Ky crab has juicy flesh, featuring in various recipes of noodle soup, vermicelli soup, glass noodle soup and so on. Cai Rong fish sauce, a Quang Ninh specialty, with its caramel color, pungent whiff and sweet aftertaste, is widely used to season for another great number of dishes. All aforementioned examples reinforced fusion – a cooking trend which encourages the concoction of many local ingredients in remarkable dishes: deep-fried seafood on sliced rice paper, rare chevon in lime juice, grilled chevon with potato cake and fermented rice and galangal sauce.

Ha Noi – Capital of culinary confinement

Ha Noi cuisine has been bearing in it a unique, indigenous culinary culture that amazes tourists from all over the world, thanks to pho (beef noodle soup), banh tom (shrimp donut), banh cuon (steamed roll), com (roasted green rice), etc. With their extraordinary meticulousness and creativity towards the capital specialties, chefs competing in Golden Spoon Awards have brought about new styles of cookery for traditional Ha Noi dishes of cha ca La Vong (fried fish cake), vit Van Dinh xot hung lang (duck with Lang basil sauce), ca ro dam Set (Set swamp yellow perch), cha oc Tay Ho (Westlake escargot paste).

In addition, sensational menus with traditional courses, evoking childhood memories in any Vietnamese people who spent most of their childhood in the Tonkin districts, such as nem Bui (fermented pork skin cake), banh phu the (husband and wife cake) by Pullman Hotel Hanoi, com don (sweet potato stuffed with rice), wild vegetables, oc nau chuoi dau (braised escargot in green banana), dong que xu Doai (stir-fried eel and frog with herbs) or novel deviations of nem cuon socola (chocolate roll) by Silk Path Hotel, banh com Ha thanh (Ha Noi green rice cake) by Duong’s Restaurant) deemed impressive with their ingenious, out-of-the-box thinking when it came to mixing ingredients, spices and presentation.

Especially, the chefs also utilized different Western cooking techniques and actively responded to global cookery trends. The 5-star team of InterContinental Hanoi Westlake put effort in the competition when heavily invested in centrifuge, sous vide machine, nitrogen, etc. as well as performed slow-cooking technique – a method to reserve the most nutrients that are good for diners, in several recipes: wagyu beef, duck wonton, rising sun styled nata de coco with mango flavor, and so on.

Conclusion:

The significance of all recipes featured in this regional semifinal lied in the delicacy and elegance of the food presentation and decoration. Local specialties were re-invented with local herbs and integrated with new, offbeat ingredients to differentiate, and hence, show off the richness of Vietnamese cuisine. Mrs Trieu Thi Choi and Mr Chiem Thanh Long, members of the judge panel, agreed that the semifinal had done an excellent job to honor the culinary explorers and their diverse experiences of mountain, flatland and even urban cuisines, which motivate them to keep finding new local flavors and sharpen their skills by applying new cooking methods into familiar Vietnamese food.

In a closing note, we would like to announce the result for:

*Northern Highland region:

1^st Prize: Dung Tan – Thai Nguyen Restaurant (Team No. 80)

2^nd Prize: Muong Thanh Lao Cai Hotel (Team No. 81)

**Red River region:

1^st Prize: Emeralda Resort & Spa Ninh Binh (Team No.90)

2^nd Prize: Ha Long Wonder International Tourism Joint Stock Company (Team No. 87)

*** Ha Noi Region:

1^st Prize: InterContinental Hanoi Westlake

By The Golden Spoon Award