Judges of southern semi-final
were familiar faces like Food Artisan Bui Thi Suong, Elite Teacher & Guest
Judge Trieu Thi Choi, and professional judge Ly Sanh. Especially, there were 2
foreign judges, Mr. Norbert Ehrbar – Deputy Chairman of Saigon Professional
Chefs Association, and Mr. Sakal Phoeung – Chairman of Vietnamese Escoffier
Association. Those two would bring new angles of international cuisine to the
contest and contribute to introduce Vietnamese cuisine to the world.
Be rustic from leaves to fruits
Very accidentally, chefs from Ho
Chi Minh City brought so many stories of wild vegetables to the southern
semi-final round. Those exotic ingredients and spices are rarely used in
cooking so that not many people have known about them. Elite artist and guest
judge Kim Xuan had to say, “If you did not introduce, I would have thought they
were wild and inedible. It just proved that Vietnamese edible leaves are very
abundant. Without The Golden Spoon contest, I would not know these rustic
leaves and fruits are great spices. Really appreciate your work.”
To begin the journey about stories of exotic leaves and
fruits, we have to count So and Me Ga (chicken gizzard) fruits. Those two are from highlands of Lam Dong
province and they are both sour. So fruits have been using as sour addictive
for fish soup but Me Ga fruits were
absolutely wild and never had been used in common cooking. According to local
people, this edible fruit is alike Marian plums (Bouea gandaria Blume), which has sweet sour taste and
soothing scent. Me Ga fruits are
normally known as kids’ snacks and no one ever had tried to cook them. However,
the experienced acumen pushed lead chef of Team no. 10 to use those wild fruits
in making sauce for fresh-water fish, such as carb and sturgeon.
Me Ga (chicken gizzard) fruits.
With the same idea of elevating
traditional Vietnamese cuisine, chef Le Vo Anh Duy from Binh Quoi 1 resort (Team
no. 16) has continued to climb up The Golden Spoon 4th season with
numerous exotic leaves. In addition to wild leaves, which were introduced last
seasons such as Nganh, Dip, and Bac Ha,
Le Vo Anh Duy brought to this contest Truc
Linh, a totally new vegetable. This vegetable grows in the middle of Viet
Nam, especially Phu Yen province, and people believe it helps to reduce motion
sickness. Using Truc Linh vegetables and other traditional ingredients, Team
no. 16 displayed an abundant menu, including Calf rolled Truc Linh leaves in wild black pepper sauce; Crab and Goose
Liver paste served with seasoned fish sauce; Seafood in Nganh leaf sauce served
with salad of Bac Ha leaf, pomelo, and sesame; Ngoc Linh chicken cooked bamboo
shoot, Dip leaves, and Morel mushroom served with fresh rice noodles; and Yam cake stuffed lotus seed and artichoke
paste. Capability and accumulated experiences had helped chef Le Vo Anh Duy
and his team won the 1st prize in southern semi-final round. Elite
Artist and Guest Judge Kim Xuan gave comments to this team: “Team no. 16’s
dishes attracted me from the appetizer to the dessert. You guys did an
excellent job on seasoning, dishes soothingly and delicately links to each
other. Bon appetite!”
Truc Linh, a totally new vegetable.
Chef Le Vo Anh Duy from Binh Quoi 1 resort (team no. 16).
Besides traditional ingredients,
teams from “the far East Pearl” (old name of Ho Chi Minh City) brought many
international high-class ingredients to the contest, such as sturgeon, cod, New
Zealand lamb, Australian beef, American scallops, French squads, and saffron flower
combining with modern cooking methods (consommé, sous vide). All of their
effort has breathed a new blast of passion and creativity to their dainty
menus.
Robust hometown-flavors
MeKong delta area teams and
southeast teams took advantages of their abundant environtments and brought all
of their folk specialties to the contest. However, following the topic “Golden
Dishes” of the semi-final round, casual food from hometown had been elevated to
upper level in both cooking methods and displaying. Folk materials, such as Ca Na fruits (Elaeocarpus),
gamboge fruits, Mo Qua flowers (Dischidia major), Hu Khom root, water caltrop, Kim Cang root, small melon, patora
young leaves, cactus, Jaggery, Xoan oranges, homemade rice wine, and tropical fruits were
amazingly blended in conventional seafood in floating season like bronze feather-back fish (Notopterus notopterus), Muscovy ducks,
freshwater eels, rice-field frogs, and giant river prawn. All dishes were
rustically named as following: Quan Nhi
restaurant (Team no.1): Mo Qua
flower, Hu Khom root and giant river prawn salad with Xoan orange sauce; wild
bitter melon stuffed frog paste; Muscovy duck curry; Steamed rice cake served
with water caltrop Jaggery; Restaurant
and Wedding center Thang Loi 1 (Team no.2): Duck breast and Ca Na served with bread; Southern cassava cake.
Other
teams named their dishes with classy ingredients, such as BBQ goat ribs with Mongolian sauce (Ho Tram Beach Boutique Resort
& Spa – Team no.35); Scallops and Sweet
corn soup served with cilantro essence and orange jelly, Sautéed French duck
breast in curry and stir fried vegetables served with mashed purple yam
(Green Bamboo Club – Team no.38).
Sea-pangolin – a specialty of Bau Trang, Phan Thiet, Binh Thuan province, Vietnam.
To
differentiate themselves to other regions, southeast teams brought to the
contest all bizarre seafood, such as bony
fish (Ostraclidae) and sea-pangolin
– a specialty of Bau Trang, Phan Thiet, Binh Thuan province – which has 8 scale
membranes like pangolin. Remarkably, Vung Tau Palace hotel brought to the
contest all plants, from familiar - Chay
fruits, Thi fruits, nutmeg, pagoda flower (Styphnolobium japonicum), and herbs – to exotic (Thun Mun leaves, vinegar leaves). Specially,
the team from homeland of Vo Thi Sau – a female hero – boldly used totally
strange ingredients and even some of them are supposed to be useless, such as hot
pepper leaves and papaya seeds. All “strange yet common” ingredients
and spices were processed by Team no.34, together with classy food (salmon
caviar, velvet antler) to become a nutritious and exotic menu.
Quan Nhi restaurant (team no.1).
From the untouched pearl island of Kien Giang province, La Veranda Phu
Quoc team knew how to use and promote their existing strengths like green
pepper and fish sauce. Pure fish sauce was in three-fourth of their menu. This
traditional fish sauce, which made of Phu Quoc raw anchovy, contains high
protein and has smooth taste. Judge Trieu Thi Choi praised “Everyone knows
that fish sauce is an indispensable seasoning in Vietnamese meals. It can
enrich the taste of many dishes but if you use it inappropriately, it possibly
makes your dishes monotonous. Understanding this usage, your team well
exploited fish sauce and turned your dishes to distinguished cuisine.”
Judges have been so curious about the journey to discover exotic native
ingredients and spices of Mekong Delta area and Southeastern teams, especially
the two professional foreign judges – Norbert Ehrbar and Sakal Phoeung. They
were impressed and excited observing the cooking process and tasting Vietnamese
native spices.
From the echo of
Middle Highlands to the concert of Middle Coastline
To
be imprinted from the preliminary, Team no.45 - Gia Bao 79 Restaurant (Kon Tum
province) - kept their Ace, which was the unique Salt fruit, into this
semi-final round. In this battle, chef Nguyen Duc Hoang wanted to widely
introduce this specialty so he brought all fresh Salt flowers, fresh Salt
fruits, and dried Salt seeds. Especially, the Kon Tum highland chef decided to
keep original processing method of minority people that using giant mortar to
pestle Salt seeds.
Chef Nguyen Duc Hoang.
The unique Salt fruit.
Moreover,
Team no.45 brought a whole bunch of Highland spices, such as wild leaves with
garlic scent, Chu Mo Ray forest ginger root, wild Bac Ha leaves, and tube wine.
Chef Hoang put lots of his effort and passion to introduce potential Highland
cuisine, which should be paid more attention to. His effort got paid off when
the team seized a ticket to The Golden Spoon 2016 Final round. Team no.45’s
menu is as following: Ly Son wild
vegetable with garlic scent, Barley in pumpkin and black tiger shrimp soup; Sautéed
Pha fish with Chu Mo Ray ginger in tube wine sauce; Running chicken and Salt
fruits, served with fresh rice noodles; Rice ball stuffed durian paste dessert.
Chef Nguyen Duc Hoang decided to keep original processing method of minority people that using giant mortar to pestle Salt seeds.
Another
remarkable team was Cam Thanh restaurant (Quang Ngai province), which was the 1st
prize of Middle South preliminary. Even though this was the first time
participating The Golden Spoon Contest, team from Ly Son Island has invested
their effort to the competition. They were determined to fit international
high-class ingredients into Ly Son’s specialties and created a harmony
impressive menu as followings: Ly Son
oysters, New Zealand lobsters, and Ly Son sea-cucumbers; Steamed Ly Son slipper
lobsters (Ibacus ciliates) in broth of Ly Son black garlic wine; Heads of New
Zealand lobsters with Couscous seeds and Sung leaves; Sautéed American beef
fillet in Truffle mushroom sauce; French fois gras served with Lang Huyet root;
French styled crème caramel served with Ly Son pandan seaweed.
Ly Son sea-cucumbers.
Ly Son slipper lobsters (Ibacus ciliatus).
After
all hard working, the Southern semi-final round picked 9 represetatives to be
in the final round. These are: 1st prize (50,000,000 vnd award) Binh
Quoi 1 Resort; 2nd prizes (40,000,000 vnd award): Quan Nhi – Can Tho
province (No.1), Thang Loi 1 Restaurant – An Giang province (No.2), La Veranda
Phu Quoc – Kien Giang province (No.4), Sea Links City Company – Binh Thuan
province (No.31), Vung Tau Palace (No.34), Thanh Phat restaurant – Dak Lak
province (No.44), Gia Bao 79 Restaurant – KonTum province (No.45), and Cam
Thanh Restaurant – Quang Ngai province (No.52).
Therefore,
9 Southern excellent teams will compete 6 Northern teams, including Naman
Retreat Resort Da Nang, Indochine Palace Hue Hotel, Muong Thanh Lao Cao Hotel,
Hilton Hanoi Opera Hotel, InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort, and
Crowne Plaza Da Nang Hotel, at the final round on December 6th 2016
in Ho Chi Minh City.
By Cong Minh