Along the southern coast from Long An to Tien Giang and down through Ca Mau, dwell live crabs. However, many people still prefer the crab from Go Cong, Tien Giang province. "The meat of the crab living in mud of Go Cong sea taste sweeter than crab in Can Gio forest” commented Foods expert Suong Thi Bui.
Although nowadays the crab’s quantity is significantly reduced in all rivers and the west coast because of overfishing and exploitation. However, older generations still living on Tan Thanh beach in Gia Thuan, Go Cong Dong district say there are still many crab in the area where bushy water coconuts also grow.
Twenty years ago they would wait until the tide ebbs, around 10
th or 25
th day of the lunar calendar, local people take a basket and an iron stick with them as they go by a small boat to the water coconut forest and search for crab caves. It takes only about one hour then everyone can enjoy the crab as much as possible. At that time crab wasn’t considered a specialty, so it was very cheap. It was rather the opposite situation, in that boat owners lost money because of the low price for the crab. However although the owners are very sad but the workers are happy to choose crabs that could speak and its legs as big as the wrist of adult, hard shell and firm meat to cook with rice soup.
There was little variance in how the crab was cooked at the time, such as cooked with wild vegetables or battered and fried. It was rather boring for diners. It is said that over drinks people had the idea to make a dish called, “Gỏi nham cua”- a salad made of crab meat with raw banana, star fruit and served with dressing made from crab eggs.
The main ingredient of this dish is the crab with young eggs inside. Why choose crabs with the young eggs, but not the egg that stay inside the crab shell? Because if we choose the crab that have the eggs already stay in the crab shell then its meat is flat and less sweet. It is similar with the chicken thigh of the young chicken is always tasty and more moist than the old chicken.
The unforgettable moment of young chefs of the team number five (in the middle)
Then the crab will be steamed with rice whisky until it is almost well-cooked. Use the spoon to carefully remove the eggs which are still red in color and a little bit gluey and this will be used to make the dressing. If we leave the crab over cooked in this stage then the meat will be too dry in the second cooking stage.
The crab meat will be taken off by the chef assistant then give to the head chef and stir-fried with pork fat and garlic, then seasoned with salt and fish sauce until it is tasty. There is also some bacon cut into thin slices, mixed together with crab meat. The vegetables that served together with the salad are things that could be normally found in the garden or asked from the neighbor such as star fruit, raw banana and fish lettuce…Finally mix all of them together with the sour and sweet fish sauce.
The secret of this dish is how to combine and balance the taste between seafood and the meat as well as the vegetables in order to have a combination of sour-sweetness-spicy-salty which is easily stimulate the appetite of diners. Star fruit and raw banana also need to be crushed by hands until there is a white liquid as corn milk coming out.
This liquid will be absorbed into the seafood and the bacon when we mix them together then the sauce with beautiful color made of the crab eggs will be poured on the top at the end. It is a great harmony so that the sauce will have a taste of a little bit fatty, sweet and good aroma. This could be served as either an appetizer with the shrimp snack or as a main dish until the end of the party. Maybe because most the ingredients that used to make this salad are torn into small pieces so that is why it is called “nham” which means lava in Vietnamese.
Head chef Tho Van Le were making the rolls with lamprey fish
Knowing that in 1996, there was a foods contest organized by Saigontourist this dish also won a good prize. It is pity that this dish is getting disappear because the crab with the young eggs aren’t available at any season.
It was lucky that in the semi-final round of the 2014 Golden Spoon contest in the South region with the theme of Golden Dish organized at Cam Chuong restaurant – Van Thanh tourist area on November 19th 2014 this famous dish which is representative of Go Cong’s specialty was appeared again. This also helped significantly the young chef of De Nhat Hotel in HCM (team number 5) won the second prize
Of course other dishes of team number 5 were also very excellent such as spring rolls with lotus, frog thigh grilled with turmeric, lamprey fish with red Galangal root, soup with pigeon and scallops, pumpkin mousse with lemon flavor, sweet soup cooked with sweet potato and peanuts and fruit tarte.
“The menu of the team number 5 isn’t only special but your working style is also very professional. The fish lettuce used in the appetizer is very young so it isn’t so much fishy. The lamprey fish with red Galangal root is quite new and presented beautifully. It is a pity that it is quite flat” commented professional judge Mrs Suong.
Followed by Tan Toi- Phi Nguyen
The Gioi Tiep Thi Magazine