Many western tourists in Hoi An didn’t want
to try American or Australian, beef but always asked where to get grilled veal
- a specialty of Cau Mong. Not only western visitors but also Vietnamese and
local people want to try a plate of medium rare veal when they have opportunity
to pass by Cau Lau Bridge on the 1A national road in Dien Phuong village, Dien
Ban district Quang Nam province.
I am also one of them as I want to try the
dish every time I stop by this place.
It is an amazing aroma
Although the Muoi restaurant is serving
only one kind of food which is veal and the veal is prepared into various
dishes such as grilled veal, stir-fried veal, rice noodle soup with veal and
veal bone but it is always crowed. The most impressive dish is the grilled veal
because its meat still a little bit pink, soft, moist, light sweet and has a
little bit smell of fresh milk. You can eat without any sauce or dip with fish
sauce paste or roll with rice paper and many kinds of vegetables which mainly
have the sour taste, acrid and spicy such as star fruits, cucumber…any of them
still have a great delicious taste. However people here don’t mix grilled veal
with “thính”- a rice powder like in
Saigon and Cu Chi province.
Chef Ly Anh Tu- head chef of Number 48
restaurant in district 1, HCM City used to have a statement that our wild veal
has a special and unique aroma. It is similar with the fresh milk smell which
most of cow in the farm won’t have it. Many diners who are good at tasting
various foods love the beefsteak in Number 48 restaurant. Although chefs just
use only the cow from Cu Chi, Tay Ninh not the cow from Duy Xuyen district in
Quang Nam as this restaurant. Therefore it is difficult to taste the difference
between them but if you taste it carefully you can feel that the veal of Duy
Xuyen has better smell than Cu Chi and Tay Ninh, especially the good smell of
fresh milk from the steak.
Only about grilled veal, the shop sold out
3 to 4 cow per day. So there are so many articles writing about this dish.
There are some author try to explain and find out why this dish is so delicious
like that. Here is the reason why: because they are baby cow that about 5 to 6
months year old and risen along the Thu Bon River where they can eat the fresh
and young grass of the spring. However even in the summer time but the veal is
already so good so how can we explain about that. Maybe because of the
character of the region: weather, soil etc…
However to experienced and foods experts
they still have a little bit disappointment about the quality of the veal
nowadays. They said that they don’t know why but its taste is only half of the
dish made 20 years ago.
The meat of the cow risen wildly along the river always good whatever of dish that it was made of
The most authentic dish
should be the “baked” veal
“Exactly” – Writer Son Minh Nguyen from Quang
Nam completely agreed with this comment. According to Mr Son, nowadays the way
everyone baked the veal is not the same as before because it is just similar
with grilling the veal on the coal.
“Rọi” is the traditional way of Quang Nam
people called to describe how the veal is grilled or baked. If we do this
properly it should take 4 to 5 hours to complete the dish. All the spices that
stuffed inside the cow should be more than 10 kinds of leaves such as lemon
grass, guava, lemon, grape fruits and “lá é” – its science name in Latin is
Ocimum basilicumvar and some of wild leaves such as Syzygium cumini
leaves (lá trâm).. We have to use
sugar cane tree which has been squeezed all the juice out or straw or the trunk
of the corn tree then dried them under the sun then make them become torch as
big as the ankle of an adult.
At the beginning the cow will be put near
the torch to burn all the hair then it will be put far away from the torch to
avoid the veal cooked too well then it won’t be delicious anymore. All chef
assistants will try to keep the fire on the torch or move the fan sometimes
near and sometimes far to control the fire under coordination of the head chef
then use a clean fabric to wash the whole body of the cow. This process will be
continued until the whole cow has been well cooked.
But nowadays everyone use boiled water to
clean the hair then use a blow-torch to burn the skin then put the veal on the
coal. Therefore it couldn’t be as good as before.
Mr Vien Phuc Ung Nguyen- a Chinese doctor
that transferred from his ancestor in the Nguyen Age living in Go Vap district,
HCM City and his home town is Quang Nam province- also agreed with the comment
of Mr Son. According to Mr Vien we should use the bagasse with the proportion
as followings: 2/3 dried bagasse and 1/3 fresh bagasse then ties them together
then burn. This will help the veal have a better smell.
Mr Son also shared that some of Quang
people in his hometown still keep the old technique when they baked the veal.
On occasion of Tet holiday, feast or national holiday or a successful harvest
season farmers will kill a cow and bake it then open a big party.
The judges were impressed because of the presentation of the “Cau Mong veal” team because of its modern style
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Teams won the first and second prizes in
the preliminary round of the 2014 Golden Spoon contest.
The first prize: Hyatt Regency, Da Nang. The
second prizes were awarded to Pullman Danang Beach Resort; Spa and Palm Garden
Resort Quang Nam. It worth VND 30 millions
|
Won the Golden Spoon
award
The Palm Garden Resort team (Team number
11) from Quang Nam also realized the specialty of the veal so they also took
this important ingredient to attend the 2014 Golden Spoon contest in the North
region in Danang city on August 6th 2014
The head chef Doanh Nguyen of this team
modified the veal tenderloin – Cau Mong’s specialty to become sautéed served
with fried potato and the sauce made of the broth, red wine, ginger with the
brown color looked beautiful.
The food experts Suong Thi Bui – member of
the judges commented that “Good techniques and the food is still remained its
sweetness, moisture of the veal. The inside of the meat is still pink and the
outside is well cooked. It was a pity that you couldn’t keep the crispy of the
fried potato because it was put under the meat so it was soften by the sauce.
However food expert Long Thanh Chiem –
member of the judges- thought that this dish wasn’t made of tenderloin because
there was fat inside the meat. Mr Long gave a high rate of Quang noodle because
it is tasty and attractive presentation.
Talented chefs have opportunities to show their skills through the reliable Golden Spoon contest
About the presentation and communication
skill of the team number 11 Mrs Suong commented that “I was impressed about the
modern presentation done by your team. You know how to use the height of the
bowl, plates to emphasize the foods with different level of color. Moreover the
presentation was well structure and convincible”
Finally Mr Doanh’s team won the second
prize in this stressful and reputation contest. Through this contest everyone
found out there is another version of the baked veal dish on its own hometown.
It is certainly that this dish won’t be missed in the Vietnam cuisine map
thanks to all food experts and talented chefs.
Followed by Tan Toi- Phi
Nguyen
The Gioi Tiep Thi magazine