Moreover, the coastline lay from
the North to the South, which is influenced by different climates and
topographic, so even the same type of seafood but from different zones could
have various qualities.
One of the most typical examples of
Vietnamese seafood is shrimp. We have several kinds of freshwater prawns, such
as giant river prawns, river shrimps junior (Macrobrachium nipponense), and mini-size river shrimps (Caridina flavilineata); and plenty of
saltwater and brackish water shrimps like black tiger prawns, white shrimps,
lobsters (7 different kinds), mantis
shrimps (stomatopods), and slipper
lobster (Ibacus ciliates). That we
did not mention native types, which have been existed here for so long.
Shrimp is an extremely popular food
in all over the world because they are not only flavorful and nutritious but
also easy to cook in different ways. To preserve and to use up the sweetness of
shrimp flesh, people have made fermented shrimp paste, sour pickled shrimps,
and of course, dried shrimps. Vietnamese dried shrimps even overpassed fresh
ones to go around the world. In Vietnam, the most famous area where can do mass
production of dried shrimps is Ca Mau, the southernmost province because people
have farm raised brackish water shrimps for decades there. However, gourmets
rather choose dried shrimps from another region – Tien Hai, Ha Tien province.
They explained that there is no way to compare industrial food to homemade
food.
Ha Tien is a coastal narrow town
with all kinds of topography as lagoon, bay, plains, mountains, rivers, caves,
and islands. Although recently, Kien Giang province has begun to expand its
brackish water shrimp farming industry (mainly concentrated in the districts of
Long Xuyen Quadrangle, including Kien Luong, Giang Thanh, Hon Dat and Ha Tien
town), people in Tien Hai island commune are still loyal to in-shore fishing and
drying seafood in traditional way.
Household process of drying shrimps
in Tien Hai island seems simple. They wash the whole shrimps, boil to cooked,
drain, then sundry them till the skeletons get crispy. Dried whole shrimps are
collected into burlap bags and smashed to take off the skeletons and the final
product will be packed. It’s easy to say but every single step requires a bunch
of inherited experiences to get the best result.
Wild caught shrimps from the sea
should be classified by their sizes in order to manage the boiling time. At least
5 – 10 kg fresh shrimps for each bucket. The fresher shrimps are; the better
final products could be. After washed, the whole bucket of shrimps will be
placed into boiling water. The key of flavorful and long-lasting dried shrimps
is portion of salt. People usually use 250g salts on 1 litter of water for sea
shrimps and 300g salts on 1 litter of water for freshwater shrimps. However,
families in Tien Hai do not need to apply any of those recipes because they
boil shrimps in seawater. The inshore water around Tien Hai is extremely clean
and it carries an ideal salinity, in which sea salts are compounds like sodium
chloride, magnesium sulfate, potassium nitrate, and sodium bicarbonate - which
dissolve into ions. Therefore, the flavor of dried shrimps from this island is
always constant and rich. In this step, people also use food color in boiling
water to make the final products more vibrant but people here do not need any
food color either because dried shrimps from fresh wild caught sea shrimps are
always nicer looking with orange-red flesh than farm raised ones.
In Tien Hai island, mostly every
house has a back yard, where they can dry shrimps under direct sunlight. Their
back yards are usually made from bamboo woods and covered with a sheet of dense
net. The people here have a very unique style of doing their works. They drag
big buckets of cooked shrimps to the yards, shovel, and throw shrimps onto the
yards. It’s quick and efficient. Under the high heat of tropical sun, it just
takes 3 – 4 days to dry up all those shrimps; flesh is firm and skeleton is
crispy. People collect them and divine into burlap bags, smash them to break
the skeletons then harvest all the bare flesh. It depends on climate at the
time, humid or dry, that people would dry the shrimps again in oven-like
machines. Recently, most households equip themselves mechanical shell-cracker
to fasten this step and keep the final product more hygiene.
In average, 1kg dried shrimps grade
A need 9kg fresh ones so their prices are not quite affordable. Prices of Tien
Hai (Ha Tien province) dried shrimps are even more expensive than Rach Goc (Ca
Mau province), where is already famous for this product.
The final products are
vacuum-packed and ready to serve. Small size dried shrimps have firm texture so
they are used for soup, flavoring, or smashed to serve with well known sweet
rice and typical rice noodles in Ha Tien town. Big dried shrimps with the size
of a knuckle of a child’s hand are still tender yet chewy, which is great for
any types of cooking. Even we can have them raw with pickled Chinese onions to
enjoy all their flavors and sweetness.
By Thu Pham