Healthy: Vermicelli is healthy food.
“Every
year we travel to Nguyên Bình’s Phia Đén Village to buy the Cao Bằng
specialty," said housewife Nguyễn Thị Huấn from Hà Nội’s Đống Đa District.
“I’ve tried many sorts of miến from
the country’s three regions, but the organic product from Phia Đén is the most
tasty. It has a sweet flavour and is soft but crispy and firm when cooked.”
The best: Phia Đén vermicelli is said to be the most tasty in Việt Nam. —Photo Quân Trang
Phia
Đén villager Nông Thị Mừng, 68, said:
“God has given us a cool and temperate climate year round and fertile
land suitable for planting maize, cassava and particularly củ dong riêng đỏ
(red edible canna) which has the most aromatic flavour.”
Hard work: Making vermicelli is a long process. —Photo Quân Trang
First,
the noodle makers have to choose big and mature dong riềng roots, then clean them and grind them until they produce
a flour as white as ivory. The flour is then mixed with cold then hot water
until it becomes thick and sticky. It is then poured into a simple gadget with
a row of holes that squirt the liquid out onto a moving bamboo frame. They are
then dried in the sun for several days.
Mừng
said miến dong can be used for many
dishes, such as miến gà (chicken
vermicelli), miến cua (crab
vermicelli), miến ngan (goose
vermicelli), miến lươn (eel
vermicelli) and many others, noting that the Tày ethnic group to which she
belonged often fried miến with
wood-ear fungus and mixed it with boiled chicken pieces, onion, lemon and mint.
It can also be used to make nem rán
(fried spring rolls).
Chicken vermicelli
The
dish is always popular at birthday parties, anniversaries of all kinds and
particularly Tết. Every Tày family prepares the dish for Tết parties, said Mừng.
The best: Phia Đén vermicelli is said to be the most tasty in Việt Nam.
"To
make it, I choose a capon between 2.5 to 3kg raised by myself, boil it until it
well done and has a fragrant smell. The capon is removed, let cool and then cut
into pieces. The sweet chicken broth should be kept simmering on the fire and
then being scooped into a big bowl filled with chicken pieces and the
cellophane noodles,” she said, adding that the dish should be eaten hot with
coriander and pepper.
“Thanks
to our high quality Phia Đén miến dong,
the food is tasty even when cool,” said Mừng. In Tày households, any visitors
arriving at New Year are welcomed with a bowl of miến. This promotes friendship between neighbours and people as
long and durable as miến noodles,
said Mừng, noting that they were considered a valuable gift for relatives and
friends.
Mixed fried
vermicelli
Mừng
said all her family liked the dish, although in the past it was only eaten at
dinners to remember the departed or during Tết, adding that she never forgets
the taste of the dish cooked by her grandfather. The ingredients he used were
very simple and contained no shrimps, beef, eels or seafood, but only miến dong (0.2kg), chicken egg (1), pork
(0.2kg), carrots, garlic, celery, cooking oil, soy sauce, fish sauce, salt and
pepper.
To make a tasty dish, she advised cooks to
choose Phia Đén vermicelli. "Before cooking, you should soak the miến in water, but only for 10 minutes.
After that you should dip the noodles in boiling water and then quickly soak
them in cold water to keep them firm so that they do not stick together when
frying."
Delicious: A bowl of vermicelli with goose. — Photos dulichcaobang.com
The
last stage is to fry the pork and other ingredients until well done and then
put the miến into a pan and fry for
five minutes until they are firm and even crunchy. “You should put
cilantro-flavored herbs or laksa leaves and pepper over the dish to make it
more tasty,” said Mừng. “For Cao Bằng people, a bowl of Phia Đén vermicelli
cooked with chicken, wood ears or fragrant mushroom at Tết is not simply a
dish. Eaters experience the flavour of their native land, bringing families
closely together,” she said.
Trương
Mạnh Hào, a herbalist from Nguyên Bình District’s Centre for Traditional
Medicine, said miến dong helped
reduce weight, triglycerides and cholesterol. It was also good for diabetics.
“The
root of the dong riềng is a good
medicine for tooth pain, hepatitis and ear infections,” Hào said.
By VNS