On sale: The Sặt bamboo shoots are available at Yên Bái market.
Măng
Sặt grows wild along streams and in dense forests. Its is straight and small as
an adult’s finger. For northwestern people, it has been a popular dish for
hundreds of years.
Yên
Bái local La Thị Liên, 66, recalls following her parents to collect the shoots
from the age of six. "In the past, the shoots were more common, so we did
not have to go deep into the forest to pick it.
“In
just two hours in the morning, we could have picked a full basket to take
home,” said Liên, noting that when the outside of the plant was removed, it
revealed a thick, white and soft growth.
Wild shoots: The white and soft Sặt shoots are specialties of Yên Bái.
Liên
said her mother cooked many dishes from the shoots. These included fried finger
shoots with pork ribs, boiled shoots dipped in shrimp paste or salted sesame,
fermented shoots cooked with duck. But the most tasty dish was grilled shoots
on wood charcoal.
“No
words can express our feeling when we take off each grill cover and dip the
shoot in chili shrimp paste. The grilled shoot is so sweet and delicious, but
retains its wild flavor,” said Liên, adding that she also liked boiled shoots,
dipping them in another special sauce made by her mother.
Her
mother knows how to mix ginger, garlic, erygium, and sugar and a spoonful of
powder of menghundor seed to increase the taste of the shoots, Liên said.
In the pot: Sặt bamboo shoots simmer with pork ribs. Photos dulichyenbai.com
Shoots
simmered with pork ribs are also a popular dish that grabs guests when they
visit. Liên said the bamboo shoots were cut in 5cm chunks and fried with pork
ribs for 10 minutes. A little water, garlic and tomato was added and the dish
left to stew for an hour and then served with fresh onion and erygium.
The
food has become one of the a favourite dishes of many gourmets for its crispy
and light sweet flavor, said writer Nguyễn Văn Toại who often goes to Yên Bái
to write stories. He said the shoots were some organic vegetable rich in
vitamins D and A.
Yên
Bái herbalist Đàm Ngọc Yên said the shoots’ sweetness and cold flavour helped
to cool the body, relieving inflammation and diarrheoa.
“I’ve
been using the shoots to treat many normal ailments,” said Yên, adding that
northwestern people were trying to develop and preserve the bamboo.
Unusual: A delicious feast of chrysalis of forest bees is among the delicacies of Yên Bái. — Photo dacsan4u.com
Bee
chrysalis (nhộng ong rừng xào lá chanh)
Wild
honey, a specialty of Mù Cang Chải District, is valuable for treating
many ailments, but a dish made of chrysalis forest bees is an enjoyable
delicacy for guests visiting Yên Bái this month.
Nông
Ích Lai, 50, a beehive hunter, said the end of the eighth lunar month and
beginning of the ninth lunar month was the most favourable period for
collectintg the fat and tasty forest bees, a rare item that his wife cooked for
special guests.
The
chrysalis bees can be cooked in many dishes, such as fries — when they turn
into crispy bees — or soaking them in sticky rice powder and then frying them
with fat or with thick and fleshy Indian taro.
But
among the dishes, fried chrysalis bees with lemon leaves is the most tasty and
delicious food that almost visitors and guests have agreed that the nutty dish
brings them very good appetizing and that they enjoy it so much.
Lai
said his friends and himself were interested in sipping the fried chrysalis bees,
cooked by his wife, with a shot of traditional wine fermented from sticky rice.
By VNS