Cooking
fish for hours in clay pots is a long-standing tradition of villagers in Dai
Hoang, Ha Nam Province as the Lunar New Year (Tet) approaches, the biggest
festival in Vietnam.
This
is the peak time of year in Dai Hoang Village, and hundreds of pots are cooked
each day. “We only use black carp that are more than three years old and weigh
over 3 kilograms. They taste the best,” said this man.
The
pots are made from clay in central and northern Vietnam. Before they are used
to braise the fish, people boil rice and water in them to make them more
durable against the heat.
Ingredients
for this fish recipe include fat and lean pork, ribs, coconut milk, sugarcane,
lime, chili and galangal.
Each
family has its own recipe and sauces that make the dishes all taste different.
Most
of them add caramel to create the color, and they also pour lime juice and
boiled water over the fish to get rid of the smell.
Cooks
have to take turns watching over the pots as the fish needs to be braised for
14-15 hours straight.
Someone
always has to be on duty to top the pots up with water. Some families hire
workers to do this job and pay them VND1 million ($44) per day.
The
finished product. Each pot costs between VND450,000 and VND1.2 million,
depending on the order. The braised fish is enjoyed by both Vietnamese people
in the country and those who live abroad. Every year, these pots travel by
plane to different parts of the country and overseas to reach customers in time
for Tet.
By VNE